Here’s a query sparked by Marcus Chown’s scientific writings: is ‘now’ even a genuine concept? Light from distant stars takes years to reach us, whereas light and sound from nearby objects take only fractions of a second. It’s true that this just takes a fraction of a second, but it often feels like we’re eternally trying to make sense of the world as it was, rather than as it is. This is only one of several ideas that came up when reviewing the Hacksaw Gaming slot machine, Time Spinners. This one has a Dusk ’til Dawn bonus round with wild multipliers, and it delves into the theme of time in a frightening way.
The game interface for Time Spinners posed even another mystery. A five-reel, four-row grid is chained to four shattered stone pillars in the center and hanging above a pit. Can’t quite put my finger on what it means. The melody has a dirge-like sound, while the static loops provide the impression of a coffin being dropped into the earth. Once they get going, the music gets a lot grander, but Time Spinners has a distinct feel that isn’t as easy to place as the more traditional hack and slash fare of Hacksaw games (such as pure fruit, Western, or Egyptian). It does lack character, making it seem less distinctive than earlier editions. Put it down to the unfathomable nature of time.
Pick a stake between 10 pence and £/€100 each spin and launch Time Spinners on your choice device to begin your investigation, or at least your effort to solve the mystery. Since Hacksaw slot machines often offer a variety of return settings, players should keep an eye out for the 96.19% return to player version as the ideal option due to the game’s high volatility. There are a total of 16 paylines available for players to hit winning combinations on, with play proceeding from the left side of the grid.
A moment for symbolism and There are eight standard pay symbols in Time Spinners, in addition to many bonus symbols. Clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades represent the bottom rung of the wage scale, while books, scrolls, timepieces, and gyroscopes are at the top. For a successful line of five identical symbols, you will get 1–2 times your wager for the suit symbols and 5–20 times your wager for the four premiums. If you get five wilds in a row, you’ll get paid 20 times your wager. Wilds appear on all reels.
Slot Machine Time-Based Features
Investigation brings to light There are ghosts, wild multipliers, a Dusk ‘n’ Dawn bonus round, and a Sync symbol that doubles your win.
Watch
Wild red-bezel watches can be used in lieu of any other symbol to increase your chances of a payout. The multiplier that is revealed by the Watches when they are part of a winning line can range from 2 to 12. Sync’s logo is a timepiece with a golden bezel. When one of these occurs, the highest multiplier on the grid becomes the standard for the others.
Night and Day
Dusk Till Dawn is a bonus that is triggered when 3 Ghost icons appear. To begin the bonus round, players must gather as many Watch symbols as possible. Here, you’ll receive 3 free spins with both regular and bonus symbols. The number of spins begins again whenever a new Watch symbol appears or an Echo or Epic Echo sign has an effect on a Watch symbol. I’ll run down what they do:
Sticky Watch – Multiplier value between 2x and 12x, stays on the reels.
Automatically synchronizes all visible multipliers to the current time.
Upon landing, an Echo will show a multiplier between 1 and 50, which will be applied to all nearby Watches.
If an Epic Echo lands and its revealed value is between 2 and 10, all Watch values in a 3 by 3 region surrounding it will be multiplied by that number.
Sticky Watches stay on the reels throughout the payment phase, but ordinary symbols are re-added to the reels when the collect phase ends. At a bare least, you’ll get 3 payout spins after the collect phase if the free spins counter is refreshed at any point.
Spend Money on a Bonus
When a player clicks the Buy Bonus button, they will be given a choice between two bonuses. If you want to double your money in a round when no Ghosts land but up to 15 Watches arrive with multipliers of up to x24, then play Give Me Watches (RTP 96.24%). There will be at least two successful Watch landings. Dusk Till Dawn may be purchased for 100 times the wager (RTP 96.2%).
Judgment on the Slot Machines of Time
The Time Spinners have a subtle nefarious nature that creeps into the depths of one’s mind like a chill wind from beyond. The odd stone pit location, the ghostly hands of the Ghost, the mournful tone of portions of the music, and the allusion to the inexorable passage of time all contribute. Not as overtly gruesome as Hands of Anubis, but nonetheless disturbing. Perhaps we were being too analytical, but Time Spinners also seemed like they could be something Red Tiger would create in some other respects. That’s not intended as an insult. The icons, the historical allusions, and the slick visuals all have a certain familiarity.
The bonus round has several elements of traditional Hacksaw gameplay while also bearing some resemblance to the Red Tiger series. The bonus round was similar to the Dead Man’s Hand Bonus Round in Wanted: Dead or Alive, although it was more difficult to initiate. Three to four Watch symbols, with maximum multipliers of two to five, would often appear during the collection phase. It’s possible that we just got unlucky, but Echo symbols and especially Epic Echoes were quite uncommon. Time Spinners looks to be an extremely volatile Hacksaw Gaming slot, the outcomes of which can be unpredictable. The Echo and Epic Echo symbols have the potential to trigger exciting bonus rounds among the sea of ordinary ones if the game is in a generous mood. When maxed out, Time Spinners may award 10,000 times the initial wager.
Time Spinner offers several great features, but the whole experience left me wanting more. The topic was so nebulous that it was difficult to understand what the studio was going for, unless, of course, it was about time running out and the Grim Reaper getting his claws on you, in which case it would be extremely depressing. Unlike other Hacksaw titles, Time Spinners didn’t have any standout features. Time Spinners was a good game, but it wasn’t up there with the best of the studio’s output because of its confused and unambitious tone.