There’s something quite peculiar about the French language – it’s often described as being the most romantic of the romantic languages and is somehow also the perfect vernacular for adding a little comic relief to movie and television scripts… oh, and slots, too! Having recognised that fact, Hacksaw Gaming has done its best to create a giggle-worthy French-themed slot for our consumption titled Le Bandit. This bumper-sized machine utilises a six-reel, five row layout and offers an above-average 96.43% RTP alongside a capped jackpot of 10,000x the player’s stake.
I’m not sure whether I’m the ideal arbiter to determine exactly how “funny” Le Bandit might be, but I can certainly tell you about its features. The game includes an enhanced cascade mechanic, which removes all symbols of the type that make up your winning combinations. The positions which featured winning symbols will also become shaded in gold after your winnings have been paid; these “golden squares” are used in conjunction with the Rainbow symbol to award stake multiple prizes of up to 500x at the end of each round. Three bonus rounds are included as a reward for hitting the game’s scatter symbols, and we also get a bonus buy menu with four price points to choose from.
C’est incroyable! Trois bonus round… Oh, la la! Despite studying French for three years in high school, I can barely remember a word of it today, so that’s as good as you are going to get from me, I’m afraid. Not to worry though, as we do also have a free Le Bandit demo slot available to play below!
| Provider | Hacksaw Gaming |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 5 |
| Paylines | Cluster Pays |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.10 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 10,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.43% |
| Our Rating | 8.5 |
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Le Bandit Demo Slot
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Le Bandit Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
I was expecting to find a bunch of games with French inspiration after searching our review library, so it was especially surprising when the results didn’t turn up much of anything you’d consider exciting other than Play’n Go’s Journey to Paris, which is questionable at best. However, in amongst the stacks of roulette-focused pages, one game did stand out – Yggdrasil’s Notre Dame Tales. The developers of that machine weren’t trying to add humour to their game, but they did manage to create an immaculately presented slot which would have ranked a little higher if it wasn’t for a handful of questionable decisions in its mechanics. In comparison, Le Bandit offers the larger jackpot but also comes with a much higher degree of volatility – on a bad day, you may well end up buying dozens of bonuses from this machine without ever exceeding the buy-in cost. Of course, the flip side to that is that a good day might just see you collecting a 10,000x jackpot!
The paytable claims that the jackpot can be won in the base game as well as during any of the game’s three bonus rounds, so just how might you achieve such a thing? The most valuable symbols are the Top Hats, with maximum returns of 100x the total bet if 13 or more land clustered on the playfield. A cluster of 13 or more Baguettes or Beer Glasses will net you 50x the current stake, whilst the Cheese and Mouse Trap share equal returns of 25x for the maximum cluster size. As for the low pays, Hacksaw has kept things simple here by sticking to a 15x payout for all five of the royal symbols. Not impressed? Don’t worry, as Le Bandit also includes bronze, silver, and gold coin symbols with payouts of 0.2x – 4x, 5x – 20x, and 25x – 500x, respectively. You’ll need a little help to collect the coins, though, as we’ll be explaining in the following section.
Permitted stakes follow Hacksaw’s usual conventions with minimum/maximum bet limits of €0.10 and €100.00 per spin, respectively. There are plenty of intermediate values to choose from as well, although the gaps between stakes do grow a little larger towards the upper end of the range.
Base Game & Modifiers
Meet Smokey le Bandit, a charming racoon who won’t hesitate to fleece you for all you’re worth using every trick in the book…. And then some. Ah, Hacksaw, you always did know how to talk to a girl! If that hasn’t convinced you to get depositing at your favourite casino right away, then perhaps the 6×5 playfield with 30 symbol positions will be a little more convincing? No?
As for winning combinations, you’ll need at least five matching symbols in adjacent positions to collect a prize, with bigger wins being awarded for larger clusters until you hit the maximum of 13 symbols; after this, you won’t win anything more regardless of how many additional symbols there are. If the reels contain symbols that match your cluster but are not located in adjacent spots, they will still be removed simultaneously as your winning symbol cluster. Hacksaw calls this their ‘Super Cascade’ mechanic, and I can honestly say that it did come in useful a handful of times whilst I was testing the machine.
