Wicked Grin

Wicked Grin Review

Hacksaw has been moving in a more mainstream direction lately, so it’s nice to see the studio return to its roots with Wicked Grin. Boney Bill, the game’s mascot, is a strange mix of vintage Mickey Mouse and the grim reaper, while the retro animation and swing soundtrack give it that familiar Hacksaw feel. It’s simple, but there’s plenty of personality here.

The gameplay is built around tumbling scatter pays on a 5 x 5 grid, with 6 or more matching symbols needed for a win. The main mechanic involves Wicked Grin Coins reaching the bottom row, which causes them to expand upwards and reveal Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond Coins, as well as Multipliers. The Multipliers add some hidden depth by boosting Coin values across multiple reels, although the base game can feel fairly dry without bonus buys.

There are 2 tiers of free spins, with the first adding increasing reel multipliers and the second replacing these with Coin Collectors that gather Coin values throughout the round. The stats are fairly average at 96.27% RTP and a 10,000x max win, but the combination of vintage visuals, simple mechanics, and Hacksaw’s trademark style makes Wicked Grin one of the studio’s more enjoyable recent releases.

How To Play

1. Choose your bet size and start spinning.
2. You’ll be aiming for 6 or more of the same symbol in a tumbling, scatter pays fashion.
3. If a Wicked Grin symbol (white) or Epic Wicked Grin symbol (yellow) lands and reaches the bottom of the grid, it will expand upwards, after all tumbling wins have been handled. It can produce Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond Coins, plus Multipliers. Multipliers multiply any Coin values above them on the same reel and on the adjacent reels.
4. Epic Wicked Grin symbols will trigger any Wicked Grin symbols on the grid, regardless of whether they’ve reached the bottom row.
5. If an FS (red) or Super FS (yellow) symbol lands and reaches the bottom of the grid, it will expand upwards and cover the reel. Each resulting symbol holds a number, and these are added together to decide the number of free spins. The minimum number of possible free spins is 5 and the maximum is 30.
6. In the standard free spins (Stash N Stack), the base mechanics are maintained but above each reel is a reel multiplier, starting at 1x. Whenever a Wicked Grin symbol lands, its values are counted with the reel multiplier factored in. Then the reel multiplier moves up by 1.
7. In the second tier of free spins (Coin Craze), the reel multipliers are replaced with Coin Collectors. Rather than being reel multipliers, these collect any Coin wins throughout the round and they can be multiplied by Multipliers on the relevant reels if any land. All wins are gathered from the Coin Collectors and counted at the end of the round.
8. Landing additional FS symbols in either round adds more free spins.

Bonus Features

• Ante bet: Turning this on means each spins is 5x more likely to trigger the free spins. Costs 3x your current wager.
• Grinny FeatureSpins: Each spin guarantees that at least 1 Wicked Grin symbol lands for 50x your current wager.
• Stash N Stack bonus buy: Buys the first tier of bonus round for 80x your current wager.
• Coin Craze bonus buy: Buys the second tier of bonus for 200x your current wager.
• Max win: 10,000x.