Spinman  (Bigwinboard.com)

Spinman: Slot Overview

When factoring in the likes of Marvel, DC, and all the other outfits producing comic books, there are a lot of superheroes keeping the world safe. So many in fact, it's amazing there are any baddies left to fight. Well, in case we needed more heroes in capes, here is one from developer Hacksaw Gaming, fighting crime in a luckless city 'where the Villains of Misfortune hold the reels hostage'. His name is Spinman, and he pops justice on the reels with the aid of three bonus rounds, one a Hidden Epic Bonus round, and expanding, multiplying wild symbols, a feature Hacksaw Gaming can't seem to resist.

The mighty Spinman hovers on the right side of the screen, looking a little like a neon green and grey version of Prowler from Spiderman. Modern comic books might be riots of colour, but Spinman goes in the opposite direction, being a largely monochrome noir-hued escapade that uses pay symbols to splash brighter colours on the grid. Extra colour is injected when higher bonus rounds trigger, too, but dark mystery appears to be Spinman's preferred MO.

It would appear that Spinman is available with two math models, one rated 2 out of 5 for volatility, the other 4 out of 5. The highest RTP is the same for both at 96.23%, though the hit frequency differs from 38.95% to 46.88%. Players can stake 10 c to $/€100 to get the 5x4 gaming area moving, and there are 14 paylines evaluating winning combinations left to right from the leftmost reel.

Black and white 10-A card ranks are joined by colourful masks, shields, happy faces, fists, and BOOMs as the high-paying symbols. Royal 5 OAK wins pay 0.5x to 1x the bet, increasing to 1.5x to 10x the bet for lines of 5 matching premiums. Spinman is wild, substituting for any of the regular paying symbols. Five wilds in a line pay 10 times the bet.

Spinman: Slot Features

Tucked away in his tights or cape or somewhere, Spinman's features are multiplying Wild Justice Reels, three bonus rounds - Power Surge, Spinfinity, and Reel Heroes, and feature buys.

Justice Reels

When a Spinman symbol hits, it expands to form a Wild Justice Reel if the expanded symbol would be part of a winning combination. When the Justice Reel expands, it triggers a Booster Wheel, which spins to land on a multiplier or the Max Win, which is awarded instantly. Possible multipliers range from x2 to x500, which gets applied to the entire Justice Reel.

Power Surge Bonus Game

10 Power Surge free spins are awarded by landing 3 FS scatters in the base game. This bonus round has a greater chance of landing Spinman symbols. In all bonus rounds, players win +2 or +4 free spins when landing 2 or 3 FS scatters, respectively.

Spinfinity Bonus Game

10 free spins Spinfinity free spins are awarded when 4 FS scatters hit in the base game. This feature guarantees at least one Spinman symbol landing on each free spin.

Reel Heroes Hidden Epic Bonus Round

Triggered by landing 5 FS scatters in the base game, players get 10 Reel Herpes Hidden Epic free spins. At least two Spinman symbols land on each spin, and the multipliers on the Booster Wheels are all a minimum of x5.

Bonus Buy

Activating BonusHunt Feature spins costs 3x the bet to make each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. Heroic FeatureSpins cost 50x and guarantee that at least two Spinman symbols land. Lastly, two bonus rounds may be bought - Power Surge for 90x or Spinfinity for 200x.

Spinman: Slot Verdict

It was hard not to shake the feeling Spinman was created as much to hit production numbers as anything else. Whilst a fine game and all, it lacked a burning white spark of Hacksaw Gaming ingenuity to make it anything really special. On the features side, Spinman relies on expanding wild symbols with multipliers that the studio just loves to stuff in its games. Prior slots that use a form of this feature are numerous in number, and by the looks of things, the list is only getting larger. The Multiplier Wheel element is somewhat different, but it's just a fancy way of generating a multiplier value. The only slight major eye-opening element was the chance of striking the max win straight from a wheel, which isn't something Hacksaw Gaming does much, although it's been seen previously in SixSixSix.

The max win number itself is an attractive 10,000x the bet, so no issue with Spinman's payout potential. As always, full reel wilds with additive multiplier values are a powerful feature in any slot, and are so here. They're technically available in ascending order, from the randomness of the base game to a greater chance of getting them in the Power Surge to guaranteed to get them in the two latter bonus rounds, though full potential can be achieved in any phase. Another technique Hacksaw Gaming seems to be employing with greater regularity is the Hidden Epic Bonus that, like in Pray for Three or Le Bandit, can only be organically triggered and not bought. It adds a little something for players who prefer to grind their way through the base game on a 5 scatter hunt rather than fork out for them.

And so, Spinman turned out to be an enjoyable slot, capable of blasting off with reliable features, but it wasn't the most exciting thing Hacksaw Gaming has ever produced on account of feeling like the studio cobbled it together out of old parts rather than choose to make something crazy innovative.