Pickle Bandits

Pickle Bandits: Slot Overview

Back in the day, on the wild frontier, it must have been pretty tempting to tear up the law book and go the bandit path, in the hopes that just pointing a six-shooter at people would encourage them to hand over their valuable goods. By the same token, guns were rife back then, so getting shot back at was likely a bandit's occupational hazard. Of course, this is largely generalised conjecture, not being Wild West historians and all, but it leads us into the review of software designer Bullshark Games' Wild West slot Pickle Bandits. Uh-huh, you read that correctly; instead of humans flipping their six-shooters about the place, it is, yes, pickles.

There's one, in the game's bottom left corner, and seeing that Bullshark Games is associated with Hacksaw Gaming, a studio which loves chucking big characters up on the screen, there were no surprises there. This pickle does appear bandity, with its wide-brimmed hat storing bullets, patched-up poncho, and glowing stogie; he definitely looks the part. The game's twangy soundtrack sounds about as desolate as its dusty one-horse town looks, and while not the grittiest Wild West slot terrorising the market, Bullshark Games has captured some of the frontier essence. Then added a pickle.

Pickle Bandits uses 14 paylines to work out winning combinations on its 5-reel, 4-row gaming area. It functions by way of a 3 out 5 rated medium volatile math model, generating a maximum RTP of 96.27% when betting 10 c to $/€100 per spin, though a lower 94.33% model is also available.

Moseying bow-legged over to the symbol payouts, we encounter 10 regular paying symbols. Actual playing cards depicting 10 through A ranks are the low pays, awarding 2 times the bet for a 5 OAK win. They are joined by stirrups, boots, a hat, a pistol, and horseshoes as the high pays, awarding 5 to 15 times the bet for a 5-matching symbol combination. Winning symbols explode off the reels and are replaced by symbols falling down from above.

Pickle Bandits: Slot Features

In Pickle Bandits, mystery symbols reveal pay symbols or wilds, multiplier wilds for adding multipliers to a global multiplier, and all are available in the base game as well as in the free spins phase.

Mystery Symbols

Wanted posters are the mystery symbols. When they hit, they reveal a random paying symbol; all will reveal the same matching pay symbol, wilds, or multiplier wilds.

Multiplier Wilds

Multiplier wilds may have additive values of 1x to 100x, or multiplicative values of x2 to x10. After the symbol is part of a win, the multiplier is unlocked, and its value is added to the global multiplier for the next cascade. Additive wilds are added first, followed by multiplicative values. Multiplier wilds remain fixed in their position so they do not drop down. They transform into a standard wild after adding their value to the multiplier. The global multiplier applies to all wins and resets with each new base game spin.

Wild Symbol

The wild symbol substitutes for all paying symbols and is removed from the grid after taking part in a win. A line of 5 wilds pays 25 times the bet.

Outlaw Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols in the base game triggers 6 free spins, or hitting 4 scatter symbols in the base game grants 8 free spins with the global multiplier starting at x5. During the round, the global multiplier does not reset between free spins. Landing a scatter in the feature awards an extra free spin.

Bonus Buy

Four options are presented at the bonus buy menu, they are:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 3x the bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger free spins. Highly
  volatile, RTP 96.31%.
• FeatureSpins - 20x the bet, each spin guarantees at least 4 mystery symbols. Highly volatile, RTP 96.28%.
• Outlaw Free Spins - 100x the bet for 6 free spins. Very highly volatile, RTP 96.34%.
• Extreme Outlaw Free Spins - 200x the bet for 8 free spins, multiplier starts at x5. Highly volatile, RTP 96.32%.

Pickle Bandits: Slot Verdict

You see the same things so often in the online slot industry that almost any attempt to break out from the norm and be a bit different is quite often appreciated. Even if it is something zany, like using pickles in place of humans. Without the pickle bandit character flipping his gun around in the corner of the screen, Pickle Bandits would likely have been less personable, a bit more generic. Little things, but you know, little things count, and while Pickle Bandits isn't as playfully inventive as Bullshark Games' previous release, Holy Heist, was with its criminals dressed as nuns subject matter, it pretty much works.

What's encouraging about Bullshark Games is its willingness to try new things, explore a variety of themes, and play around with gaming mechanics. That said, the team does favour multiplier symbols incrementing a global win multiplier, as seen before in Mafia Clash and Merlin's Alchemy, or just doing interesting things using multipliers in general, which covers most of its games, if not all of them. And why not, ay? There's nothing like a swiftly growing multiplier to turn things around, and the global multiplier in Pickle Bandits is technically able to do just that - leap from ho-hum to something nifty quicker than our pickle pal can draw his shooter. Furthermore, players can look forward to taking the persistent route since this is a characteristic free spins endow the global multiplier with.

Pickle Bandits isn't a slot that raises the bar to extraordinary new heights, but it's friskily presented (though maybe not wildly so) and packs the potential for explosive multiplicative action. Jam on a 12,000x top prize, which can be won at any time, and Bullshark Games has made another positive addition to its portfolio.