Hamsterdam: Slot Overview
Cast an eye over software provider Wicked Games' multifaceted catalogue, and you'll see a portfolio that bounces between the safe genericism of something like Lucked to the provocative wut? of a game like Big Black Cock. To the delight of gamblers who have had it up to the eyeballs with the same themes shoved down their throats again and again, the studio appears to have developed a soft spot for the more controversial, risqué side of things. The slot on review here, Hamsterdam, is further evidence of that tendency as it follows a stoned hamster from his cosy shrine to reefer home onto the wild streets of a town, which, like its namesake, is a hedonist's nirvana.
Hamsterdam has two game phases that take place in two very different locations. The base game is a chill-out spot, like a hamster cage if its owner had hooked their pet on weed and beer, then let it consume substances to their heart's content. Here we find a glazy-eyed, furry dude with a leaf-print hoodie and giant doobie rocking blissfully back and forth in a stained armchair, like a rodent Cheech and Chong. Triggering free spins sends the game panning up for a night out on the town, and we're dealing with Hamsterdam here, a city boasting anything-goes nightlife. Needless to say, humour is the order of the day, and Hamsterdam is an amusing slot, where stoned hamsters rub shoulders with hamster pimps, madams, and strippers.
The base game takes place on a 5x4 grid with 20 paylines that mostly pay left to right, but will also pay right to left when the respins feature has been triggered. Gamblers get a wide stake range from $/€0.20 to a possible $/€400, and can theoretically expect an RTP of 96.1% from the highly volatile math model.
The pay symbols start with 5 bottles of dubious substances, then there's a prophylactic, a hash cake, a bong, a wind-up walking nose, and a hamster. Landing 5 matching bottles in a line pays 2x the bet, while 5 matching high pays in a win are worth 5x-15x the bet. The wild appears on all reels in the base game. It substitutes all symbols except the scatter and pays 50x the bet for 5 wilds in a winning line.
Hamsterdam: Slot Features
Hamsterdam's base game has respins as its feature, while the Upstairs Bonus is the main event, and there are three buy options available on the side.
Double Dose Respin
When two scatters land, a Double Dose Respin is awarded. The triggering scatters transform into wilds and are sticky for the feature. If new wilds land on a respin, they lock in place and another respin is awarded. During respins, line wins are paid left to right and right to left. Respins continue until no new wilds land.
Upstairs Bonus
Landing 3, 4 or 5 scatters awards players with 8, 10, or 12 free spins in the Upstairs Bonus. The feature is carried out on a 5x6 gaming area, with the bottom two rows unlocked and the other four upper rows locked. During the Upstairs Bonus, only Nuts, Hammers, Keys, and blanks may land.
Nuts land in one of three forms with values of 2x-8x for Peanuts, 10x-50x for Walnuts, and 100x-1,000x for Hazelnuts. Nuts remain on the reels until collected. Only Nuts in unlocked positions can be collected. When collected, they are removed from the grid, except for sticky Nuts, which remain on the reels. Keys display a number of 1-3, determining the number of extra spins awarded. Keys only activate in unlocked positions. If they hit in a locked position, they are sticky until their position is unlocked. Keys are removed when activated. Hammers unlock 2-6 locked positions. A Hammer only activates from unlocked positions and is removed when it activates. It will be sticky in a locked position until the position is unlocked. To the right of the main grid are 3 doors. Up to 3 characters can appear per spin in these doors, performing certain modifying actions in this order.
- Madam - Unlocks 2-5 positions.
- Stripper- Adds 3-5 Nuts with values of 20x-1,000x to the grid.
- Pimp - Selects 2-5 Nuts and multiplies their values by x2-x5 up to the win limit.
- Dealer - Picks 2-5 Nuts and makes them sticky until the end of the round. Sticky Nuts are not removed when collected.
- Cashier - Selects 2-5 Nuts in unlocked positions, collects them, and removes the non-sticky ones.
At the end of the bonus, collected values are combined with the values of unlocked Nuts on the grid, and the total is awarded.
Wicked Boosters & Bonuses
The Happy Hour booster doubles the bet to triple the chance of landing 3 or more scatters. The Swing Both Ways booster costs 10x to guarantee two scatters land to trigger Double Dose Respins. Skip the Line costs 145x the stake, and it lands at least 3 scatter symbols to trigger the Upstairs Bonus round.
Hamsterdam: Slot Verdict
Hamsterdam might be many things, but one thing it is not is generically themed. Wicked Games again rejects cookie-cutter subject matter to come up with more irreverent, adult-themed humour, creating a bizarre yet amusing world of stoners, pimps, madams, strippers, and other suitably unconventional characters. The theme's appeal obviously comes down to personal taste, but for players tired of interchangeable candy, mythology, and fruit-themed slots, Hamsterdam offers something different for the eyes to absorb.
Beneath the exterior, Hamsterdam has enough going on mechanically to back up the nutty looks. That said, the base game is a little light on action, since in that phase, besides line wins, the only excitement generator is the two scatter-triggered Double Dose Respin. Respins admittedly do have the technical juice to stick wilds across the reels, paying both ways until it can respin no more. Nothing outrageous, but it's not a bad extra, and respins might turn out to be beneficial if you're lucky enough to get a stack of wilds on the grid. The bonus round is quite good as well, with suspense built by a combination of landing Nuts, unlocking the locked parts of the grid, and revealing characters from doors. There are some interesting character-triggered effects, yet landing big value Nuts seems crucial for generating sizable outcomes. The Pimp can multiply Nuts, and the Cashier is able to collect them, but the Character effects were somewhat limited, and it felt difficult to make serious progress without landing big value Nuts.
Still, Hamsterdam has the gas to go all the way to a win cap of 10,000x, so there is potential in the Upstairs Bonus. There is also a creativity going on here that breaks away from the norm, and even if the humour isn't for everyone, it's hard not to appreciate a developer willing to take a swing at something different. That's something Wicked Games has shown an increasing willingness to do, and Hamsterdam should be right up the red-lit alley of players following the studio's work, as well as general gamblers looking for a comically unique hold 'n' win kind of slot.
