When I hear the phrase ‘Keep ‘em Cool’, I immediately think of a four-pack of premium lagers that urgently need to make their way into the fridge. That’s not what Hacksaw Gaming has on their mind, however – the developer’s new Keep ‘em Cool online slot is set somewhere in the tropics, where that term could just as easily be referring to keeping yourself cool as putting the cocktails on ice! This is a grid slot, meaning there are no traditional paylines or payways – instead, wins are awarded for hitting clusters of five or more matching symbols in adjacent positions. The RTP stands at 96.19% for regular play but does increase slightly if the bonus bet or bonus buy facilities are employed. The maximum win is 5,000x the player’s stake.
Hacksaw is a true master of creating unique and innovative features to build into their games, so it’s always interesting to see what they come up with. Of course, we’ve all seen ‘avalanche’, rolling, or cascading reels before, but Keep’em cool adds a new twist to the established mechanic by including ‘frozen symbols’, which remain in place when winning combinations are removed. Special symbols, including a blender and a cocktail glass, are used to activate modifiers, and there’s also a ‘sunset picnic’ free spins mode where the modifiers trigger much more frequently than they do during the base game. Hacksaw’s trademark ‘feature spins’ bonus bet makes an appearance, too, alongside a bonus buy facility that costs 100x the normal price per spin.
I sure could use a holiday right now. There’s not much chance of that, though, so I guess our free demo slot of Keep’em Cool might be a suitable alternative. Yes, I know that’s a bold claim, but I have faith in you Hacksaw!
| Provider | Hacksaw Gaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 5 |
| Paylines | Cluster Pays |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.10 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.19% |
| Our Rating | 7.0 |
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Keep ’em Cool Demo Slot
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Keep ’em Cool Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
The visual styling of Keep’em Cool is very much reminiscent of the Tropicool games by ELK Studios, but Hacksaw’s game looks a fair bit better, in my opinion – many of ELK’s recent releases look a little squashed when played on a traditional PC or laptop for some reason, which definitely isn’t a problem here. This game isn’t quite as feature-packed as those published by ELK either, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing either – you won’t need to study a dozen full screens of text to understand the finer points of Keep’em Cool!
The strawberries are the most valuable fruits on the paytable, and hitting a cluster of 21 or more will instantly award you the game’s maximum jackpot of 5,000x the total bet. The Dragon Fruits aren’t half bad either, with a return of 2,000x for the maximum cluster of 21 or more symbols, and even the third-placed Plums can get you 1,000x your bet as well! Of course, hitting a cluster of 21 or more matching symbols on a grid with only 25 positions isn’t going to be easy – a more reasonably sized cluster of ten symbols will get you 40x, 30x, or 20x for the Strawberries, Dragons, and Plums respectively. As for the low pays, we have Cherries – 800x/15x for 21+ or 10+ symbols – followed by Oranges (600x/7.5x), Bananas (500x/6x), and Apples (500x/5x).
The minimum bet of just €0.10 per spin ensures you can enjoy Keep’em Cool, regardless of how small your bankroll might be. Those who enjoy placing bigger bets will be pleased to hear that the game also allows wagers of up to €100.00 per round.
Keep Em’ Cool Base Game & Modifiers
Most aspects of Keep’em Cool are typical of the grid slot genre, although the 5×5 playfield is certainly on the small side for this category of game. There are just seven regular symbols on the paytable, which is probably a very good thing as it would be extremely difficult to hit even the smaller cluster sizes otherwise! The smallest prizes are awarded for hitting just five adjacent matching symbols.
Cocktail Glass & Frozen Symbols
Whenever a winning combination occurs during a spin where the cocktail glass symbol is visible, all symbols of the winning type(s) will be frozen solid. In addition, the cocktail glass will now show a number, which lets you know how many spins remain before the frozen symbols thaw out.
Winning combinations that include unfrozen symbols will be removed immediately after your winnings have been paid. Frozen symbols will remain in place, which allows you to increase the size of the winning cluster or be paid multiple times for the same group of symbols.
Blender Symbol
Whenever the blender lands on the reels, it randomly selects one symbol from the paytable to absorb. All symbols of the chosen type will be pulled into the blender, and new symbols will drop in to replace them. This process can repeat several times should new matching symbols happen to fall in or winning combinations create new empty spaces.
At the end of the round, the blender will award a prize equivalent to a cluster of the absorbed number of symbols. So, for example, if the blender decides to absorb strawberries and 21 of those are pulled into the blender, the game will automatically award you the 5,000x jackpot.
Keep ’em Cool Slot Bonus Features
The picnic basket acts as the bonus-triggering scatter symbol in Keep’em Cool, and you’ll need to collect three of them during a single round to trigger the main bonus round. Before the feature begins, the three triggering symbols will reveal a number between three and five; the sum of these numbers equals the total of free spins you will be awarded.
Sunset Picnic Free Spins
In this mode, the blender and cocktail glass symbols are guaranteed to land much more frequently than they do during the base game. It’s a shame that Hacksaw did not include any other special features aside from this, though – I occasionally ended up forgetting that I was even in the bonus round, as there isn’t much difference between the two modes.
Despite this, my returns from trying the sunset picnic free spins many times using the bonus buy facility were certainly encouraging – I made a profit well over 50% of the time, which is usually a good indicator of a solid bonus round.
Bonus Buy
The buy bonus button offers two choices – you can choose to pay 3x the regular price per spin in return for a 500% increase in the odds of triggering a bonus round, or bypass the base game altogether by paying 100x the normal cost of a spin for a guaranteed set of free spins
Pros
- A tidy collection of features packaged into an attractive-looking grid slot.
- The higher end offering of the RTP is good.
Cons
- The maximum win of 5,000x is a little disappointing.
Keep 'em Cool Slot Review Final Thoughts
Keep’em Cool isn’t the best game I have tried from Hacksaw, but it still looks great and has plenty of unique features. Give it a try the next time you are searching for something new and interesting to play, especially if it's the summer and you fancy chilling out.
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