Mad Cars (Push Gaming) Slot Demo & Review

I talked quite a lot about the theme in the opening paragraph, but after I checked out Push Gaming’s product sheet, I learned of their intention to set the Mad Cars slot game in a post-apocalyptic steampunk slot setting. Now that makes it quite interesting… can you imagine racing around cities filled with zombies, for example? Or perhaps you are a survivor of a nuclear war between China and the United States and find yourself being forced to race in a duel to the death? Push Gaming does not specify what exactly has caused this apocalypse. But, we can all hazard our own guess at what it may have been. If you like the idea of dashing around a world like this, where big wins are possible, try Relax Gaming’s Money Train 4 or NetEnt Gaming’s Steam Tower.

The paytable works as it should, updating to reflect your current bet size. The game will also warn you each time you change your current wager that any in-progress features will not be available in your new bet size. However, you can return to your other bet later, and your features will be returned to how they were before you changed your bet. For example, if you are collecting special symbols for use in the bonus round, these are kept on a per wager-size basis. If you are playing at €1.00 and then drop down to €0.10, you will lose your collected features; however, changing back to a bet size of €1.00 will restore them for you. Note that there is usually a time limit on this, but I couldn’t find this information regarding the Mad Cars video slot.

The top symbol is an Orange, Scary-Looking Guy who pays 100x your current stake for a full line of five-of-a-kind. An even Scarier Female Demon Child will pay you 50x your bet for all five, and then you have a more Sneaky-Looking Dude who pays 25x for five-of-a-kind – what does he know that we don’t? It’s a little concerning. Finally, a chick with green-gelled hair will throw you 20x your bet for all five and note that all of these symbols are stacked on the reels, so even though there are only fifty pay lines, it is still more than possible to win on a large number of pay lines simultaneously.

We mentioned the wager sizes briefly, but it’s worth going into a little more detail here – the lowest bet is €0.10 per spin, whilst the highest bet is €100.00 per spin. That’s pretty standard – if, in my opinion, completely unnecessary. But what do I know? Hey, at least there is enough choice between these ranges to satisfy players of all budgets.

When I think about it, it’s crazy that we have got to this section of the review and not mentioned the special top row yet. The thing is, it isn’t a top row like in Megaways that has a significant effect on every spin gameplay; more than 50% of my spins resulted in a blank top row. However, this doesn’t matter, as the top row is only used in the base game when special symbols land on the same reel. The extra top row does come into play much more during the bonus rounds.

Top (Boost) Row

The main playfield is 5×6 in size, though with the top row, you could say it is technically 5×7. Fifty fixed paylines span the grid, and you’ll need at least three matching symbols on one of those lines to land yourself a win, but with so many features and modifiers, however, the number of paylines feels largely irrelevant during play.

Instant Prize Car Symbols Modifier

Here, a bunch of multipliers (of your stake) will appear on the top row, and a race will be initiated between a car on all five reels. The car that passes the top reel first will grant the instant win shown, but two cars can also win at the same time!”

Scatter Car Symbol Modifier

This is a special car that can appear during the Instant Prize Car Symbols Modifier. If it does show, you’ll automatically receive 10x your bet. If the scatter car wins the race, you will automatically be taken to the premium Mad Race Feature – the most profitable part of the game!

Boost Reel Modifier

This is a bit confusing. The paytable describes this as part of the base game, but in my experience, it is part of the race feature that occurs after the Scatter Car Symbol Modifier begins. During the base game, I have never seen anything on the top row but numbers that move cars forward. The paytable talks about Multipliers, Gas, Multiplier & Gas Combo, and Survivor symbols. All of these symbols are used to help boost cars to the end of the track in the regular Race Feature.

The bonus rounds in this game are certainly different. We’ve already talked about how you reach them in the modifier sections of the Base Gameplay & Modifiers, so let’s get straight on to how they work:

Mad Bonus Feature

In this mad bonus, five cars will line up at the bottom of the screen. The game says you have seven free spins, but you will quickly notice that it’s just the same thing happening repeatedly. Click the mouse button, and you will be taken to the same race mode that results from the Scatter Car Symbol Modifier feature.

Mad Race Feature

This enhanced race comes with a win multiplier at the top of the screen, which is boosted every time a car reaches the end of the track. The higher the numbers on the cars, the bigger your multiplier will be. I actually managed to get a 99x multiplier on one occasion whilst playing this feature, but even the winnings from that would not have covered the cost of this feature if I had bought it in the bonus buy mode. Keep that in mind before spending your stake on the top bonus buy option hundreds of times.

Bonus Buy Feature

There are four bonus buy options in Mad Cars – you can buy the mad bonus, which can potentially get you into the Mad Race feature, for “just” 115.7x your stake. A supposedly superior “Payer Bonus” costs 301x your stake and doesn’t seem to add much to the Mad Race, and my results reflected this.

The next two options increase in price drastically, and for – 456x or 624x your current wager will get you the Collector Bonus or, what I believe, is meant to be the Mad Race bonus – but you only have a 1/8 chance of receiving the Mad Race if you pay the 624x your bet! Half of the time, you will get the Mad Race feature instead, as shown by the fractions on the bonus buy page.