Meet Smokey Le Bandit, the cartoon villain from Burt Reynolds and Sally Field’s action movie Smokey and the Bandit. Smokey, a raccoon, stars in Hacksaw Gaming’s Le Bandit online slot. According to the game description, Smokey ‘won’t hesitate to fleece you for everything you’re worth by utilizing every trick in the book and then some!’ However, Smokey may be ‘persuaded to share part of his ill-gotten earnings’ if you win him over. This can happen with Super Cascades, Golden Squares, and three bonus rounds: Luck Of The Bandit, All That Glitters Is Gold, and Treasure At The End Of The Rainbow.
Le Bandit takes place in a sepia-lit backstreet where a 6×5 game panel stands next to Smokey, who may not seem friendly. He appears like he’s preparing to do something bad with a crowbar, twirly moustache, and clinched fists, yet he occasionally cheers up. The game’s title and visuals suggest we’ve traveled back in time to France’s past. The 1948-released Polaroid camera FS sign throws a wrench in the works, yet wherever we are is amusingly portrayed with an edge.
Hacksaw Gaming’s math model isn’t as risky as others, with medium volatility (3 out of 5) and a 96.34% RTP. Le Bandit hits 32.47% of the time at the preset RTP and wins when 5 or more matching symbols appear anywhere on the game grid. Le Bandit’s Super Cascade winnings algorithm removes all ordinary paying symbols of the same kind as the winning symbols when a cluster occurs, and fresh symbols drop down to fill the holes. Stakes range from 10 p/c to £/€100, and the main purchase menu offers four possibilities.
Ten regular-paying symbols may appear on Le Bandit’s grid. Highs include a trap, cheese, mug of beer, bag of baguettes, and top hat, while lows are 10 to A card rankings. Hitting a 5 OAK cluster pays 0.1 to 1 times the stake, and 13+ clusters pay 15 to 100 times. Wild reward posters can replace any pay sign.
Le Bandit Slot Features
Le Bandit offers Super Cascades, Golden Squares, special symbols, three bonus rounds, and bonus buys.
Golden Squares
Golden Squares appear behind winning symbols after a successful combination. Rainbow symbols trigger Golden Squares after all winning combinations. Activated Golden Squares can reveal Pot of Gold or Four-Leaf Clover symbols and Bronze, Silver, or Gold Coins. All coins are bet multipliers. Bronze coins are worth 0.2x, 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x, or 4x. Silver coins have values of 5x, 10x, 15x, or 20x, while gold coins have values of 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x, or 500x. Any Four-Leaf Clover symbols activate after all Coins and special symbols are exposed, multiplying Coins and Pot of Gold symbols on neighboring squares with values of x2, x3, x4, x5, or x10.
After Four-Leaf Clovers, Pot of Gold symbols aggregate all Coin values and other Pots of Gold symbols and store the overall value. After the last Pot of Gold activates, all Golden Squares activate again, exposing new symbols, repeating until no new Pot emerges. All Coins and Pot of Gold symbols then reveal their values. Golden Squares are deleted.
Bandit Luck
This bonus awards 8 free spins for 3 FS scatters in the basic game. All Golden Squares are highlighted between spins until Rainbow symbols trigger them in this bonus. 2 and 3 FS scatters provide +2 and 4 free spins, respectively. 4 FS scatters upgrade the bonus to All That Glitters Is Gold and add 4 free spins.
The Glitters Are Gold
Find 4 FS scatters in the basic game to trigger this bonus and win 12 free spins. All Golden Squares are highlighted throughout this round, even after activation. 2 and 3 FS scatters provide +2 and 4 free spins, respectively.
Treasure at Rainbow End
Getting 5 FS icons in the base game awards 12 free spins. After activating this bonus, all Golden Squares remain highlighted until the finish, and a Rainbow symbol hits on every spin. Bronze Coins are absent from this feature.
Bonus Buy
Players can enable these modes/features with the extra purchase. The first is very volatile, the remainder mild.
BonusHunt FeatureSpins – 3x the wager, 5x the chance of a bonus game every spin. RTP 96.28%.
Rainbow FeatureSpins – 50x the wager, guaranteed Rainbow symbols on every spin. RTP 96.36%.
Luck Of The Bandit—100x stake for 8 free spins. RTP 96.3%.
All That Glitters Is Gold: 250x bet for 12 free spins. RTP 96.4%.
Le Bandit Slot Verdict
Hacksaw Gaming’s latest slot offers fresh methods to win money. Push Gaming, Slotmill, and Pragmatic Play have made coin win features popular, and Le Bandit’s innovative approach of placing them on the board and adding special symbols is worth a look for coin aficionados. The colorful urban animal RIP City/retro Disney aesthetic and the feisty racoon with his speech bubble jokes make Le Bandit memorable and playable.
Playable cluster-paying slots like Le Bandit perform best on big rolls. That applies to most of them, but nonetheless. In contrast to typical cluster games, this doesn’t involve collecting winning symbols in a meter and injecting grid features at predefined collection spots. The aim is to cover the reels with Golden Squares, activated by a Rainbow symbol. Lock yourself in a Pot of Gold collection loop with certain multipliers. Le Bandit can win up to 10,000x the stake at full capacity, and while it was medium volatility, it seemed swingy at times.
Le Bandit may be an Irish-themed slot due of Smokey’s disguises and emblems. If so, not many Irish/leprechaun slots look like this. Or plays like this. For a novel theme and gameplay, Le Bandit may be the rascally racoon-populated slot you never knew you wanted.