Gobstopper Grind

Gobstopper Grind: Slot Overview

There are two types of people in this world. Those who can't help but chew on hard candies and those who keep them in their mouth, sucking away until they melt into sweet nothingness. One of the biggest challenges for forever suckers is the gobstopper, which can last an age in the mouth, dissolves slowly, and is the focus of today's review, Gobstopper Grind. It has been designed by Hacksaw Gaming partner Bullshark Games and serves as a vehicle for the studio to dive deeper into Cell Multiplier ideas the studio has been experimenting with lately, coupling the feature with a scatter paying win mechanic and a fairly unique multiplier Collector.

As is often the case in a Hacksaw family slot, a character joins players on the screen as they attempt to extract sweets and coins. This chap is a gumball machine brought to robotic life, a head full of gobstoppers, and a huge smile plastered on its face. In keeping with the sweet-themed slot tradition, Gobstopper Grind has a cheerful demeanour, though instead of being backgrounded by a candy world fantasy, its base game action takes place downtown, on the street, in front of a sweet shop having a 'Shark Week Special', before moving inside, where the bonus round is surrounded by jars of jaw-breaking items.

Played on a 5x6 grid, Gobstopper Grind is a scatter pays slot that creates a winning combination when 8 or more matching symbols land in any position. Up and down arrows may be clicked to choose a stake of $/€0.10 to $/€100 per base game round. Medium-high volatile, the highest RTP option is 96.27%.

Gobstopper Grind has a cascade feature that removes winning symbols after they pay, then it drops symbols down to refill the reels. Cascades keep triggering as long as new winning combinations appear. The pay symbols it uses are candy-shaped clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts, then four further candy/sweet items. Hitting combinations of 19+ in size pays 20x to 75x the stake.

Gobstopper Grind: Slot Features

Gobstopper Grind uses a classic scatter pays/Cell Multiplier combination in its base game and two bonus rounds, while also landing a special Collector symbol. Four feature buys are also available.

Cell Multipliers

Cell Multipliers increase by +1 when a winning symbol appears in a cell, after wins are calculated. The Cell Multiplier is applied to any win which includes a symbol from that cell. Cell values are added together before being applied when more than one of them is part of the same win. Cell Multipliers progress through cascades but reset with each new base game spin. The maximum Cell Multiplier is x100,000.

Collector Symbol

Any pay symbol can appear as a Collector symbol. When it hits, it collects the values of Cell Multipliers from all adjacent cells and adds them to its cell. Each adjacent cell keeps the collected values.

Candy Haul

Landing 3 scatter symbols triggers 10 free Candy Haul spins. This bonus round keeps the base game mechanics but makes Cell Multipliers progressive till the feature ends. Each landed scatter awards +1 free spin.

Jawbreaker Overload

Hitting 4 scatters triggers this bonus with 10 free spins. It has the same mechanics as Candy Haul, except all Cell Multipliers start at x1.

Feature Buy

Four features may be bought in Gobstopper Grind. BonusHunt FeatureSpins make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus round for 3x, or Grab and Go FeatureSpins at 50x to buy, make all Cell Multipliers start at x1 and guarantee at least one Collector symbol. Candy Haul costs 100x to trigger, or Jawbreaker Overload may be bought for 200x the stake.

Gobstopper Grind: Slot Verdict

Gobstopper Grind continues Bullshark Games' fascination with cell-based multipliers, as the studio's previous release, Junkyard Kings 2, used the same mechanic. Gobstopper Grind is by no means a copy, since it doesn't have the junkyard's suite of wild symbols; in fact, it doesn't have wilds at all and switches from cluster pays to scatter pays as it swaps out Junkyard King 2's scrap metal for high-fructose colouration. Gobstopper Grind joins a lengthening list of slots that use individual Cell Multipliers to power the action, largely kick-started by Pragmatic Play's Sugar Rush 1000, and while much of the gameplay here has a familiar ring to it, Bullshark Games has made sure there are innovative elements to spark players' attentions.

One would be the Collector symbol, and during the review, it was able to collect rather sizable values. Nowhere near x100,000, which feels like overkill in a game with a 10,000x the bet max win cap, but which would certainly be clip-worthy should it ever occur in real life. Outside the Collector, the rest of the gameplay has a satisfying familiarity. Stacking multipliers across Gobstopper Grind's grid is about as exciting here as anywhere else; the way values only increase by +1 is offset by the Collector, and there is a nice fluid feel as wins are cascading. It's not for nothing that the rising multiplier mechanic has proved to be popular in the past, and pairing it with scatter pays is quite novel, even if something like Sweet Rush Bonanza beat them to it.

Add it all together, and Gobstopper Grind drives this brand of gameplay into intriguing new territory, and there's a decent amount of goodness to suck on. Fans of cell growth entertainment should be able to enjoy the twists that Bullshark Games has worked in to help its candy slot deliver a fun and reliable experience built on a proven formula.