Coffee Dealer review
Hacksaw Gaming
Coffee is said to have originated in Ethiopia, before moving into the Arab world, then Europe, before eventually spreading across the entire globe. It's now spilt into the online gambling world (though not for the first time) in Hacksaw Gaming's slot Coffee Dealer. In this game, the world's most popular psychoactive drug is used as the wrapper for a package of features that centres on expanding wild reels with multipliers, adding a caffeine boost to the base game and its three bonus rounds. It's the sort of effect Hacksaw Gaming has a lot of experience with, so if you're the type of person who can't start the day without a cup of joe, feel free to brew up a pot and come inspect Coffee Dealer with us.
The studio has gone for a humorous 1930s rubber hose cartoon style, reminiscent of Cuphead or Fleischer Studios cartoons that fit the spirit of an upbeat yet sassy online slot like a charm. The look hearkens back to some of the studio's earlier work, with games like Stack 'em or R.I.P. City coming to mind. Here it's all about cups, coffee, and back-street bean dealing. The characters on screen are Bean and Dean, two brothers also known around town as the Caffeine Cowboys. Basically, if you need a legal pick-me-up, they're the chaps to see for your grinding needs. The pair add personality to the game, which is something Hacksaw Gaming excels at, being a studio that enjoys providing amiable characters to accompany players who come along for the ride.
Mechanically, Coffee Dealer is a 5x5 slot with 19 paylines evaluating regular winning combinations. Gamblers may stake $/€0.10 to $/€100 per spin, and are able to choose from four feature buys if they would prefer to play that way. Rated 4 out of 5, Coffee Dealer sits on the more volatile side of the spectrum, and it has, at best, an RTP of 96.29%.
Coffee Dealer's regular pay symbols are 10-A royals, skull shapes, bags of brown powder, sacks of beans, gooey pistols, and bundles of banknotes. A winning combination of 5 matching symbols in size is worth 1x for the royals, or 2x to 6x for the premium symbols.
Features in the game to be aware of are Wild Coffee Reels, three bonus rounds titled Mug Life, Brewfather, and Espresso Empire, as well as feature buys.
The Coffee Cup symbol acts as a wild, so it substitutes all symbols on the pay table. When a Coffee Cup symbol lands, it expands into a Wild Coffee Reel if part of a winning combination when expanded, before any wins are dealt with. When expanded, 0-9 extra Coffee Cups land on the Wild Coffee Reel, determining the multiplier value of the reel. Each Coffee Cup increases the multiplier by +1, up to x10. The multiplier applies to all wins the reel is part of. If more than one Wild Coffee Reel is part of the same win, all multiplier values higher than x1 are added together before being applied. Only one Coffee Cup symbol may land per reel, and a win line of 5 Coffee Cups pays 20x the bet.
Landing 3 scatters in the base game triggers 10 free spins in the Mug Life bonus. There is a greater chance of landing Coffee Cups during this round. In all three bonus features, the base game mechanics are kept, and landing 2 or 3 scatters awards a further +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.
Land 4 scatters in the base game and players win 8 free spins in the Brewfather round. In this feature, when a Coffee Cup expands into a Wild Coffee Reel, that reel becomes activated for the rest of the round. A Coffee Cup is guaranteed to land on activated reels on every spin.
Players win 10 free spins in the Espresso Empire hidden epic bonus by landing 5 scatters in the main game. Two Coffee Cups are guaranteed to land on each spin in this feature.
Coffee Dealer's feature buys include BonusHunt FeatureSpins for 3x the bet, making each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus, and Coffee Breath FeatureSpins for 100x, guaranteeing at least 2 Coffee Cups land. The Mug Life bonus can be bought for 80x, while 200x the stake buys the Brewfather round.
After Wicked Grin and now Coffee Dealer, it feels like Hacksaw Gaming has found time in its busy Le slot release schedule to return to its roots for some nostalgic inspiration. Coffee Dealer called to mind several Hacksaw Gaming titles such as those mentioned above, due to the graphical style, but also due to the general on-screen characters adding personality approach that the studio favours. The result is a game that feels like a textbook Hacksaw Gaming production both in form and in function.
Finding artistic inspiration from the past also extends to Coffee Dealer's features, which should be familiar to gamblers acquainted with Hacksaw Gaming's catalogue of work. Expanding wild symbols with multipliers have been one of the studio's go-to effects for a while now, having appeared in many past releases. To name but one, the features used in Hot Ross, for instance, are very close to those on offer in Coffee Dealer, including the use of activated reels in one of the bonus rounds to guarantee wild symbols hit. One major difference between the two slots is that the possible multiplier values on wild reels are much greater in Hot Ross than they are here - x200 compared to Coffee Dealer's x10. That said, in Hot Ross, expanding symbols must pass through a wild in order to get a multiplier; here they are just randomly bestowed by added Coffee Cups.
As such, Coffee Dealer is a slightly less complicated version, though it is still able to boast impressive winning potential, capping payouts at 10,000x the bet. Statistically and mechanically, Coffee Dealer is quite strong, while its appearance radiates a playful appeal. The features are enjoyable, too, and capable of putting on a thrilling performance, even if they're nothing overly special, having been used in various ways in the past. Taken as a whole, Coffee Dealer is an entertaining slot with character, even if it might not blow fans away with innovative brilliance in terms of gameplay.
