Twisted Lab

Twisted Lab Slot Review

Slot Provider: Hacksaw Gaming

RTP: 96.3% | Variance: High | Maximum Win: 15,000x

Our Score: 7.8

Play at Grand Ivy Casino
QUICK LINKS: Game Information | Where To Play | Full Review | Testing Notes | Tips For Players | About The Developer

WHY YOU CAN TRUST THIS REVIEW: The information and opinions on this page are the result of an comprehensive process of information gathering and live game testing by the gambling experts who work at allslotsites.com. Find out more here.

About Twisted Lab

Reviewed by:

Published Date: 14th June 2024

How We Review Slot Games

We test and rate all slot games across 5 criteria, assigning a score out of 10 for each and an overall score that is an average of the 5. To build an accurate assessment of each game we gather information from the supplier and play in real play or demo mode. Find out more.

Twisted Lab is a cartoon slot from Hacksaw Gaming featuring a mad scientist and his pet rat.

The gameplay uses a unique Rotogrid™ feature in which special symbols cause the reels to rotate by 90 degrees, creating second chances to complete winlines. There are also bubbling beakers that release potion that oozes onto other rows to create wild multipliers worth up to 1,000x. And if you’re lucky you’ll make the Twist of the Twisted bonus round, a Hold and Win game stacked with rotating multiplier symbols.

The max win in Twisted Lab is 15,000x and spins start at 10p.

Twisted Lab Game Information

  • Release Date: 27.06.24
  • RTP: 96.3% | 94.2% | 92.18% | 88.23%
  • Variance: High
  • Maximum Win: 15,000x
  • Progressive Jackpot: No
  • Reels: 5
  • Rows: 5
  • Paylines: 19
  • Minimum Stake: £0.10
  • Theme: Cartoon
  • Features: Rotogrid™, Wilds, Multipliers, Free Spins, Hold and Win

Testing Notes: Here’s What Happened When We Played Twisted Lab

IMPORTANT: To give you an accurate assessment of the games we review our writers play 200 spins. Whilst this is a useful tool to help us review games and to give an example of what might happen when you play, keep in mind that 200 spins is only a very small sample and cannot be used to accurately predict what might happen over another 200 spins. The outcome of all slots play is always random.

Boom Or Bust? Our Session By The Numbers

I played 100 spins on Twisted Lab on Hacksaw Gaming’s test server prior to release to test the game. This is what happened.

  • Stake Size: 2
  • Start balance: 5,000
  • End balance: 5,880.20
  • Hit Rate: 34% (34 winning spins in 100)
  • Biggest Win: 914x
  • Free Spins Round: 1

What a lucky session! After just 20 spins the free spins round triggered and the game kicked out a 914x win thanks to a 25x multiplier that spread from a blue potion bottle and a bunch of premium symbols. You can see that in this screenshot.

Big Win in Twisted Lab
On the way to a 914x win in Twisted Lab During Free Spins

The win rate was high too at 34% – that’s 34 spins in 100 producing a win of some kind. Most were very small to be fair, and success is dependent on getting lucky with the multipliers. The Rotogrid™ symbols dropped on 15 occasions – 15% – which felt high too. Overall, the game has a good feel to it. There is a lot going on and rarely a dull moment.

What We Liked

  • Unique and awesome Rotogrid™ spinning grid feature
  • Fun design and theme
  • Cool new way to spread multiplier wilds across the grid
  • Hold and Win round with lots of multiplier potential
  • Play from just 10p

What We Didn't like

  • Tough, high variance game engine
  • Low RTP at some slot sites

Twisted Lab Review Scores

  • Theme and Design 8
  • RTP and Variance 7
  • Maximum Win 8
  • Symbols and Paytable 7
  • Features and Gameplay 9

What Our Reviewer Says ...

"Pure magic from Hacksaw! An ingenious slot with a genuinely new and exciting feature, and of course, a ton of multiplier action!"

