Clumsy Cowboys

Clumsy Cowboys: Slot Overview

Way out deep in the Wild West, clumsy is about the last thing you want to be when roping cattle, throwing fists at varmints in a saloon, or being quick on the draw. A doofus gunslinger fumbling with their six-shooter does conjure up comedic images, though, and so the stage is set for Hacksaw sibling studio Backseat Gaming's online slot Clumsy Cowboys. In this cartoon caper, players try their luck alongside a couple of charismatic dudes while attempting to rope in help from features such as Symbol Removal, Wild Multipliers, and a couple of triggerable or buyable bonus games.

Not only are the cowboys in this game supposedly clumsy, they're also a hippopotamus and a rhinoceros going by the names of Harry and Ryan. Just how beasts that size are going to ride their trusty steeds off into the sunset is a puzzle. How they're going to ride anything anywhere really is a puzzle. Never mind. However the two partners did it; they arrived at a sleepy little settlement out the back of nowhere to conduct their chosen business. Clumsy Cowboys' screen contains a lot of wood, both in the base game's background settlement that looks like a strong wind would blow it away like a tumbleweed and for propping up a 5-reel game board. Cartoon shenanigans are counterbalanced by an ominously tolling bell, casting a tone of seriousness across the silliness.

Each of the 5 reels in the gaming area hold 4 rows of symbols whilst the 20 paylines do the job of evaluating winning combinations. Numerous bonus buy options are available, but for each of them, or for just wagering on individual spins, a base stake of 10 c to $/€100 needs to be selected. Before journeying to this desolately dusty spot, know that Clumsy Cowboys is a medium volatile game, maxing out its RTP at 96.22%.

Classically Western looking 10 to A card royals are Clumsy Cowboys' lower paying symbols, joined by less classically Western looking fruit - plums, oranges, watermelons, plus two characters as the highest paying symbols. Wins of 5 matching royals pay 1x-2.5x, the fruit are worth up to 3x-5x, and the 2 cowboys award 20x-50x the bet for 5 OAK.

Clumsy Cowboys: Slot Features

In the base game, scatters appear on reels 2-5, where they can trigger 2 different bonus games - Stick Them Up and Sheriff's Showdown. During bonus rounds, scatters only appear on the leftmost and rightmost reels. Other features are Wild Multiplier symbols, Symbol Removal, and bonus buys.

Wild Symbols

Wild Multiplier symbols land on reels 2, 3, and 4. They always come with a multiplier of x2, x3, or x5. If more than one multiplier is in the same win, their values are added together.

Stick Them Up Bonus

Landing 3 scatter symbols in the base game awards 10 free Stick Them Up spins. In this bonus game, all landed Wild Multipliers are sticky. Landing scatters on the leftmost and rightmost reels grants +2 free spins and removes the lowest available paying symbol from the reels.

Sheriff's Showdown Bonus

Hitting 4 scatter symbols in the base game triggers 10 free Sheriff's Showdown spins. For this feature, all low-paying royal symbols are removed from the reels at the start of the round, and all Wild Multipliers are sticky. Hitting scatter symbols on the leftmost and rightmost reels grants +2 free spins and removes the next lowest available paying symbol from the reels.

Bonus Buy

Clumsy Cowboys' bonus buy menu comes with these 5 options: BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 2x the bet. Each spin is 3 times more likely to trigger free spins, Bandit's Grab FeatureSpins - 25x the bet. Each spin guarantees 3 to 12 wilds and a random number of the lowest pay symbols removed, Outlaw's Steal FeatureSpins - 75x the bet. Each spin guarantees 3 to 12 wilds, and all low-pay symbols are removed, Stick Them Up - 100x the bet, or Sheriff's Showdown - 200x the bet.

Clumsy Cowboys: Slot Verdict

Wouldn't say Clumsy Cowboys is overly clumsy in its execution per se. Some of the thematic elements are a bit of a mish-mash, though. Rhinos, hippos, fruit, sheriff badges, a jaw harp, it's an odd mix. But one that gives Clumsy Cowboys a dose of individuality in a genre bulging at the seams with a ton of competing twirling pistol options. The visual set-up is almost oddball enough to override the thought that the last Western slot Backseat Gaming released, Old Gun, came out not all that long ago. Hey, the studio clearly likes Westerns, fair enough, and the team has plugged some sweet sights and sounds into Clumsy Cowboys while expressing its interest.

On an encouraging note, the studio has also made sure to plug in an engaging batch of features as well. It's hard to go too wrong using wild multipliers, especially when they're sticky in free spins, so no issues there. What adds powder to the keg is removing low-paying symbols from the reel strips for the chance to land better-paying symbols with them thar Wild Multipliers. Urgency is created by the way the two highest-paying character symbols are worth so much more than the fruit and royals. This did mean covetous eyes were side glanced at the Sheriff's Showdown bonus, which slices away all of the royals at the start of the round. This is amplified by the fact that Clumsy Cowboys' 12,500x max win is achievable in the bonus games only.

Of the three linked game makers (Hacksaw Gaming, Backseat Gaming, and Bullshark Games), Hacksaw Gaming remains the undisputed daddy (Wanted Dead or a Wild being one of their biggest hits of all time), but as time passes, the two partner studios are playing a decent game of catch-up. It's not within the realms of impossibility to magically remove Backseat Gaming's name from Clumsy Cowboys; put Hacksaw Gaming on there, and who would be the wiser? Such is the quality of output from all three studios in regard to skin and gameplay. Clumsy Cowboys is another good one, maybe not a great one in terms of how games are judged here as its features aren't exactly off the charts with innovation, but it is a sturdy choice if a bouncy Western-themed slot with hippos and rhinos is a must.