Whilst not hugely innovative, Coffee Dealer entertains through a blend of familiar mechanics and playful presentation.
The studio has gone for a humorous 1930s rubber hose cartoon style, reminiscent of Cuphead or Fleischer Studios cartoons that fit the spirit of an upbeat yet sassy online slot like a charm. The look hearkens back to some of the studio's earlier work, with games like Stack 'em or R.I.P. City coming to mind. Here it's all about cups, coffee, and back-street bean dealing. The characters on screen are Bean and Dean, two brothers also known around town as the Caffeine Cowboys. Basically, if you need a legal pick-me-up, they're the chaps to see for your grinding needs. The pair add personality to the game, which is something Hacksaw Gaming excels at, being a studio that enjoys providing amiable characters to accompany players who come along for the ride.
Mechanically, Coffee Dealer is a 5x5 slot with 19 paylines evaluating regular winning combinations. Gamblers may stake $/€0.10 to $/€100 per spin, and are able to choose from four feature buys if they would prefer to play that way. Rated 4 out of 5, Coffee Dealer sits on the more volatile side of the spectrum, and it has, at best, an RTP of 96.29%.
Coffee Dealer's regular pay symbols are 10-A royals, skull shapes, bags of brown powder, sacks of beans, gooey pistols, and bundles of banknotes. A winning combination of 5 matching symbols in size is worth 1x for the royals, or 2x to 6x for the premium symbols.
Features in the game to be aware of are Wild Coffee Reels, three bonus rounds titled Mug Life, Brewfather, and Espresso Empire, as well as feature buys.
The Coffee Cup symbol acts as a wild, so it substitutes all symbols on the pay table. When a Coffee Cup symbol lands, it expands into a Wild Coffee Reel if part of a winning combination when expanded, before any wins are dealt with. When expanded, 0-9 extra Coffee Cups land on the Wild Coffee Reel, determining the multiplier value of the reel. Each Coffee Cup increases the multiplier by +1, up to x10. The multiplier applies to all wins the reel is part of. If more than one Wild Coffee Reel is part of the same win, all multiplier values higher than x1 are added together before being applied. Only one Coffee Cup symbol may land per reel, and a win line of 5 Coffee Cups pays 20x the bet.
Landing 3 scatters in the base game triggers 10 free spins in the Mug Life bonus. There is a greater chance of landing Coffee Cups during this round. In all three bonus features, the base game mechanics are kept, and landing 2 or 3 scatters awards a further +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.
Land 4 scatters in the base game and players win 8 free spins in the Brewfather round. In this feature, when a Coffee Cup expands into a Wild Coffee Reel, that reel becomes activated for the rest of the round. A Coffee Cup is guaranteed to land on activated reels on every spin.
Players win 10 free spins in the Espresso Empire hidden epic bonus by landing 5 scatters in the main game. Two Coffee Cups are guaranteed to land on each spin in this feature.
Coffee Dealer's feature buys include BonusHunt FeatureSpins for 3x the bet, making each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus, and Coffee Breath FeatureSpins for 100x, guaranteeing at least 2 Coffee Cups land. The Mug Life bonus can be bought for 80x, while 200x the stake buys the Brewfather round.
After Wicked Grin and now Coffee Dealer, it feels like Hacksaw Gaming has found time in its busy Le slot release schedule to return to its roots for some nostalgic inspiration. Coffee Dealer called to mind several Hacksaw Gaming titles such as those mentioned above, due to the graphical style, but also due to the general on-screen characters adding personality approach that the studio favours. The result is a game that feels like a textbook Hacksaw Gaming production both in form and in function.
Finding artistic inspiration from the past also extends to Coffee Dealer's features, which should be familiar to gamblers acquainted with Hacksaw Gaming's catalogue of work. Expanding wild symbols with multipliers have been one of the studio's go-to effects for a while now, having appeared in many past releases. To name but one, the features used in Hot Ross, for instance, are very close to those on offer in Coffee Dealer, including the use of activated reels in one of the bonus rounds to guarantee wild symbols hit. One major difference between the two slots is that the possible multiplier values on wild reels are much greater in Hot Ross than they are here - x200 compared to Coffee Dealer's x10. That said, in Hot Ross, expanding symbols must pass through a wild in order to get a multiplier; here they are just randomly bestowed by added Coffee Cups.
As such, Coffee Dealer is a slightly less complicated version, though it is still able to boast impressive winning potential, capping payouts at 10,000x the bet. Statistically and mechanically, Coffee Dealer is quite strong, while its appearance radiates a playful appeal. The features are enjoyable, too, and capable of putting on a thrilling performance, even if they're nothing overly special, having been used in various ways in the past. Taken as a whole, Coffee Dealer is an entertaining slot with character, even if it might not blow fans away with innovative brilliance in terms of gameplay.
Whilst not hugely innovative, Coffee Dealer entertains through a blend of familiar mechanics and playful presentation.