New Slots Round Up: 13th December – 19th December 2025

It’s a particularly strong round up this week, featuring no less than three slots from Hacksaw Gaming, plus others. Let’s take a look.

We can start with Le Fisherman. Hacksaw really ramped up the frequency of Le releases this year, as this is the sixth Le game in 2025. This version feels close to Le Bandit – the original – with its Golden Squares and Rainbows, but there are new additions like a progressive meter in the bonus round that awards perks as you light up the spaces. Coupled with the fishing theme, this almost reminds one of Big Bass…

Next we have Pray For Six, also from Hacksaw. A sequel to Pray For Three, it’s set in a world drawn in the vintage rubber hose animation style that Hacksaw is so fond of. As for the gameplay, the action revolves around Wailing Wheels which appear when a ‘6’ symbol lands along with a win. Any win will do, and the Wheel spins, landing on a value that adds to the win total or multiplies it. Pray For Six is pretty direct and less complex than a lot of modern slots, so if you’re in the mood for something plug and play, this could be a great shout.

Come on Down from Relax Gaming is a strange slot. It’s got a very busy theme, centered around the idea of a game show contested by various animals and presented by a pig called Teddy Tusk. There’s a 5 x 4 grid, 40 paylines, a massive spinning bonus wheel, and a Super Collect bonus round, but the fun never seemed to get going during my test session. I’m a big fan of Relax but this one didn’t hit the spot for me – it felt like all froth and no beer. Also the RTP is very low at 94.50%.

Mega Mammoth Multiplier Mayhem from Gaming Corps has a silly title and a theme based around ice age fauna, but the gameplay is rather standard. It has a touch of Gates of Olympus thanks to a global multiplier mechanic in both the base game and bonus round. It’s a competent enough slot, but it’s not going to set your world on fire, especially when the standard is high this week.

Big Fruit Theory from Popiplay had potential, at least in my eyes – it’s almost a copy of Gems Bonanza from Pragmatic Play, one of my all-time favorite slots. The idea is that if you form a winning cluster across one of the colored glowing squares (which get placed at random each spin), you trigger the mechanic associated with that color. Also, by gaining wins you build up a meter that can take you to the bonus round, where you rifle through the five special mechanics – in a continuous loop if you manage to score enough points.

However, Big Fruit Theory has a far less dramatic theme than Gems Bonanza and its Aztec setting, and the rate at which the various special mechanics come into play is far slower, resulting in a rather dull game. It’s a shame, because, as we know, Pragmatic is no longer playable at sweeps casinos so we could have done with a nice Gems Bonanza clone.

Deal with Death is the third Hacksaw game this week, and it does something pretty damn interesting, borrowing from the game of poker. It’s also got a nice max win of 20,000x. Yes, card game fans will enjoy how landing a Joker symbol transforms the gameplay from a 14-payline slot into four rows of poker hands. These can, of course, create straights, full houses, royal flushes etc., and each one carries a multiplier with it. It’s a neat idea, although the feature doesn’t pop up too much organically, so you may find yourself forcing it via a Bonus Buy, a technique Hacksaw seem to be relying on more and more these days.

Anyway, let’s move on to our Game of the Week, this week from Nolimit City.

Game of the Week

Das xBoot 2 is the sequel to Das xBoot from 2021, one of Nolimit City’s all-time great slots, even to this day.

Das xBoot 2 maintains much of what made the original work, while applying some tweaks to create a similarly strong game that feels even more intense than before.

We’re playing on a 2-3-4-4-3-2 grid again, still with 576 ways to win. We also still have the xWays and xNudge Wild features on reels 2 and 5, 3 and 4 respectively. And the action is, of course, underwater once again, but this time we have a constantly moving background – it’s a simple touch that gives a cinematic feel.

Along with the aforementioned xWays and xNudge Wild mechanics, we have the xBomb which explodes all symbol types not part of a winning combination, which is helpful from time to time. Then, the Periscope Up! feature is now available in the base game, and when it activates, it adds up to 4 more rows onto the 3rd reel, then takes aim at an enemy submarine. If the hit lands you’ll achieve a reel full of Wilds, creating the possibility for plenty of winning lines.

Yes, this is Nolimit City so the general idea is to expand the grid, slice it up into the highest possible amount of paylines, and throw in some Wilds for good measure. The Torpedo Builder mechanic has also been brought into the base game – another chance to add xWays and Wilds onto the screen.

The bonus rounds add in a persistent Periscope Up! feature and the possibility of a global multiplier, and, as usual, there are plenty of bonus buy options if you want to skip straight to the good stuff.

Das xBoot 2 is not completely original, being heavily based on the first iteration, and the RTP is unusually low for a NLC game (95.94%), but the new tweaks have created a hefty slot that’s even more frantic, immersive, and fun than its predecessor.

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