Tai the Toad: Slot Overview
Designing Asian-themed online slots is like catnip to a lot of casino game makers, and this time, it’s the turn of Hacksaw Gaming to have a go. Broadly speaking, this is subject matter the studio has visited before, doing well, for example, when designing the elegantly styled slot Densho with its impressive artwork, as well as the monochrome Toshi Video Club. The slot we’re reviewing today could be said to be more traditional as far as Asian slots go. Titled Tai the Toad, it is full of classic Asian slot iconography, and as for gameplay links, toads, dragons, coins, and pots are the things to look out for.
Asian Cultural Significance
Statues of toads take up almost as much of a laptop’s screen as the gaming grid does, so it makes sense to see how toads relate to Asian culture. One of the first things to pop up on the net was talk of a three-legged toad biting a coin, bringing good fortune and wealth, in Chinese belief. It seems toads in much of that part of the world are auspicious signs of good fortune in general. Maybe they work out to be that way for players who give Tai the Toad a spin. If not, then hopefully, you like a fairly conventional-looking Asian-themed slot, which Tai the Toad is. Not a bad looker for what it is, though.
Betting and RTP
If all seems fine, then the next step is picking your stake, which can be as low as 10 c per spin or as high as $/€100. Tai the Toad’s math model takes the middle path, literally, getting a 3 out of 5, or medium volatility rating. The game’s RTP value comes in four forms, that’s something to keep an eye out for, and the highest return value possible is 96.3%, though this changes when using bonus buys.
Symbols and Paytable
Played on a 5×5 gaming grid, 19 lines are included for landing winning combinations on. Tai the Toad’s low pays are 10 to A playing card symbols, worth 1 to 3 times the bet for a 5-matching symbol combination. The highs are oranges, a container, a scroll, a mask, and a sycee, paying 10 to 30 times the stake for 5 OAK. Wilds may be on any reel, paying 30x for a line of 5 of them, or substituting for any regular pay cc6 symbol. Five Toad symbols are worth 1 times the bet.
The Toad & The Pot Feature
Toads have inundated the features section, being connected to these features – The Toad & The Pot, the Toad Bonus, the Golden Toad Bonus, and bonus buys. The Toad symbol reveals either a wild symbol or a Gold Coin when activated by the Prosperity Pot symbol. All Toad symbols reveal matching symbols. When the Prosperity Pot lands, it first shows what all Toad symbols will reveal, then transforms into the revealed symbol. Gold Coin symbols are cash prizes based on the bet. Gold Coins can have values of 1 to 1,000. They are collected together and multiplied by the bet to calculate the total win. When revealing Gold Coins, there is a chance a Toad symbol reveals a Coin Bag symbol instead. Coin Bag symbols multiply 1 to 5 Gold Coin symbols with a revealed multiplier value. The same Gold Coin can be affected more than once by the same Coin Bag or by different Coin Bags. Multiplier values can be x2, x3, x4, or x5.
Toad Bonus
Landing 3 FS scatter symbols in the base game awards players 10 free spins as part of the Toad Bonus. During it, landing a Dragon symbol adds 1 to 5 Toad Points to the meter above its reel. Should a Double Dragon symbol land, it adds 1 to 5 Toad Points to all reels. When the Prosperity Pot symbol lands, an equal number of Toad symbols fill random positions on the corresponding reels. Toad Points cc6 reset after each Prosperity Pot has been activated.
Golden Toad Bonus
This feature and 10 free spins are awarded from the base game by landing 4 FS scatter symbols. In the Golden Toad Bonus, the rules are basically the same as the Toad Bonus, except Toad Points do not reset after each Prosperity Pot activation.
Bonus Buy Options
Tai the Toad offers the following bonus buy choices:
- BonusHunt FeatureSpins: 3x the bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. RTP 96.25%, highly volatile.
- Triple Toad FeatureSpins: 20x the bet, each spin guarantees 3 Toads and 1 Prosperity Pot symbols land. RTP 96.31%, highly volatile.
- So Many Toads FeatureSpins: 40x the bet, each spin guarantees 8 Toads and 1 Prosperity Pot symbols land. RTP 96.33%, medium volatile.
- Toad Bonus: 100x the bet. RTP 96.31%, highly volatile.
- Golden Toad Bonus: 200x the bet. RTP 96.34%, highly volatile.
Slot Verdict
Not to be judgmental, but Tai the Toad felt out of character for Hacksaw Gaming. Often, the studio’s slots can be found way off-piste, fronted by creative theme choice and treatment, while backed by ingenious features. Tai the Toad bucks the trend by dragging itself closer to the mainstream than HG releases usually are. One guess is that this was done for business purposes rather than purely creative ones, which, you know, fair enough; Hacksaw Gaming is a business that is out to make money and all. Perhaps the studio had plans to fling this game out into the wild like a fishing rod in an attempt to hook a different audience, Tai the Toad then serving as a gateway to the studio’s wilder cc6 creative endeavors.