Wicked Grin Slot Review
Steamboat Willie 🚢, the 1928 cartoon that introduced Disney's famous mouse, hit the public domain back in 2024. Naturally, within weeks, horror filmmakers and indie game developers had turned that cheerful whistler into a slasher 🔪.
Turns out rubber-hose cartoons were always 1 step from a nightmare with noodle limbs, white gloves, and a permanent grin. Smiling that wide for long enough, and people get unnerved.
Wicked Grin slot from Hacksaw borrows the old cartoon look for its skull 💀 mascot, who grins no matter what lands on the reels.
Gameplay
The grid sits in a metal frame with a red glow along the bottom row on a black and gray backdrop of concentric circles, and a skeletal mascot to the left.
You play on a 5x5 grid with Pays Anywhere wins, so 6 or more matching symbols anywhere on the grid pays out. The RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. is 96.27% and the volatility is medium.
The max multiplier is 10,000x and the max win is $350,000, with bets from $0.10 to $35.
Winning symbols are removed from the reels, which lets the symbols above drop down and new ones drop in as a CascadeOtherwise known as a Tumble, Avalanche, or whatever a studio sees fit to name it. The idea is the same, though; winning symbols get removed, and new ones take their place. This action could result in additional wins, in which case the action continues.. The chain keeps going until no new wins land.
The Blue 7 symbol tops the paytable, paying 0.5x for 6 or 7 symbols up to 100x for 17 or more. The Cherries pay 0.4x to 75x and Bell symbols pay 0.3x to 60x.
The Grapes and Watermelon symbols pay 0.2x to 50x each, and the Club, Diamond, Heart, and Spade symbols pay 0.1x to 25x each.
Land a Grin symbol on the bottom row and it expands once all wins are paid, turning its whole reel into Coins and Multipliers. Only 1 type of Grin symbol can land per reel.
Bronze Coins range from 1x to 4x, Silver Coins from 5x to 9x, Gold Coins from 10x to 50x, and Diamond Coins from 100x to 500x.
Multipliers run from 2x to 20x and never appear on the top row. When a Multiplier is revealed, its value is added to the Coins above it, plus the Coins in the rows above it on the neighboring reels.
Whenever an Epic Grin symbol expands, any Grin symbol on the reels expands too.
An FS symbol on the bottom row expands across the reel after wins are paid, and each position it covers awards 1, 2, or 3 Free Spins, which add up to your total number of Free Spins. The Super FS symbol works the same way.
The FS and Super FS symbols can't land at the same time, and you'll only see 2 of them at most at one time, and neither lands alongside a Grin symbol.
Features
FREE SPINS:
An expanding FS symbol starts the Stash N Stack Free Spins and an expanding Super FS symbol starts the Coin Craze Free Spins, each awarding 5 to 30 Free Spins.
The backdrop switches to a black and white checkerboard. During both features, Grin symbols still expand with the same Coin and Multiplier values.
Stash N Stack:
Above each reel is a Stash multiplier that starts at 1x. When a Grin symbol expands, every Coin on that reel gets multiplied by the Stash value directly above, and that reel's Stash goes up by 1 for the next Free Spin.
Coin Craze:
Above each reel is a Coin Collector, and when a Grin symbol expands, the Coin values on that reel are saved in the Collector until the end of the feature.
Any Multipliers that land multiply the Collector value on their own reel and the neighboring reels. At the end of the round, all the Collector totals are added together and multiplied by your bet.
BUY BONUS AND ANTE BET:
Buy Bonus gives you 2 options: Stash N Stack for 80x and Coin Craze for 200x, with RTPs of 96.26% and 96.28%, respectively.
The Ante BetAn Ante Bet is an option that costs a percentage of your bet but increases your chances of landing triggering symbols that initiate a feature. also has 2 options, and both stay on until you disable them. BonusHunt FeatureSpins costs 3x per spin and makes each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus.
Grinny FeatureSpins costs 50x per spin and guarantees at least 1 type of Grin symbol lands, with no FS symbols.
Performance
I ran a base game session and a Free Spins round, and the game ran smoothly without a single freeze, stutter, or glitch along the way.
Maximum Win
Hit the max multiplier of 10,000x at the top bet of $35 and you'll walk away with a max win of $350,000.
The smallest bet you can place is $0.10.
Conclusion
The money in the slot comes from the Grin symbol expanding a reel of Diamond Coins, with Multipliers stacked on top, and the Stash multiplier or Coin Collector carrying the total to the end of their Free Spins round.
So by my math, 20 Diamond Coins at their highest value already pay the max multiplier. And that's before a single Multiplier lands.
But, getting there means several reels expanding with Diamond Coins in the same round, so it's a lottery ticket, as per usual.
A max multiplier that size outruns what medium volatility usually reaches, so kudos to Hacksaw Gaming. The RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. lends itself to longer sessions for players who can wait out the dry stretches before a Free Spins round.
All 4 Buy Bonus and Ante BetAn Ante Bet is an option that costs a percentage of your bet but increases your chances of landing triggering symbols that initiate a feature. options return about the same as the base game. Paying more changes the shape of the round, while the payback stays near the base game's.
Stash N Stack is the buy worth a look, since Coin Craze costs 2.5 times as much for a bigger swing.
BonusHunt FeatureSpins gets you a bonus sooner at triple the cost of every spin. Grinny FeatureSpins is a skip, because it keeps FS symbols off the grid and can't trigger Free Spins.
Patient mid-bankroll players chasing a 10,000x shot are the target. Cautious low-bet players who want steady small wins should pass.
Slot Details
Game Provider: Hacksaw
Game Type: Video Slots
PaylinesPaylines are preset lines that run across the reels, and when you land matching symbols on them, that will result in a payout. The more paylines, the more ways you can win, but also the higher your bet per spin.: Pays Anywhere
RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate.: 96.27%
Volatility RateSlot games can have low, medium, high, or extremely high volatility rates (or a combination thereof).
The less volatile the game, the more often it should pay out, but the lower the amount, the less the payout, as this is in keeping with the risk you’re taking. Volatility rate should be considered in conjunction with a game’s RTP.: Medium
Bonus Round: No
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Free Spins
Max Multiplier: 10,000x
Max Win: $350,000
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