Feel the Beat

Feel the Beat: Slot Overview

Reach for the lasers, bruv, cos if 'happiness is when the bass kicks in', then you might be interested in having a burn on Feel the Beat, an online slot from Hacksaw Gaming. Feel the Beat is a dance-heavy slot 'that brings the party to your screen' through a couple of dancing characters, boatloads of neon, and, of course, tunes. Feel the Beat's set of features does look interesting, but just how bangin' the tunes are, we'll leave to the experts to decide.

Feel the Beat is a futuristic slot that could take place in the here and now, but it feels like it is set a few years into the future. Not too many years, though. The impression was of a world where everything is lit up in bright lights, people inhabit towering built-up urban spaces, and running in between the stalls, shops, hawkers, and the general crush of humanity are individuals bent on expressing themselves, having fun, in order to stand out from the crowd in some way. A sort of Beat Saber meets Neuromancer meets a German Cybergoth Rave, with hints of an electronic Chaos Crew vibe. If that sounds up your street, you best be getting ready for some shuffling. Don't like the tune? Clicking on the arrow icons at the top of the reels lets you pick a new song, which is a neat touch.

If further inspiration is needed to get a-grooving, then the two ladies sporting funky masks bopping next to Feel the Beat's 5x5 game grid might do the trick. The grid utilises 27 paylines, paying out when matching symbols land from the leftmost reel onwards over consecutive reels. Rated 4 out of 5, Feel the Beat is a medium-high volatile slot with an RTP of 96.2%, though three lower return models have been designed. Stakes of 10 c to $/€100 may be picked, as can five options from the feature buy menu.

Feel the Beat's pay symbols are J-A card royal lows, 3 pattern symbol mids, then a cat and a mouse icon as the high pays. Hitting a winning line of 5 royals awards 2 times the bet, 9x-18x the bet for the pattern symbols, and 30-40 times the bet for the two highest paying symbols. Wilds are present on all reels. They substitute any regular pay and award 40x the bet for a 5 wild line.

Feel the Beat: Slot Features

Spliced into the feature mix are Speaker symbols, X symbols, Pump Up The Jam! bonus, Get Your Booty On The Floor! bonus, and the feature buy options.

Speaker Symbols

When at least 2 Speaker symbols land on different reels, all winning paylines that connect them are identified, and the Speaker Mechanic activates. For the Speaker Mechanic, all symbols, including wilds, FS symbols, and the Speaker symbols themselves within the winning paylines are replaced with the same type of pay symbol. The Speaker Mechanic only triggers if Speaker symbols are on different reels. If 2 Speaker symbols are on the same reel on a spin that activates the Speaker Mechanic, they fill the vertical gap between them with Speaker symbols to create even more winning paylines. In the base game, the Speaker Mechanic only replaces symbols with pay symbols. If an FS symbol is replaced, it still counts towards triggering a bonus game.

X Symbol

The X symbol activates if there is a win on the grid. When triggered, the X symbol reveals a multiplier of x2 to x200. This multiplier is applied to the total win for the spin. If the X symbol is part of a payline that is replaced by the Speaker Mechanic, it is replaced after revealing its value.

Pump Up the Jam! Bonus

Landing 3 FS symbols in the base game activates this bonus with 10 free spins. During this feature, the mechanics of the base game are more likely to trigger, and the Speaker Mechanic is able to replace symbols with wild symbols. Hitting 2 FS symbols awards +2 free spins, while hitting 3 FS symbols awards +4 free spins.

Get Your Booty On The Floor! Bonus

Landing 4 FS symbols in the base game activates this bonus with 10 free spins. During the Get Your Booty On The Floor! bonus, each time an X symbol hits, it reveals its multiplier value, which is added to the global multiplier. The global multiplier is activated when there is a win and an X symbol on the grid at the same time. When activated, the global multiplier applies to the total win of the spin. The Speaker Mechanic can also replace symbols with wilds. Hitting 2 FS symbols awards +2 free spins, while hitting 3 FS symbols awards +4 free spins.

Buy Bonus

The feature buy menu is where players are able to activate these options:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins – 3x the bet where each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger the bonus game. Very highly volatile, RTP 96.32%.
• Disco Double FeatureSpins – 50x the bet where each spin is guaranteed to land at least 2 Speaker symbols. Replaced symbols can turn into wilds. Very highly volatile, RTP 96.31%.
• Funky Four FeatureSpins – 100x the bet where each spin is guaranteed to land at least 4 Speaker symbols. Replaced symbols can turn into wilds. Extremely volatile, RTP 96.21%.
• Pump Up The Jam! – 100x the bet, very highly volatile, RTP 96.24%.
• Get You Booty On The Floor! – 200x the bet, very highly volatile, RTP 96.3%.

Feel the Beat: Slot Verdict

Hacksaw Gaming is a studio which likes to pepper its slots with characters, aka Benny the Bear, Canny the Can, Le Bandit… the list goes on. Usually, the characters in their games are pretty low-key, content with huffin' 'n' a puffin' up and down on the side of the screen, rubbing their bellies and whatnot. Rarely are they as attention-seeking as they are in Feel the Beat. Some gamblers may be inspired to cut a rug of their own after seeing the ladies bust moves in Feel the Beat; others might find the endless dropping of Fortnite-style dance emotes annoying. Or super entertaining. That's the sort of slot Feel the Beat is. It's your scene, or it ain't, thematically speaking.

As for the theme, Feel the Beat presents new territory for Hacksaw Gaming, though it is kinda related-ish in feel to slots like Vending Machine. The gameplay, however, is classic Hacksaw through and through, meaning potential beatdowns when the flow isn't going your way, pierced by features that can go bananas when the right symbols or symbol combs hit. In Feel the Beat's case, this might mean landing as many Speaker symbols as far apart from each other as possible. Demoing the Funky Four FeatureSpins is a good way of seeing what these symbols are potentially capable of doing, though at 100x the bet for a single spin, it's like buying a bottle of water at an Ibizan nightclub.

If you manage to squeeze a multiplier in there, then all the better. However, multipliers didn't come across as prominent (in some ways) in Feel the Beat as they often can be in a Hacksaw Gaming slot. The values can be high, though (up to x200 on an individual X symbol), which might be useful for hitting Feel the Beat's 10,000x the bet max win, achievable in all game modes. All in all, Feel the Beat's energetic in-your-face presentation won't be to all tastes, but if it is, and you're lucky, brace for a solid beat drop.