Dr Zappo

Dr Zappo: Slot Overview

Casino game maker Hacksaw Gaming has come up with some good ideas over the years, one of which was a billiard ball-type bouncing lazer effect put to use in Jaws of Justice to convert symbols into wild multipliers. So good, in fact, just once wasn't enough, and the studio has decided to reuse the mechanics from its metallic punk shark game in its eyeball-zapping science slot Dr Zappo. In terms of features, there's not much, if anything, here that is going to catch fans of Jaws of Justice off guard, but newcomers or those looking for a second helping get an exciting shooting, bouncing wild multiplier transforming effect to look forward to, and a trio of bonus rounds, all dressed up in a charismatic cartoon skin.

If nothing else, the theme is completely different. Instead of swimming with the fishies, players enter a Matt Groening-style Futurama or Rick and Morty-type world of bizarre scientific oddities. The base game's spot is a sort of shopping street, an eyeballed Diagon Alley, let's call it, before moving through a scene buzzing with electricity and later the doc's laboratory. The theme has been handled nicely, the wacky cartoon world setting an inviting mood, while creating some buzz for the eyeball-bouncing activities to come. Shame that what's to come is so predictable if you've played the shark slot, but for now, let's enjoy the visuals as they are.

Dr Zappo's active gaming space is a 5x4 matrix with 14 paylines for landing winning combinations. The volatility has dropped a notch, now rated 3 out of 5, making it medium volatile, while bets of $/€0.10 to $/€100 may be selected. Of the four RTP configurations, 96.31% is the highest of the bunch.

The 10 regular paying symbols are 10-A ranks, ray guns, bombs, and three head/character symbols. Winning lines of 5 matching royals pay 1x the bet, increasing to 2x-5x for hitting 5 matching premium symbols. Wilds substitute for all regular paytable symbols, and pay 5x when five wilds create a winning line.

Dr Zappo: Slot Features

Dr Zappo zaps out EyeBall Wild symbols, Energy Fields, three bonus rounds - Eyeconic, No-Brainer, and It's Electrifying, plus feature buys.

EyeBall Wild Symbols

EyeBall symbols may hit on the bottom row. EyeBalls shoot in one of three directions - up, diagonally left, or diagonally right. Every pay symbol along the path transforms into a wild symbol. Some wilds may reveal an additive multiplier of x2 to x200. If an EyeBall shoots an existing wild, that wild gains a multiplier. If the wild already has a multiplier, a new value is added to increase it. EyeBalls convert to wilds after activating. When more than one Wild Multiplier is part of the same win, their values are added together before being used.

Energy Fields

There are three Energy Fields located at the left, top, and right edges of the grid. If an activated EyeBall hits an Energy Field, the EyeBall bounces off it and continues in another direction at the same angle, transforming pay symbols into wilds on its path. When an EyeBall hits an Energy Field straight on, it bounces back the way it came from, adding multiplier values to the transformed wild symbols. If an EyeBall hits an EyeBall, it adds a multiplier.

Free Spins

• Eyeconic Bonus - Landing 3 scatters in the base game triggers 10 free spins. This bonus keeps the base game mechanics but has an increased chance of landing EyeBall symbols. In this feature and the next, landing 2 or 3 scatters awards an extra +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.
• No-Brainer Bonus - Triggered by landing 4 scatters in the base game, and 10 free spins are awarded. It has the same mechanics as Eyeconic, with the addition that each activated EyeBall shoots in two different directions.
• It's Electrifying Hidden Epic Bonus - Landing 5 scatters in the base game activates 10 free spins. This round is the same as No-Brainer, plus at least 1 EyeBall will land on every spin. Scatters do not land in this feature.

Feature Buys

From the feature buy, players can activate BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 3x the bet to make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game, or ZigZag Zappo FeatureSpins costing 100x to guarantee at least 2 EyeBall symbols land. Eyeconic costs 50x to buy while No-Brainer costs 200x the bet.

Dr Zappo: Slot Verdict

Dr Zappo might be a dab hand at cooking up scientific oddities in his workshop, but he's not so adept at cooking up new gameplay. Anyone who's spent time with Jaws of Justice will clock the bouncing beam mechanic within seconds, and no amount of eyeball puns or Futurama/Rick and Morty-adjacent artwork changes the fact that this is basically a reskin with little that's new to offer beyond the outer shell. That's not necessarily the worst thing ever since Jaws of Justice's ricocheting mechanic was a blast the first time around, and that thrill hasn't evaporated just because the skin is different. Hacksaw Gaming has a crowd-pleaser on its hands and isn't fixing what wasn't broken, even if this causes some members of the gambling public to roll their eyes back at yet another Hacksaw Gaming redo.

Something different is the lowered volatility, which might be preferred by players who favour less volatile grinds, perhaps. Free spins bonus buys are cheaper, too. Another interesting change is the way all of the pay symbols are worth significantly less than what they were in the previous game, even if the RTP is slightly higher. Essentially, this is basically the same game, though, meaning some excellent wild transformation action is on the cards, big possible multipliers, capped by the shoot-in-two-ways insanity of the upper two bonus rounds. It's a sturdy formula, and it's not a major shock to see Hacksaw Gaming use it again, but it's a little sad the studio chose not to augment the original's flow with an innovative tweak or two.

All in all, Dr Zappo is a fun game, as the studio has combined a potentially thrilling set of features with a wackily designed theme which oozes character. Dr Zappo is an entertaining package with a 10,000x max win, an appealing theme and enjoyable mechanics, even if originality is not its strongest suit. No doubt some players will be disappointed to see the studio make another reskin, but on the brighter side, there is entertainment to be had here if you can look past the repetition to the electrifying things Dr Zappo is able to pull out of its laboratory.