Born Wild

Born Wild: Slot Overview

If you've been keeping tabs on Hacksaw Gaming, you'll be aware of their successful transition from online scratch cards to online slots. They still do the scratch card gig, but they also develop a line of big fixed jackpot slots. We're not talking about the 1,000x the bet jobs players get from run of the mill hold-&-win features - Born Wild dangles the sort of money most will only daydream about winning. The team showed their hand in games like Haunted Circus, where a top prize of €2.5 million was there for the taking, while the game under review here, Born Wild, quadruples that to produce an astonishing eight-figure sum.

Born Wild starts innocently enough, where a 5x4 game board, lit up like Chaos Crew, sits before a monochrome patterned background. In total, 20 paylines are provided to hit winning combinations of three or more of a kind across, making it all sound so regular in the beginning. Hacksaw isn't known for going huge audio-visually, but they have a unique style that is pleasingly minimalist. Born Wild is very much in this vein, where the stylishly simple aesthetics fit the features and gameplay like a favourite hoodie.

As well as the astonishing €10m max win, the game throws up other numbers which may surprise - RTP being the main culprit. If players approach Born Wild as a high-value jackpot slot, they might be able to ignore a low value of 93.80%. What's not low is volatility, and this thing can buck like the untamed beast it is. Whether triggering features naturally or buying them, don't expect Born Wild to be a forgiving game if it's not in the mood.

10 pay symbols appear on the paytable - 5 low-values and 5 premiums. Lows are animal noises, such as Howl, Claw, Hisss, Grrrr, and Roar, all worth 1x the bet for five of a kind. Next up, the highs are all dangerous animals, including wolves, rhinos, gorillas, tigers, and cobras. Landing five premiums in a line triggers payouts worth 10 to 25 times the stake. Wilds are highly sought out symbols, not only because they replace any pay symbol to complete a win line. They also pay out 250 times the bet when a line of five hits; maybe not so common in the base game, but a genuine proposal in either feature where they become sticky.

Born Wild: Slot Features

Born Wild provides two features to maximise returns. One is a round of free spins; the other is Lion's Roar respins where the big money may be found. Landing 3 bear scatter symbols triggers the free spins feature. In this one, all wild symbols are sticky and remain that way for the duration of the round. The feature starts with 10 free spins and ends when they've been used.

3 or more lion symbols in view trigger Lion's Roar respins. In this mode, respins continue to be awarded as long as new lion symbols hit. When they land, they turn sticky and are locked in place until the feature ends. Filling the grid with lion symbols rewards the lucky player in question €10,000,000 (not a typo). In the vast majority of cases, if the max win is not reached, one last spin is awarded where all stuck lion symbols are converted into wilds.

Depending on territory, players also get the chance to buy respins for the cost of 129 times the stake. Much like before, RTP remains low at 93.78% if buying Lion's Roar respins.

Born Wild: Slot Verdict

If ever there was a slot Johnny Lawrence (Karate Kid/ Cobra Kai) would play, Born Wild would be it. You can picture him kicking some teenager's butt at his dojo before busting out a stone washed denim jacket with a hooded cobra patch sewn on, gearing up to give Born Wild a ride. For Johnny, everything had to be 'badass', and some of that chutzpah will be required to take on Born Wild. So will self-restraint as its massive rewards are tempered by an insanely capricious math model.

The respin bonus game is the focal point of Born Wild, and after an extensive bout of them during testing, the verdict was – handle with care. Results varied wildly from a €12,900 bonus buy returning €50, to decent payouts at other times. Like the soulless machine it is, Born Wild has scant regard for feelings. Score a good win, and you might think you've cracked it, only to be brutally savaged without mercy from then on.

Born Wild feels custom made for casino streamers or players with the nerve to handle the game's severe swings and roundabouts. There was a story floating around, probably an urban legend, telling of a certain astronaut who was so calm that at blast off, his heart rate barely increased despite the rocket being hit by lightning twice. These are the sort of cast iron cajones ideal for tackling Born Wild.

We might have wandered into the realm of exaggeration there, but not by much. There is no doubt huge rewards are possible from Born Wild, though it should be approached with the right expectations – as a jackpot slot producing a lower than average RTP which has no problems tearing trepid players to shreds, or diehards too, for that matter. The Hacksaw team are masters of producing seemingly simple bonus games, which are as hugely entertaining as they are unpredictable. Born Wild is just more so than most because of its astonishing numbers.

Let's repeat this because it sounds a little surreal; the ultimate goal of Born Wild is to fill the grid in lion symbols during respins to bag ten million Euros. A staggering number, and one possibly outdone by the probability of winning it. There are sure to be plenty of starry-eyed punters lining up to try their luck.