Klowns

Klowns: Slot Overview

Clowns have a bizarre way of being able to perform the role of a knee-slapping, humorous doofus, as well as that of a terrifying beast that haunts your dreams and waking moments. Perhaps clowns are a metaphor for humanity as a whole, which can carry out kind, altruistic deeds as well as selfish, hateful ones, and everything in between. For developer Hacksaw Gaming's slot Klowns, the leading characters most definitely lean toward the nastier side of the spectrum, appearing in a scatter-paying slot with multipliers, Needle Boxes, bonus rounds, and buys.

Lester and Jester are the names of the two Klowns lurking menacingly next to the gaming grid while play commences. They really don't look like the sort you'd want to book for a children's birthday party. They're closer to a Pennywise/Art the Clown type, more likely to perform dastardly deeds than make a poodle out of a balloon or squirt water from a fake flower on their lapel. Sinister is the vibe, in other words, though maybe not as spine-tinglingly insidiously so as the dolls and Jack in the Boxes found in Print Studios' slot Dreadworks, which cropped up as a comparison.

Klowns is a scatter pays slot, played on a 6x5 gaming grid, which is a common reel setup for this particular pay mechanic. Winning combinations are formed when 8 or more matching symbols land on the reels in any position. The winning symbols are then popped off the grid, and symbols drift upwards to fill any gaps, creating another chance to win. Multiple wins on the same spin are possible as the tumbling feature repeats itself until no new win appears. Medium volatile, players may wager 10 c to $/€100 per spin and get an RTP of 96.26% at the most, with lower return values possible.

Pay symbols in Klowns are split into high and low groups, and each group is linked to a specific Needle Box. All are balloons, and the low pays are shaped as 10 to A card rank symbols, while the high pays are a diamond, a star, a sad face, a happy face, and a heart. Scatter wins of 8-of-a-kind are worth 0.1x to 1x, rising to 10x to 50x for 16+ OAK. Klowns is a scatter wins slot that doesn't have wild symbols in it.

Klowns: Slot Features

The features in Klowns are its Needle Boxes, Klown Multipliers, Lester's Cash Carousel bonus, Jester's Jackpot bonus, and bonus buys.

Total Win Bar & Klown Multipliers

All wins get collected in the Total Win Bar by the gaming area. Any activated Klown Multiplier is added to the Total Win Bar at the end of a spin, and the total win is awarded. Klown Multipliers activate at the end of each spin if at least one win occurred. Adding Klown Multipliers have values of x2 to x500, which is added to the current multiplier in the Total Win Bar when activated. Multiplying Klown Multipliers have values of x2 to x20, which multiplies the current multiplier in the Total Win Bar when activated.

Needle Boxes

Needle Boxes activate when they land, and wins have been awarded. They trigger a grid clear that removes symbols according to the type of Needle Box. Low Symbol Needle Boxes remove the low pays symbols, awarding 0.1x the bet per removed symbol. High Symbol Needle Boxes remove the high pay symbols, awarding 0.5x the bet per removed symbol.

Lester's Cash Carousel

Landing 3 FS scatters triggers 10 Lester's Cash Carousel free spins. This bonus has the same mechanics as the base game, plus an increased chance of landing high multipliers.

During the feature, all activated multipliers added to the Total Win Bar are also stored in a Bounty Balloon outside the grid. The multiplier value in the Balloon grows until it is popped by landing an Epic Needle Box. Once popped, the stored multiplier amount is added to the Total Win Bar multiplier, and the Balloon respawns, starting the multiplier collection again from zero.

Epic Needle Boxes clear all low and high pay symbols from the grid, combining the effects of Low and High Symbol Needle Boxes with the Bounty Balloon popping. Landing 2 FS symbols awards +2 free spins while landing 3 FS symbols awards a further +4 free spins.

Jester's Jackpot

Hitting 4 FS symbols in the base game awards Jester's Jackpot 10 free spins. This bonus has the same mechanics as Lester's Cash Carousel, with the exception that the Bounty Balloon respawns with the previous multiplier intact rather than starting from zero after it has been popped. It retriggers in the same way as the previous bonus.

Bonus Buy

Klowns' bonus buy area provides players with these four choices: BonusHunt FeatureSpins - 3x the bet. Each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger free spins; Laughing Loot FeatureSpins - 50x the bet. Each spin guarantees a Klown Multiplier and a Needle Box. Epic Needle Boxes can appear, but FS scatter symbols cannot; Lester's Cash Carousel - 70x the bet; Jester's Jackpot - 200x the bet.

Klowns: Slot Verdict

Despite a drastic thematic makeover, on a functional level, Klowns sticks very close to the scatter-paying blueprint laid down by titans of the genre such as Sweet Bonanza and Gates of Olympus. Get 8 or more symbols on the grid at the same time as a multiplier symbol, and cash in. Multiplier symbols didn't hit in great abundance in the base game, but they are present in that phase of play, which is a plus, meaning they are able to surprise at any time. The additive values can be pretty large, too, topping out at 500x, and having multiplicative multipliers is never a bad thing either. The scatter wins, cascades, and multiplier features go on to lay a solid foundation for Klowns to push things in a new direction.

The game does this in part with its Needle Box symbols. They're pretty interesting. Grid clearances not only lead to a symbol cascade and another chance to win, but each individual cleared symbol awards a cash value. Not an immense cash value but every bit helps. Needle Boxes are obviously more valuable in both free spins rounds since they're the key to unlocking the Bounty Balloon and adding its collected multiplier value to the multiplier in the Total Win Bar. Hacksaw Gaming sure knows a thing or two about ramming multipliers into a game, and in Klowns' case, they'd be a big help in potentially hitting the 10,000x win cap.

Scatter-paying slots continue their inexorable march across the gambling landscape, and in Klowns, Hacksaw Gaming has built one that stands on the shoulders of giants while leaning in a somewhat newer, dreadier direction.