BetMGM Casino has brought Hacksaw Gaming slot titles like Joker Bombs and Outlaws Inc. to its US customers for the first time, starting in West Virginia. The content deal between the two companies previously only applied to Ontario, Canada, though Hacksaw has deals with other US online casinos in West Virginia and New Jersey.
Hacksaw CEO Marcus Cordes said:
Joining BetMGM on the mission to put Hacksaw Gaming on the map has been an exhilarating experience. We are making excellent progress.
Joker Bombs and Outlaws Inc. were the first titles to launch on BetMGM Casino in West Virginia. The casino gave them a prominent position in its games lobby to promote the small studio, which is just starting to make a name for itself in the US. Its other US partners currently are DraftKings Casino and Hard Rock Bet.
BetMGM and Hacksaw expect to extend the partnership to New Jersey soon. Hacksaw doesn’t yet have its supplier license in other states, but that’s surely coming.
Most slot studios have a particular game mechanic or design approach they lean into to differentiate themselves. For Hacksaw Gaming, that’s multipliers. Joker Bombs and Outlaws Inc. both double down on that concept by including the possibility of multiplying the multiplier.
Naturally, this adds to the games’ volatility, which makes Hacksaw well-suited to the US market. Developers have found that US audiences gravitate toward high-volatility slots to a greater degree than casino players in other geographical regions.
Joker Bombs
Joker Bombs is a 6×5 all-scatter slot, meaning there are no paylines. Any time eight or more matching symbols appear in the grid, the player wins a prize, regardless of where they appear. It’s also a cascading slot, so winning symbols disappear and more drop in, potentially triggering additional wins.
As the same suggests, the special symbols are Jokers and Bombs.
Bombs are where Hacksaw’s signature multipliers come in. Most bombs carry a number between 2x and 5x. These remain on the screen until after the cascading stops. Then, assuming the player won a prize, the numbers on the bombs are added up, and the prize money is multiplied by the total.
There are mystery bombs marked with a question mark, which have a bigger multiplier that is only revealed at the end of the round. Finally, there are the Epic Bombs, marked with an X. They’re worth nothing on their own, but if there are any other bombs, the Epic Bomb will multiply their multipliers before they’re added together.
So, for instance, a 3x and a 2x create a 5x total multiplier because regular multipliers add together. But if there were also an Epic Bomb with a 3x, that would multiply the 5x, making a 15x final multiplier.
The Jokers activate the free spins bonus round if the player collects three of them. During free spins, there are—you guessed it—even more multiplier bombs.
Outlaws Inc.
Compared to Joker Bombs, Outlaws Inc. has a gritter theme and more complex gameplay. It features animal outlaw bikers and their weaponry. The reels have a 5×4 configuration with 26 paylines.
There are four symbols involved in the multiplier mechanic for Outlaws Inc.:
- Cougar multipliers are additive, and the multiplier counter starts at one. So Cougars worth 5x and 25x would bring it up to 31x (1+5+25).
- Orc multipliers are multiplicative. So if a 4x Orc landed in addition to the Cougars above, we’d end up with 124x (31 x 4). Strangely, the Orc is the only non-animal character in the game.
- However, multipliers don’t apply automatically. To trigger the multiplier requires the Gorilla to appear at the same time as a winning payline.
- Each Star that appears grants between one and three respins. During these respins, the multiplier doesn’t reset unless it triggers. That’s important because building up a giant multiplier, triggering it, and getting a winning payline is challenging with a single spin. Respins are the key to big wins.
Finally, there are Free Spins scatter symbols designated simply by the letters FS. As with the Star respins, multipliers can accumulate during free spins.
About the Author
