Cubes

Hacksaw Gaming, a slot developer based out of Malta, has brought out yet another slot, Cubes, in order to increasing expand their ever-growing gaming portfolio. Originally starting out as a company who created online scratch cards, Hacksaw Gaming made the leap and began to produce brilliant, usually simplistic, slots, debuting with Stick ‘Em, a pleasing slot for the player. Since the Hacksaw has gone on to develop some of the largest slots in the gambling world to date, producing some of the best fixed jackpots there is.

Cubes Overview

Continuing the simplistic approach, Hacksaw Gaming brings us Cubes, a minimalist’s dream, with stripped back graphics and persuasive gameplay. The end result will not appeal to all players, however, with it’s unique qualities, this slot has the potential to fill the void left by over-the-top slots and designs we see today.

Design and impressions

The first impressions of this slot is unique. If you sit back and imagine Tetris having a child with the Rubik’s Cube, you couldn’t be far wrong. Sitting against a greyed background that occasionally lights up a bright white, we see a grid of 5 reels and 5 rows with plain coloured squares. Alongside these plain visuals is a relaxing soundtrack of tribal beats, which we think is rather soothing to the ears. If you close your eyes as you load the home screen, you could easily imagine a guy in dreads, tapping his steel pan drum. Hitting spin on the reels will set the grid in motion, but one thing to note is you cannot really call the spin, a spin. Instead of tumbling or spinning, the 25 blocks on the reels will leap into the air and land on the reels in a rearranged pattern.

Cubes Symbols

If five or more of blocks of the same colour land and can be connected vertically or horizontally, the extra squares are added to the grid, which will expand it to the size of 7 reels and 7 rows. If the original combination increases or new winners land on the reels, the expansion happens again, up to a maximum grid of 11 rows and 11 reels. The chain reactions continue until there are no new clusters or expanding combinations appearing. At this point, wins are paid out, unless you trigger the free spins, but more on this in the features section below.

The symbols used within this slot are the most basic you could find in any slot. There are six variations on the cubes, and these only come in the form of colours: green, yellow, red, light blue, purple and dark blue. All of these symbols have the value of 0.10x when matching five on the reels, and this increases to 40x when 25 or more match. And that’s it for symbols we are afraid. No wilds. No scatters. No bonuses. All done. The symbols is probably the most simplistic thing about this slot, since the features do add some flavour to the gameplay.

Betting

Betting for this slot starts from 20p up to a maximum of £100 per spin, which has become somewhat of a norm in the betting ranges. The slot and math model are particularly enhanced for mobile phones and give the player a medium volatility to play over. The RTP sits comfortably above average at 96.35%, while the hit rate is also theoretically high at 31.94%, but it does not always feel like it is. When we tested it out, there were periods of dead spins which would dishearten us before the action picked up again. At least the soundtrack will relax you during these times.

Features

There are three features for the player to keep an eye out for: Middle Multiplier, Free Spins and Colour Blast! (their exclamation point, not ours, we’d like to add). Each of the spin during the base game will have an ‘X’ on the middle cube and if this cube is part of the winning combination, then a multiplier is added. The number of cubes involved in the win will add an additional +1 to the multiplier, up to a maximum multiplier of x22.

The Free Spins for this slot can be triggered by landing a number of different clusters on the reels in different colours. Whenever a different coloured cluster appears on the gird, one letter for the word ‘CUBES’ lights up above the grid. If you manage to illuminate the entire world, you will be awarded 10 free spins and a random colour. The wins in this colour will become sticky during the free spins; the size of the reels is also sticky and therefore will not reset between your spins.

The final feature of the slot is the Colour Blast! which is only possible for the player to get during the free spins feature. If players are able to get a cluster of 70 cubes or more during the free spins then they will automatically be awarded a prize of 2,500 times the bet.

Conclusion

It’s safe to say with slots like this and similar, Stick ‘Em etc., Hacksaw Gaming are the scratch card guys no more. Cubes in particular shows their team’s knack for developing playable and highly payable slots. A maximum potential win of 3,167 times the bet gives the player something to aim for, and while it’s not the most you could be spinning for, there is plenty of opportunities to win. If you are looking for a multi-million-win potential, head on over to Hacksaw Gaming’s Haunted Circus, which has bigger win potentials, but a less simplistic vibe.

If minimalism is your style, then this is definitely the slot for you, with the plain symbols, no mess features and soothing soundtrack. The wins may not be the £1 million wins you were hoping for, but we’ll settle for the 3,167 times the stake offer that this slot gives us.