Le Bunny

Le Bunny: Slot Overview

Whisper the word 'Le' in a gambler's ear and the reaction might vary from a frisson of delight at another Smokey Le Bandit outing, to dread at having to wade through yet another one of these things. Fair warning right off the bat, Le Bunny leans closer to the second reaction on account of it being a reskin of the neon Vegas edition, Le King. That means jackpots bolstering the infamous Golden Squares feature, while Smoky goes about being Smoky, in an unusual Easter/witchy environment.

The theme is a little all over the place, though the overriding concept is Easter. Bunnies, sweets, springtime in general, abounds. However, when the Spell of Luck bonus round triggers, the game takes on a sort of Halloween vibe, displaying a dripping witch's hat, cauldron and skull. Anyone know what's happening there? What's clear is that Smokey has dressed up as a rabbit as he skulks about, scowling from his corner of the screen. It's a bit patchy, but Hacksaw Gaming didn't bother to invent any new gameplay for Le Bunny, so it stands to reason the studio isn't going to toss away its best thematic ideas on it.

Le Bunny is a cluster pays slot, played on a 6x5 gaming grid. When 5 or more matching symbols are connected to each other, a winning combination is formed. Winning symbols and other non-winning symbols of the same type vanish, and symbols drop down, filling the gaps, providing another chance to win. Le Bunny is medium volatile, where betting $/€0.10 to $/€50 has an RTP of 96.14% on the highest setting.

Eggshell-ish looking 10-A card ranks are Le Bunny's low pays, awarding 0.5x to 1x the bet for a 12+ OAK winning combination. Higher value flowers, sweets, chickens, chicks, and bunnies can land, awarding 3x to 25x the stake for 12+ OAK. Wilds substitute all symbols on the paytable.

Le Bunny: Slot Features

Le Bunny's basket of goodies contains Golden Squares, jackpots, three bonus rounds, and feature buys.

Golden Squares

When a winning combination occurs, the positions behind the winning symbols are highlighted as Golden Squares. If a Rainbow symbol is in view, it activates the Golden Squares after wins have paid. Activated Golden Squares reveal special symbols - Bronze, Silver, or Gold Coins, Baskets, Green or Gold Clovers, or Jackpot Eggs.

Coins are cash prizes. Bronze Coins are worth 0.2x-4x, Silver Coins 5x-20x, and Gold Coins 25x-500x. The Green Clover symbols multiply adjacent Coins or existing Basket symbols by x2 to x20, while Gold Clovers multiply all Coins and existing Basket symbols on the grid by x2 to x20. After Clovers, Baskets trigger by collecting the values of all Coins and other Baskets, storing the value. Following the last Basket, all other Golden Squares activate again, revealing new special symbols, and the process repeats.

Jackpots

Jackpot Eggs can land on the reels or be revealed by Golden Squares. Landed Jackpot Eggs activate if a Rainbow also landed, or they activate when revealed in a Golden Square. Possible prizes are the Mini, Major, Mega, and Max Win, worth 10x, 100x, 1,000x, and 20,000x the bet, respectively.

Free Spins

• Spell of Luck Bonus Game - Landing 3 scatters in the main game triggers the Spell of Lucky bonus with 10 free spins. It uses the base game mechanics, plus Golden Squares remain on the reels until a Rainbow symbol activates them. The minimum Coin value is 1x. Landing 2 or 3 scatters in all bonus rounds awards an extra +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.
• Swiping the Streets Bonus Game - Hitting 4 scatters in the base game triggers 10 free spins in the Swiping the Streets round. On top of Spell of Luck's mechanics, Golden Squares stick to the reels till the round ends, even when being activated.
• Rainbow Riches Hidden Epic Bonus - Activating this feature's 10 free spins occurs when landing 5 scatters in the main game. It is the same as Swiping the Streets except every spin guarantees one Rainbow symbol, and Coins are always Silver or Gold.

Feature Buys

Le Bunny has four feature buys players may choose from. BonusHunt FeatureSpins cost 3x to make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game, whereas 60x buys RainbowCatching FeatureSpins, which guarantee at least one win and one Rainbow symbol on each spin. The two non-hidden bonus rounds can be bought. Spell of Luck for 80x or Swiping the Streets for 250x the stake.

Le Bunny: Slot Verdict

Le Bunny feels like it might either be the Golden Squared Easter delight players savour as they're gorging themselves on chocolate, or the Le reskin that broke the camel's back. There is a middle ground, of course, where the game evokes nothing more than ambivalence towards yet another Le slot hitting the shelves. Negative emotions arise due to both the sheer number of these games now and the fact that Le Bunny has nothing new to offer, being a remake of Le King, which, fair dues, was a decent slot, but it did what it did fine on its own, no reskin required. Hacksaw Gaming has hitched itself tightly to the Le range, which again, excellent series, but it is one that is veering perilously into diminishing returns territory the longer it drags out.

Not so much when a new release does something wild with the formula. Le Bunny, sadly, does not. On the bright side, Golden Squares perform as well as ever, revealing the gamut of special symbols, from Coins, Clovers, Baskets to Jackpot Eggs. The collection and repeat effect could be thrilling and is one of the main contributors to the Le series' persistence. This one has jackpots too, which isn't a common feature in a Le slot, with 20,000x (the max win), a substantial figure to pin dreams on. But again, since it's all a repeat, the excitement levels weren't churning as hard as they were the first time around.

With that, Hacksaw Gaming has thrown another Le slot on the pile. It does what it does just fine and cloning slots for holiday releases has been a thing in the industry for years, but this total repeat action also means Le Bunny is one of the least unmissable releases in the range while also being near impossible to give a meaningful rating.