Overall Score: 7.8

Theme & Design

Our Score 8

Bionic Rats, Mad Scientists and Splashes of Neon In A Typical Hacksaw Slot

Hacksaw’s take on the mad scientist theme deployed in a few online slots – Dr Toonz for example – is a typically bonkers one. Mr Melker the scientist, and his pet rat, Pat (of course), are mixing potions in a dark underground lab with lots of pipes and bubbling containers all around them. It has a dark cartoon feel,  but splashed with lots of neon colors. The experimental themed is carried through into the actual game design in which the 5×5 grid rotates when special Rotogrid™ symbols drop. Hacksaw are a reliably eccentric bunch and this looks like another top class hit from them.

Twisted Lab by Hacksaw Gaming
Twisted Lab – another wildly eccentric creation from Hacksaw

RTP and Variance

Our Score 7

What is RTP?

RTP (Return to Player) refers to the amount a game will pay out in cash prizes expressed as a percentage of all the money wagered on that game. For example, a 96% RTP means a game will pay out £96 for every £100 wagered. This is an average number and will vary from one session to the next.  Read more here.

What is Variance?

Variance refers to how far a game will deviate from its RTP over time. High variance games deviate a lot and produce uneven win distributions and unexpected windfalls. Low variance games provide a more stable and even distribution of wins. Read more here.

Twisted Lab has 4 RTP rates – 96.3%, 94.2%, 92.18% and 88.23%. Your casino operator may choose to run the game at any of these RTP settings. Beware, some will go for 88.23% to improve their house edge and that reduces your chances of coming away cash positive. Always check the RTP where you play to make sure you are getting value for money on your wagering. Just check the game info screen when you load up Twisted Lab to find out what rate you are playing at.

I recommend MrQ from Lindar Media which consistently runs Hacksaw slots at the maximum RTP rates.

This is one of Hacksaw’s high variance games. The studio is known for their volatile output like Hand of Anubis and 2 Wild 2 Die, so expect it to be a tight play though it can kick out some big wins from time to time too.

Maximum Win

Our Score 8

What Is Maximum Win?

Maximum win refers to the maximum amount a player can win from one spin. It is expressed as a multiple of the stake. For example, where the maximum win is 100,000x, from a £1 stake, the maximum win would be £100,000.  

Recently Hacksaw have been pushing the potential of their slots up a notch. They used to cap most at 10,000x but on this occasion the top payout is 15,000x. That’s still a long way short of games by rivals like Push or Nolimit City, but a decent figure to aim for nonetheless.

Symbols and Paytable

Our Score 7

Good Value In The Paytable Can Be Extended With Huge Multipliers

Twisted Lab is played on a 5×5 grid with 19 paylines to win across. Wins are scored by landing 3 or more symbols on a line from left to right, starting at the left most reel.

Twisted Lab Paytable
The paytable with 20x for 5 top paying beakers

There are 8 standard pay symbols in the game plus 3 special Oozing Beaker symbols. The 8 standard symbols are the feather, leaf, egg, mushroom, tentacle, eye, teeth and brain. Their values range from 0.2x for 3 feathers up to 10x for 5 brains.

The 3 special Oozing Beaker symbols are in purple, blue and pink. They have extra powers described below but they also pay out 20x each if 5 land on a payline.

Features and Gameplay

Our Score 9

The gameplay in Twisted Lab might sound complex at first but in fact it’s very easy to follow. It didn’t take me long go understand what was happening when I tested the game. The main thing to look out for – aside from grid rotations – is the ooze that spills and spreads powerful multiplier wilds across the grid.

Here is how it all works:

Rotogrid™ – Spinning Grid Unlocks More Chances To Win

The Rotogrid™ is Hacksaw’s own unique invention. It is a feature triggered by landing the Rotogrid™ symbol in yellow and grey ANYWHERE on the grid. When it lands it will carry a charge of between 1 and 4 that causes the entire grid to rotate 90 degrees between 1 and 4 times.

A Rotogrid ™ symbol in Twisted Lab
A Rotogrid™ symbol with 4 charges triggers 4 rotations of the grid

What does this do? With each rotation the chance to create left to right paylines recurs. What was bottom to top becomes left to right for example. With each rotation payouts are made for paylines completed before the next rotation occurs.

Oozing Beakers Transform Pay Symbols Into Multiplier Wilds

This part is genius!

Watch those high-paying beaker symbols. When one is visible during a rotation all its liquid is spilled and oozes to the bottom of the grid. Positions covered by ooze during the process are turned into wilds that substitute for pay symbols to complete lines.

