Booze Bash: Slot Overview
Questions humankind has grappled with for a while include the likes of, is there more to what we can see, and what happens to us when we die – are we just worm food in a box, or do we carry over to another realm, maybe inhabit a new body in a new life? Are the good people rewarded with an eternity of bliss while the bad ones forever punished? Sad to say, we won’t have any comforting or disturbing answers by the end of this review, but one studio that has shown a strong interest in the afterlife and its associated entities is software provider Hacksaw Gaming. Adding to slots like Pray For Three, SixSixSix, and Life and Death is Booze Bash, an alcohol fuelled soirée where drinks are served by a certain horned character accompanied by an unusual pairing up pay system.
A bar room setting is where the action takes place, but at a guess, Booze Bash may reside in a fairly close neighbourhood, in some ways, to Hacksaw Gaming slots Hounds of Hell and Infernos, on account of the diabolical references. In saying that, Booze Bash doesn’t have a typical underworld look to it in the base game, besides a green-skinned devil shaking drinks, a trident pitchfork, and an upside-down pentagram, as the slot’s maker has utilised more of a cartoon creep technique than flayed alive torment.
Booze Bash’s gaming area utilises 6 reels, divided into 3 sections due to its pay system, and 4 rows. It does not have any of the usual methods of winning, such as ways, lines, or clusters, relying instead on a Match 2 Win mechanism. The maximum available RTP is pretty standard, however, at 96.31%, while the math model volatility is medium-high. It is possible to wager 10 c to $/€100 per game round, and activate any of the three on-hand feature buys.
To win in Booze Bash, half symbols must land a certain way to create a whole pair – there is more on this below. Fourteen different pairs may be formed on the reels, ranging from smaller wins of 0.5x to 100x, to four larger prizes of 250x, 500x, 1,000x, and the 12,500x Max Win.
Booze Bash: Slot Features
What Booze Bash has on tap is its Match 2 Win mechanic, Multiplier pairs, three bonus rounds – Guilty As Gin, Top-Shelf Trouble, and Hell’s Happy Hour, plus feature buys.
Match 2 Win
Each symbol lands as either a left or a right half. When two matching left and right halves land side by side on the same row to create a winning pair, they award their value. They can do this on reels 1 and 2, reels 3 and 4, as well as reels 5 and 6. Wild symbols also appear as half symbols and can make a winning pair out of any pay symbol. A wild pair is worth 1,000x the bet.
Multiplier Pairs
Multiplier symbols consist of a left half ‘x’ and a right half number. When a Multiplier pair is made, it acts as a global multiplier, applying to all wins on the spin. If more than one Multiplier pair lands, their values are multiplied before applying to any wins. Possible Multiplier values range from x2 to x20.
Guilty As Gin Bonus Game
Landing 1 FS pair in the base game triggers 10 free spins, which function the same as the base game but have an increased chance of landing high pay symbols, Multipliers, or wild symbols. In this and the next two bonus rounds, landing an FS pair awards +2 free spins.
Top-Shelf Trouble Bonus Game
This round is triggered in the base game by landing 2 FS pair symbols. A Bash Bar is added above the reels for this feature. After wins have been evaluated on each spin, the Bash Bar reveals a symbol for each reel, which can be either a dead symbol (which has no effect or value) or a pay symbol. When a pay symbol is revealed and a matching half symbol of the same type is below it on the connected reel, it will make a winning pair. Bash Bar wins cannot occur on previous winning positions on the same spin. Symbols converted by the Bash Bar revert to their original type after forming a win, allowing for the possibility of two separate wins occurring on the same positions.
Hell’s Happy Hour – Hidden Epic Bonus
Hitting 3 FS scatters in the base game triggers 10 free Hell’s Happy Hour spins. The rules are the same as Top-Shelf Trouble, except special symbols can land in the Bash Bar. FS and Multipliers activate first, followed by the rest of the symbols from left to right. Revealed Multipliers only apply to Bash Bar wins, and wild symbols on the Bash Bar convert symbols in that reel to wild.
Bonus Buys
Costing 3x the bet, BonusHunt FeatureSpins make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. Guilty As Gin can be bought for 100x or Top-Shelf Trouble at 200x the bet.
Booze Bash: Slot Verdict
Booze Bash might be new for Hacksaw Gaming, but it’s not entirely new for the gambling public at large. Pragmatic Play, for instance, busted out the two half symbols forming a winning whole idea in its porcine and money-themed slot Piggy Bank Bills. The two slots share a few close behaviours beyond the need for matching halves having to land next to each other to form a whole, too. Multipliers also appear on the reels to increase payout values, though this could only happen during Piggy Bank Bill‘s free spins round, whereas in Booze Bash, they can land at any moment. The potential values are much larger in this slot, too, hitting upwards of x20 if you get lucky.
Pay symbol values are comparable, as well, with the glaring exception of Booze Bash’s Max Win symbol, valued at 12,500x if you missed it above. There are mixed feelings about these max win symbols. ELK Studios has favoured them in the past, as has Nolimit City and its God Mode linked concept. How critical are they in achieving the game’s full potential? It’s hard to answer that, but considering Booze Bash has chunky pay symbol values and fairly useful multiplier values, you’d assume decent results are possible from Booze Bash without needing to chase two elusive max win halves around the board.
Despite not being a wholly singular slot, Booze Bash nevertheless sits in an unorthodox sector of the lobby, and as such may demand a more open-minded gambler accept its quirks compared to Hacksaw Gaming’s ‘typical’ output. The game oozes thematic ideas that the studio has touched upon before in the past, and given Hacksaw Gaming’s reputation, players can expect a dipping ‘n’ diving ride, so who knows, Booze Bash might just provide the ‘unique’ experience gamblers never knew they were after.
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