Win-to-win
After a winning combination forms on the reels, the squares behind all the included symbols will be highlighted with a golden backdrop. When all wins have finished being evaluated, and the reels have settled, the game will check to see if there are any Rainbow symbols in view; if so, all of the Golden Squares will transform into bronze, silver, or gold coins.
Occasionally you will also get a special symbol or two – the four-leaved clover acts as a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 5x, or 10x, whilst the pot of gold acts as a collector symbol which will gather the value of all visible coins before re-activating your Golden Squares for a second time. This process can repeat if another pot of gold appears after the re-spin, although I never saw that occur during my testing.
Le Bandit Slot Bonus Features
Hacksaw makes much of the fact that Le Bandit includes three separate features, but in reality, they are all based on the same idea. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though – a three-scatter trigger will award the Luck of the Bandit Bonus, four scatters will earn you All that Glitters is Gold, and should you be lucky enough to hit all five, then you really are in for a treat as the Treasure at the End of the Rainbow bonus is not even available from the bonus buy menu. The three-scatter bonus round will award 8 free spins, whilst the other two bonuses increase that number to 12.
Luck Of The Bandit Free Spins
In this bonus, all of your Golden Squares will remain highlighted between spins until they have been activated by a Rainbow symbol. You can also win additional free spins by landing 2/3 FS symbols whilst the feature is active, whilst four or more FS symbols will upgrade your remaining spins to the next feature.
All That Glitter Is Gold Free Spins
When this feature is activated, all of your Golden Squares will remain active for the entirety of the bonus round, even after they have been activated by a Rainbow symbol. As with the previous feature, extra spins can be won by hitting 2/3 scatter symbols – there is no opportunity to upgrade to the next feature this time around, unfortunately.
Treasure At The End Of The Rainbow Free Spins
This one truly is quite the treat, as there is no way to access it unless you can hit five scatters during the base game. As I’m sure you can imagine, I didn’t manage that during the time that I was writing this review!
If you ever are lucky enough to get here though, you can be reasonably certain of a big win due to the fact every spin is guaranteed to land a Rainbow symbol. Furthermore, the bronze coins do not appear during this bonus round – every coin your rainbows reveal is guaranteed to be worth a minimum of 5x the total bet.
Bonus Buy
There are four options available in the bonus buy menu of Le Bandit:
- Bonushunt Featurespins (3x Stake) – Every spin is 5x more likely to trigger a feature.
- Rainbow Featurespins (50x Stake) – A rainbow symbol is guaranteed to land during the next spin.
- Luck of the Bandit (100x Stake) – Awards eight free spins where Golden Squares remain highlighted until they have been activated.
- All that Glitters is Gold (250x Stake) – Awards 12 free spins where Golden Squares remain highlighted for the entirety of the bonus round.
Pros
- The theme is wonderfully silly and is sure to make you crack a smile.
- A jackpot of 10,000x the total bet is better than many other slots.
- Three different bonus rounds to explore, including one that cannot be bought from the bonus buy menu.
Cons
- Highlight volatile machine – I struggled to make a profit despite purchasing two dozen bonus rounds during testing.
- The cost for the four-scatter bonus seems high – it’s probably a good thing Hacksaw didn’t put a price on the five-scatter feature!
Le Bandit Slot Review Final Thoughts
I typically find Hacksaw’s games to be a little more generous than most, so the extreme volatility of Le Bandit took me by surprise initially. There’s nothing wrong with high variance slots – indeed, they are my favourite kind – but if you don’t know what you are getting into, this is a machine that will steal your shirt faster than you can blink! Take it easy with your stakes, have fun, and if you've really enjoyed what the game has to offer, make sure you try out a couple of clones Hacksaw has put together in the form of the Ze Zeus slot and Le Pharaoh.
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