The Bowery Boys

Theme and Design

I love the darker, edgier Hacksaw Gaming slots – their moodiest games like Hand of Anubis or Rotten create brilliant atmosphere and The Bowery Boys is similarly grim. Under a full moon and skittish clouds we find the 6×5 reel set against the backdrop of a back alley populated by silhouettes and slumped drunks, or in the bonus rounds a dark cellar corridor with boxes of explosives lying around.

Meanwhile the paytable is filled with dangerous looking gang members wielding frightening weapons. The result is an intriguing combination of danger, romance and crime. The game could have benefited from a more compelling soundtrack - its sparse to say the least - but still its very well produced.

RTP and Variance

The Bowery Boys has five available RTP settings at 96.41%, 94.35%, 92.19% or 88.45%. Which you play at is at the discretion of your casino. We have verified the RTP of this game at five UK slot sites. This is what we found:

• Casumo (independent) – 94.3% RTP
• BacanaPlay (Skill on Net) – 94.3% RTP
• Barz Casino (White Hat Gaming) – 94.3% RTP
• MrQ (Independent) – 96.41% RTP
• All British Casino (L and L Europe) –94.3% RTP

For The Bowery Boys MrQ offers the best return on your wagering and if RTP is important to you then we recommend that you play there.

The Bowery Boys is a high variance slot from a developer who specialise in this kind of game with slots like Itero and Outlaws Inc also in their back catalogue. The win distribution will be unpredictable but it has the potential to drop some thrilling win sequences from time to time.

Maximum Win

The top payout in The Bowery Boys is 10,000x. This is good and in line with most Hacksaw Gaming high risk slots. However, if you want bigger potential there are much greater prizes on offer out there. Check our list of the highest max win slots for games with payouts of 100,000x and more.

Symbols and Paytable

The Bowery Boys is a Scatter Pays slot which means wins are triggered by landing 8 or more identical symbols ANYWHERE on the reels. There are NO paylines. Other Scatter Pays slots include Bee Hive Bonanza and Wisdom of Athena by Pragmatic Play.

As far as the paytable goes, you will need to land high numbers of identical symbols to score any significant wins in the game BUT typically for a Hacksaw Gaming slot there are plenty of high value multipliers to help boost those payouts.

Low value icons are represented by the cards 10 through to Ace which deliver payouts of between 0.1x to 20x for up to 15 matched symbols on the reels. The premium symbols are a dubious man with a moustache, a lady holding a bomb, a fight scene, a gun, canoodling couple, strongbox, gold key, bonus symbols and high cards. These nicely-drawn picture symbols can award from 1x to 100x your bet for 8–15 of a kind.

There is also a powder keg symbol which acts as the Wild, substituting for all the other symbols in the game to complete winning spins.

Features and Gameplay

What I love about Hacksaw Gaming is that this studio are no shirkers when it comes to producing interesting and original features in their games. The Bowery Boys does not disappoint in this regard and there are more than a few clever and inventive ways to unlock the big wins.

Scatter Pays and Cascading Wins

First up, always remember that this is a Scatter Pays game, so as long as there are 8 or more identical symbols ANYWHERE, you are getting paid!  Alongside this simple payout mechanic are Cascading Wins one – after each win, any winning symbols are removed, and new ones drop in to replace them. If more wins are formed, the process repeats.

Strong Boxes and Blasting Bombs

One of my favourite parts of this game is the STRONGBOXES. They may land anywhere but in a cool twist you will need the KEYS landing anywhere else on the same spin to unlock them. Inside you’ll find multipliers of 2-5x, 10-25x or 50-250x depending on the size of the box.

Blasting Bombs

Just as effective, but not quite as clever is this other way to unleash multiplier action on the reels –BLASTING BOMBS. They reveal 2x to 100x multipliers that combine if two or more are present.

Free Spins Where Strong Boxes Are Stored

The free spins round in The Bowery Boys takes things to another level. It comes in THREE formats set up when 1, 2 or 3 bonus symbols drop onto the reels.

The first is 10 Free Spins with STRONGBOX STORAGE – a clever twist as strongboxes that land without a key aren’t lost, they just go into storage! A key that lands on a later spin will unlock them ALL. I love this - it gives you more chance of capitalising on those multipliers.

Next up is 10 Free Spins with DAISY’S DYNAMITE – Dynamite symbols come with multipliers of 2x to 100x and are placed in the storage box until a detonator lands to unleash them. Multipliers are then applied to your win.

Finally, we get 10 Free Spins with BOWERY SAVINGS BANK – now, after EVERY win during your spins the win value is paid out AND stored in a vault. Any DICE that lands will multiply the total value in the vault from 2x up to 12x. But if a POLICE BADGE lands then a bribe is required to get you off the hook – 10% up to 50% of the total value of the vault. BUT wait … if a DOLLAR SIGN lands, the vault is unlocked and all the accumulated cash is paid out!

This last bit is genius (and potentially cruel as you can lose your stash!) and another illustration of why Hacksaw Gaming are such a popular provider for high variance fans.