Jawsome Pirates

Jawsome Pirates: Slot Overview

It seems Hacksaw Gaming partners have developed a taste for the salty spray of the high seas. Not long ago, Backseat Gaming was riding high across the surface of the water in Pirate Bonanza; now, Bullshark Games lies wrecked on the ocean floor in the online slot Jawsome Pirates. Down here in the depths, players avoid sharks as they attempt to scoop treasure with the help of things like Collector Wilds and Mystic Chests which open to eject several types of goodies on the grid.

That skeleton holding a gold coin in the corner of the screen is a bit of an ominous sight. How did the guy or gal get stuck down here? Is it a metaphorical warning about unhealthy obsessions with wealth accumulation at the cost of your life? Maybe it's just a cool visual effect, like the shark swimming menacingly through the view and the wrecked ship in the background. Handsomely laid out, Jawsome Pirates has a dank, bubbly, underwater atmosphere; all piraty and treasure huntery, arrr.

Festering at the bottom of the sea is Jawsome Pirates' gaming grid. It utilises a 5x4 game grid along with 20 paylines on which to land winning combinations. Wins pay left to right from the leftmost reel, and winning symbols are removed and replaced by symbols dropping due to the cascade mechanic. A medium volatile gambling machine, Jawsome Pirates has several RTP versions depending on whether bonuses are bought or not. The highest one when betting 10 c to $/€100 per spin is 96.28%.

Piraty 10-A royals are the lows, triggering a payment of 1 times the bet when 5 matching card ranks land in a line. More piraty sort of stuff is used as the highs, such as anchors, hooks, swords, treasure bags, and treasure chests. They pay 3 to 10 times the bet for 5 OAK. Wilds pay 10x for 5 as well, while also being able to substitute any of the regular pays.

Jawsome Pirates: Slot Features

Jawsome Pirates' feature bounty is made up of Collector Wilds, Mystic Chests, Jawsome Free Spins, and bonus buys.

Collector Wild

When a Collector Wild lands, it opens any Mystic Chests that are also on the grid. Only one Collector Chest can land at a time. The Collector Wild substitutes any regular pay symbol and is removed when it is part of a win - except in free spins.

Mystic Chests

When a Mystic Chest opens, it can reveal one of the following:

• Expanding Wild - the whole reel becomes wild.
• Instant Win - an instant win of 5x to 100x the bet. When revealed, the Mystic Chest is not wild.
• Wild Boost - the Mystic Wild acts as a wild, and 2 to 6 wild or Multiplier Wilds are added to the grid. Multiplier values are x1 to x100. Wild cannot be added on top of scatters or unopened Mystic Chests. If a Wild Multiplier is added on top of a wild, Expanding Wild or Collector Wild, the multiplier is applied to the symbol. If it already has a multiplier, the values are added. Adding a Wild Multiplier to an Instant Win symbol multiplies the value.

Jawsome Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols in the main game triggers 8, 10, or 12 free spins, respectively. A guaranteed Collector Wild lands on the first spin if 5 scatters trigger the feature. During free spins, the Collector Wild and any multipliers that are added remain on the screen till the feature ends. At the start of each free spin, the Collector Wild jumps to a new location. Each landed scatter awards +1 free spin.

Buy Bonus

Five different bonus buys may be activated from the buy menu; they are:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 3x the bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to activate free spins.
• Chest Hunt FeatureSpins - 20x the bet, each spin guarantees a Collector Wild and at least one Mystic Chest.
• Chest Frenzy FeatureSpins - 50x the bet, each spin guarantees a Collector Wild and at least 3 Mystic Chests.
• Jawsome Free Spins - 100x the bet to trigger 8 or 10 free spins.
• Extremely Jawsome Free Spins - 200x the bet for a 5 scatter trigger.

Jawsome Pirates: Slot Verdict

Out of the two pirate themed slots to have been delivered by Hacksaw Gaming partners as of late, Pirate Bonanza arguably beats Jawsome Pirates out in the excitement stakes. This is not to take anything away from Jawsome Pirates' positive aspects, which are plentiful, by the way. It's just the way Pirate Bonanza marked every winning symbol position, which could then be blasted with multiplier values (should a cannon hit); the total of the multipliers then went on to multiply the win, helping keep the game in a steady state of suspense. Jawsome Pirates was a bit slower burning a lot of the time since you need a couple of parts to come together at the same time before the fireworks begin - Mystic Chests and Collector Wilds. When they do though, they can fire off a bit of fun.

That happened every so often in the base game on their own, but it is more frequent if you're willing to shell out for Chest Hunt or Frenzy Chest Hunt FeatureSpins. At 20x or 50x a pop, that might rack up a deficit. Or not, if Jawsome Pirates is being malevolent. When Jawsome Pirates is being extraordinarily malevolent, it can turn out wins of up to 12,000x the bet in all game modes. Free spins rounds were encouraging since once you get a Collector Wild on the grid, it's there till the bonus ends, roaming the reels between free spins, opening up the Mystic Chests that come your way, while keeping any multiplier it manages to acquire.

Jawsome Pirates might not be quite as edge-of-your-seat in the way Pirate Bonanza could, hanging on every win, hoping a cannon symbol hits to drop multipliers. Jawsome Pirates can get manic, though; it has a neat set of features and is further evidence of Hacksaw Gaming's partners finding their voices, spreading their wings, and, dare we say, maybe one day surpassing the master?