Zicke Zacke

Zicke Zacke: Slot Overview

Time to power through a stein or two in honour of Oktoberfest in an online slot from Stakelogic titled Zicke Zacke. In its longer form, the name Zicke Zacke derives from the saying 'Zicke zacke zicke zacke hoi hoi hoi', a boisterous call to raise your glass for a swig. After diving into Oktoberfest lore to work out the meaning of that saying, we came across a number of other great references that crop up at the famous festival. Here's one - 'Schunklen', a dance you don't have to leave your seat for. Simply lock arms with your neighbours and get your groove on by swaying side to side. Handy. Anyway, before diving too deep into the Oktoberfest rabbit hole and winding up drenched, let's flick on Zicke Zacke and see what sort of job it does to get patrons in the mood.

It sure starts off jolly, though much of the jollity is provided by the oompah band soundtrack, which is practically impossible not to grin and tap a toe along to. The visuals are upbeat, as well, though, depicting a traditional German scene of quaint buildings, blue skies, beaming rays of sunlight, kegs, sausages, and of course, the reason many people go to Oktoberfest - beer. Did we mention jolly? It is that, and the buoyant mood Zicke Zacke prompted was more than enough to want to tap the play button to see what the game would serve up next.

The serving occurs on a 5-reel, 4-row game area with 20 fixed paylines. Participants can join the frivolity on any device, picking a suitable stake from 20 p/c to $/€40 per paid game round. Or, if you're in the mood, hitting the Super Stake button doubles the bet while doubling the chance of triggering free spins or the Beer Tower feature in the base game. Medium-high volatile, Zicke Zacke comes with a default return to player figure of 96.2%, though beware of lower versions circling on the market.

Regular symbols pay left to right, starting from the first reel and include nine different tiles. The first five are wooden-made, 10-A card symbols, paying 2.5-5x the bet for a five-of-a-kind winning line. The remaining four are different types of beer mugs or steins, worth 10-50x the bet for a winning line made up of five matching symbols. Wild symbols can help complete combinations by replacing any normal pay symbols and land on all five reels. If wilds create their own wins, they have the same value as the top paying symbol.

Zicke Zacke: Slot Features

Wild symbols are also linked to one of the base game features. When wilds land in a stack on reels 2, 3, or 4 in the base game, they transform into the Beer Tower feature, and 3 respins are awarded. On each respin, the top wild symbol becomes empty, and when all wilds are empty, the feature ends. However, there is a chance the feature randomly retriggers after the third respin, refilling the wilds and adding 3 more respins.

Free Spins with Pick and Click

When 3 or more scatter symbols land, the Pick and Click game triggers. Players pick a coaster to determine what wild feature will be active in free spins – sticky wilds, dropping wilds, or expanding wilds. Hitting 3 scatters awards 8 free spins with sticky wilds, 10 free spins with dropping wilds, or 12 free spins with expanding wilds. If the feature is triggered with 4 or 5 scatters, players win an extra 4 or 10 free spins, respectively.

Sticky wilds remain fixed to the reels when they land until the end of the feature, dropping wilds fall down one position on each spin before falling off, and expanding wilds expand to fill the reel they land on. Also, in free spins, when the Collector Symbol lands, it is collected on the Collection Bar. Each time 4 Collector Symbols are collected, +5 free spins are awarded, and the win multiplier increases to the next step. If the win multiplier gets to x20, the Collection Bar no longer fills up.

Buy Bonus

Where available, the feature buy menu lets players buy 8-12, 12-16, or 18-22 free spins for 100, 200, or 400 times the bet, respectively. The fourth option costs 125x and provides a chance of winning one of the three previous options.

Zicke Zacke: Slot Verdict

So did Zicke Zacke make us want to fill a few steins and get all rowdy at a virtual festival? Kind of, yeah. When making an Oktoberfest-themed game, developers have some really great material to work with. From the beverages, the traditional dress, the food, the banging oompah tunes, and the general good cheer, it's no wonder millions of people turn up to Munich each year to join in the festivities. Stakelogic has successfully bottled a healthy measure of the Oktoberfest cheer in its game, so players looking for a taste of d'Wiesn on the reels, get that in Zicke Zacke.

The action is pretty lively as well, and for us at least, it was even more so with the Super Stake button engaged. Super Stake doubles the bet, but when activated, free spins did seem to trigger quite often, though we might have had luck on our side. Having three random wild features to win for the bonus round provided some variety as well. None are particularly innovative features; well, they're not innovative at all, though sticky wilds can do good things, as can expanding wilds, with dropping wilds arguably the least exciting during the review. The Beer Tower feature wasn't bad either, and occasionally, more than one Tower would be awarded at once, typically on reels 2 and 4. The results weren't especially spectacular but it was a welcome addition to the base game, like snacking on a brezen until the Schwienshaxe arrives.

On the broader xylophone line-up of online slots, Zicke Zacke might be pretty average and there are slightly better alternatives out there such as Helga Goes Wild, but it has its uses. Specifically, anyone looking for a bright, cheery, Oktoberfest slot packed with familiar sights and sounds, as well as a trio of wild free spin features to go with them, shouldn't struggle to find satiation in Zicke Zacke.