Spreading Wilds in Twisted Lab
A beaker spreads its ooze over the reels to make wild multipliers

Now, this being a Hacksaw slot there are of course multipliers to look out for too. These are only active when the pink or blue beakers spill their ooze. The blue beakers will add 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x or 100x to the wilds they create. The pink ones will add 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x or 10x multipliers to their wilds.

And that’s not all. In this game, ooze can land on ooze! When this happens, multipliers are added together and applied to ALL wilds on the reel.

Two Free Spins Rounds

The free spins rounds are triggered by landing special FS bonus symbols. There are two bonus rounds.

Unleash The Ooze

The first free spins round is triggered by landing 3 FS symbols. You get 10 spins where the odds of landing FS symbols, oozing beakers and Rotogrid™ symbols is higher.

Unleash The Ooze Free Spins Round
The Unleash The Ooze Free Spins Round Triggers

The Twist Of The Twisted 

This bonus is unlike anything you have seen before. There are elements of Hold and Win, but in truth it’s a unique format.

Twist of the Twisted plays on the same 5×5 grid but now ONLY Blue Twisters, Pink Twisters, Collect Symbols, Rotogrid™ or non-paying symbols appear. Non payers are a fish skeleton, cat skull, apple core and birds skull.

But the important symbols are the twisters. Each one is a box shape with 4 multipliers displayed – one on each side. The one at the top is active, so when the grid rotates, a new one moves to the top and becomes the active one.

Possible multiplier values are 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x or 1,000x.

So what’s the difference between Blue and Pink twisters? The blue ones only rotate with a Rotogrid™ event, whilst pink rotate with EVERY spin AND Rotogrid™ events.

Twist of the Twisted Bonus Round
The Twist of the Twisted Round – current multiplier total displayed above the grid

And when do the multipliers pay out? Here’s how … Remember that Collect symbol? When it lands, it collects up the value of ALL active multipliers. Twisters stay on the grid until either they are collected or the whole round ends.

This bonus feature keeps playing until either 3 spins go by where no Twisters or Collects land OR you hit max win. There is a spin counter next to the reels to show how many spins you have left.

And finally, when the round ends, all multiplier values are added or multiplied, one reel at a time from top to bottom and left to right across the grid. Whatever the total is will be multiplied by your stake to give you the final win value.

And that’s it!

The Final Verdict

This game is just awesome all over, and it could only have come from Hacksaw. Every slot provider wants to create unique ways to trigger winning events on the reels, but rarely do they come up with anything as original as this. The rotation is a brilliant idea and surely it won’t be long before we see it again. Not only does it find new win lines form the same spin but it is also the trigger for this games other great feature – spreading multiplier wilds. Hacksaw have used those before, but not like this with so much potential for adding and multiplying them to thrilling affect. Whether you are a Hacksaw fan or not I would advise you to give Twisted Lab a try. It’s one of the most inventive games of the year so far.

Useful Tips When Playing Twisted Lab

Remember, online slots are games of chance, there is NO strategy that can improve your odds of winning. However, reading our review and following these tips will help you get the most out of your time playing this slot game.

1. Watch For Rotogrid™ Symbols

The Rotogrid™ gives you a second chance to complete paylines AND set those beakers going. They are powerful symbols in the game.

2. Try To Land FOUR FS Symbols

The best phase of the game is the Twist of the Twisted feature. You need FOUR FS symbols to unlock it and once in there are lots of multipliers available and the chance to build huge wins.

3. Check The RTP Wherever You Play

In the UK now many slot sites are running games at less than optimum RTP. Don’t be caught out. You can check the RTP on the game rules page. Our advice: if it’s less than 94%, try elsewhere.

4. Play At Our Recommended Slot Sites

We have chosen the sites on this page because they all scored high in our reviews and they are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. That makes them fair and safe places to play slots.

Who Made Twisted Lab?

  • Name: Hacksaw Gaming
  • Established: 2018
  • UK License: 54059
  • Total Games: 50 +
  • Known For: Dark, high variance output and bonus rounds driven by combining multipliers
  • Popular Slots: Hand of Anubis, Itero, Gladiator Legends, Break Bones
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