Slot Wars: Ice Mints VS Chilli Heat Spicy Spins

Two Pragmatic Play releases are battling for player attention this summer and they couldn’t be more different in style. Ice Mints is a crisp, refreshing escape into a frosty wonderland where multipliers hide beneath chilled drink cups, while Chilli Heat Spicy Spins is a full-blown fiesta in the streets of Mexico, with respins that can set the screen ablaze. 

Both boast high volatility, equal maximum win potential, and well-crafted themes - but which one truly deserves the crown? In this slot wars face-off, the two contenders will go head-to-head across three rounds.

Let’s see who’s the winner, start the battle!

On paper, the two games look evenly matched in terms of top prizes. Each offers a maximum win of 10,000 times your stake, which is enough to get the attention of casual players and high rollers alike. However, the way they deliver that potential - and the fine details in their maths models - creates a slightly different playing experience.

The icy-themed slot uses a 5x3 grid with 20 fixed paylines. Its return-to-player percentage is set at 96.50%, and the volatility is firmly in the high range. In Ice Mints, the road to that max win usually comes through a mixture of expanding Wild reels and high-value multipliers from the game’s cup mechanic, where each spin can bring a surprise under the surface. 

Chilli Heat Spicy Spins takes a different approach, offering just 10 paylines in its 5x3 base game. It has a slightly higher RTP at 96.58%, still coupled with high volatility, so it shares the same risk-reward profile as its opponent but with a fractional statistical edge. 

The max win remains the same at 10,000x, but here it is concentrated in the Respins feature, where a 5x5 grid replaces the reels and connected groups of money symbols can benefit from multipliers of up to 50x. 

While both offer the same jackpot size, Chilli Heat Spicy Spins edges ahead in this opening round thanks to its marginally higher RTP and slightly broader bet range, making it just a bit more flexible for all bankroll sizes.

While both slots offer the same winning potential, Chilli Heat Spicy Spins edges ahead in this opening round thanks to its marginally higher RTP. Still, the difference in porecentage is so low that doesn’t really affect the gameplay, so to make things fair - let’s say this round is a tie. 

The bonus rounds are where both games bring out their personality and reveal how they plan to deliver those big wins.

Ice Mints builds its gameplay around the Cup Multipliers mechanic. Beneath reels two, three, and four sit three cups, each of which can randomly be assigned a multiplier at the start of any spin. 

The cups on reels two and three can hold values between 2x and 20x, while the cup on reel four can carry up to 25x. When a Mint symbol lands, it drops into the cup beneath it, and that reel is instantly refilled from above. 

Occasionally, this triggers the reel above the cup to become a full wild, with the cup’s multiplier applied to all wins on the screen. If more than one multiplier is active, they combine, multiplying together to create some truly icy blasts of reward.

The free spins feature shifts the rules in your favour. Multipliers begin at zero but grow whenever a Mint symbol lands without triggering a wild expansion. These multipliers persist throughout the entire bonus round, and because retriggers are possible, they can reach enormous levels by the time your spins run out. For those who prefer to skip the wait, there is a Bonus Buy option for 80x your stake, which is cheaper than the chilli-fuelled competition.

In contrast, Chilli Heat Spicy Spins, focuses all of its major winning potential into its Respins feature. This is triggered by landing three Scatters on reels one, three, and five. 

When activated, the game expands into a 5x5 grid where only money symbols and blanks can appear. You begin with three respins, and each time a new money symbol lands, the counter resets to three. Money symbols that connect horizontally or vertically form a group, and each group is assigned a multiplier of up to 50x. 

Fill the entire grid with money symbols and you’ll hit the maximum 10,000x win. The Bonus Buy here costs 100x your stake, which is slightly pricier than Ice Mints.

While Chilli Heat’s Respins are undeniably exciting, Ice Mints takes this round because it offers bonus potential in both the base game and its free spins, creating more layers of engagement and a slightly better balance between regular play and feature play.

Visually, the two slots are worlds apart. In a minimalist design, the background of Ice Mint is a frozen slab with delicate mint leaves scattered across and the reels are rendered with a frosted translucency that fits the theme perfectly. 

Symbols - mostly fruits and drinks - are drawn in a crisp, almost hand-painted style. The animation is subtle, but impeccable, while the soundtrack is soft, airy, and cooling, with light jingles that complement the theme without becoming repetitive. 

Chilli Heat Spicy Spins is the polar opposite. Set in a lively Mexican street scene, it explodes with colour and energy. The warm-toned buildings, festive papel picado banners and cobbled streets give it a rich sense of place. 

The symbols are bold and cartoonish, featuring maracas, bottles of hot sauce, Chihuahua dogs, and charismatic guitar players. And when you trigger the Respins, the tone shifts dramatically - the background bursts into roaring flames, chillies rain from the sky, and the music speeds up to build suspense. It is lively, immersive, and bursting with personality.

While Ice Mints wins points for its clean, refreshing visual approach, Chilli Heat Spicy Spins boosts with a vibrant atmosphere and dynamic transitions. That said, none of these slots can have an innovative theme or bring something new to the table. So in purely technical terms, Ice Mints take this round solely based on the slightly better graphics and more detailed visuals.

Both Ice Mints and Chilli Heat Spicy Spins offer high volatility, strong visuals and a maximum win of 10,000x, making them fairly even in terms of pure winning potential. However, Ice Mints takes the edge thanks to its bonus features, with Cup Multipliers, full wild reels, and persistent multiplier growth that keep both the base game and free spins engaging. 

Chilli Heat Spicy Spins is still a fiery, fun slot with an exciting Respins feature, but its base game lacks the same level of interaction. Overall, while both slots are enjoyable and packed with winning potential, Ice Mints emerges as the winner, offering a more balanced and layered gameplay experience for players chasing big, frosty rewards.

 In the end, the choice comes down to whether you want your wins served chilled or sizzling hot - and in 2025, Pragmatic Play has proven it can do both to a high standard.