Le Sortudo: Slot Overview
While some people are happy sitting around the house on their time off, catching up on TV series, others have to be on the move, at all times, constantly rolling somewhere new. One example of the latter is software provider Hacksaw Gaming's Smokey Le Bandit. Smokey is an itchy-footed raccoon who regularly turns up in a new destination as he fronts the studio's popular Le range of slots. In this instance, Smokey has booked a trip to Brazil to star in Le Sortudo, Sortudo being a Portuguese word meaning 'lucky', which contains a host of surprises for Le fans to reveal as it pulls the series in a brand-new direction.
Smokey has picked a charming part of Brazil to set up shop, too. Players find him on a quaint street, crowbar in hand, clearly up to no good, surrounded by colourful buildings and lush plant life. This is a raccoon with a large and rapidly growing number of stamps in his passport, as he travels the globe from his hometown of Paris to far away and beyond. As he's travelled, Smokey has picked up various new gaming developments and made tweaks to the core formula, some more dramatic than others, though few are as dramatic as those Le Sortudo is sporting.
It starts with a diminutive 3x3 playing grid in the middle of the screen, which caused a jolt when Le Sortudo loaded. Only three of a kind winning combinations may form across its 9 paylines, making a change from the clustering taking place on the 6x5 grid found in the original Le game. Reflecting a drop in winning potential, the stake range is wide, going from a low of $/€0.05 per spin up to a high of $/€400. While generating a default RTP of 96.27%, Le Sortudo runs on a medium volatile math model.
Just five pay symbols land on Le Sortudo's grid. They are K, A, a flipflop, a drink can, and a glass of beer. Payout values are 0.2x to 3x the bet when winning combinations hit. In this game, no wild symbols appear on the reels.
Le Sortudo: Slot Features
Le Sortudo features Coins and Jackpot Markers, as well as a Rainbow Fortune Hold & Win, a Rainbow Epic Drop Hold & Win, and feature buys.
Coins and Jackpot Markers
When 3 or more Coin symbols or Jackpot Markers, or combinations of both land, they trigger a payout after any regular wins have been settled. When part of a win, Coins reveal a value of 0.2x-2x for Bronze, 3x-9x for Silver or 10x to 50x for Gold. When Jackpot Markers are part of a win, they award one of four jackpots - the 5x Mini, 25x Medio, 250x Major, or 2,500x Grand.
Rainbow Fortune Hold & Win
Landing a Rainbow scatter in the base game triggers the Rainbow Fortune Hold & Win with 3 refilling lives. Only Coin, Jackpot Marker, Pot of Gold, Clover, or dead symbols may land in this feature. When any new non-dead symbol lands, they stick to the grid until collected or the round ends, and the life counter resets to 3. Lives represent free spins. When lives are consumed, the round ends. If Coin, Clover, and Pot of Gold symbols land at the same time, Clovers activate before Pot of Gold symbols.
Pot of God symbols and Clovers can land with Coins or when there are Coins present on the reels. Clovers activate at the end of the feature, multiplying all Coins and Pot of Gold symbols by x2 to x20. Clovers activate before Pot of Gold symbols if they land together.
When a Pot of Gold symbol lands, it reveals all Coin values and activates any Clover symbols before it activates. When activated, the Pot of Gold collects the values of all Coins and other activated Pot of Gold symbols, storing the total. When a Coin has been collected, it is removed from the grid. Jackpot Markers are revealed after the Pot of Gold has activated and are awarded before the next spin.
Rainbow Epic Drop Hold & Win
Landing an Epic Rainbow symbol in the base game triggers the Rainbow Epic Drop Hold & Win. It keeps the mechanics of the Rainbow Fortune Hold & Win, but in addition, a full grid of Coin, Jackpot Marker, Pot of Gold, and Clover symbols is guaranteed from the start. This includes at least one Coin and one Pot of Gold. When Coins land, they will be worth at least 1x.
Bonus Buys
Paying 35x the bet buys the Rainbow Fortune Hold & Win, while 100x buys the Rainbow Epic Drop Hold & Win feature.
Le Sortudo: Slot Verdict
Despite the legion of already available Le slots, Le Sortudo manages to pull off a number of surprising moves. The first one was discovering that Hacksaw Gaming has switched Smokey over to a 3x3 format, which may trigger mixed emotions. When considering the Golden Squares style of feature these slots are famous for, and the desire to fill the grid with as many special symbols as possible, then a drop from 30 positions down to 9 might feel like a constrictive squeeze. However, some gamblers have a fondness for compactly designed 3-reel slots, and Hacksaw Gaming taps into that preference with its famous raccoon and his Coin reveal action.
As such, the move to a 3x3 format is either one of Le Sortudo's strongest or weakest elements, depending on players' point of view. Weak in that it feels too restrictive compared to its siblings, and may really struggle to pull regular fans of the larger format over. This is further compounded by the smaller grid, resulting in smaller potential, capped at 2,500x the stake. But, if 3-reelers are your thing, and you've been eyeing what Smokey's been up to with envy, then Le Sortudo could be an ideal opportunity to take the plunge and demo what it can do. It offers some entertaining hold 'n' win reveal gaming, albeit on the smaller side, and there's a jackpot element, so huge mental leaps are not required to see Le Sortudo appealing to certain sections of the gambling crowd.
That said, it's also not hard to see others rejecting Le Sortudo out of hand. Due to its reduced size, it isn't capable of giving the full Golden Squares style hit - not that it is trying to exactly replicate the experience, but still. The max win might be all well and good in a game of this size, but compared to practically every other Le slot, 2.5K is small beans. As a result, Le Sortudo doesn't lead the Le range into big new territory, but it offers a fairly entertaining pocket-sized version for players who prefer the smaller space.
Le Sortudo pulls the popular series in a new direction, compacting the experience in a way that seems equally likely to repel regulars as to attract a new crowd.
