Bally Technologies Wacky Races Video Slot Review

Join Dick Dastardly and sidekick Muttley on a quest for the chequered flag in Wacky Races. Based on the classic TV cartoon it’s a 5 reel, 4 row, 40 payline video slot from Bally that comes with plenty of extras including stacked symbols, wild reels, free spin rounds and jackpot bonuses. Play on all devices from as little as 50p to 75p per spin.

The imagery here will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s seen an episode of Wacky Races – as well as A, K and Q symbols, you’ll see the Army Surplus 6, the Crimson Haybailer, the Convert-A-Car, the Creepy Coupe, the Bouldermobile, the Compact Pussycat, Penelope Pitstop and Dastardly and Muttley. Dick Dastardly is the wild, offering awards of 500 coins if you land 5 on a line.

The standard stakes are 50 coins for 40 paylines. Upgrade that to 75 coins and you can activate the Better Bonus which offers improved rewards when you do trigger a feature. Like many of Bally’s branded video slots, the developer has packed in a huge range of extras here – 3 can hit at random in the base game:

• Mystery Stacked Reels feature – on any spin, symbols on any reel can transform into the same matching symbol.
• Random Wild feature – on any base game spin, between 3 and 10 wilds are added (up to 11 if the Better Bonus is active).
• Wild Reels feature – this can turn all symbols on 1 or more reels wild. A new payout is made with the extra wilds in play.

There is also a range of triggered features – these are accessed via the Racing Bonus. This is activated by landing the Wacky Races or Wacky Races Wild symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5 on the same spin. 5 cars, 1 of which has been suped up with extras, will then start a race. Which car wins determines the feature awarded:

• Creepy Coupe Free Games feature – 10 free spins are awarded here with the Random Wilds or Wild Reels extra hitting on each 1 of them. Land a Gruesome Twosome symbol and it turns wild. Land 1 of these on reels 1, 3 and 5 on the same free spin and you’ll get another 10 free spins – you can do this various times to give you up to 200 free spins.
• Penelope Pitstop Free Games feature – you’ll receive 12 free spins to start this round. Collect hearts to create locked wild reels. The more you collect, the more reels become wild with up to 4 locked wild reels to be won!
• Muttley Wacky Scrap Yard Bonus feature – this is a variation on the pick me round. Make your selection to reveal a cash prize of up to 100 times your bet, a multiplier of between 2x or 5x or a bomb. There are 5 levels in all. Keep picking until you land a bomb. You can prolong the round by landing extra lives. There’s up to 500 times your stake to be won!
• Professor Pat Pending Wheel Bonus feature – press the start button to spin the wheel. Depending on where the pointer lands you’ll a Mini, Minor, Major or Mega Jackpot. The latter is worth a cool 400 times your total bet.
• Peter Perfect Trophy Bonus feature – pick from the trophies to win cash prizes of up to 400 times your bet.

Bally has obviously thrown plenty of money at Wacky Races. The visuals are very nicely done. Why on earth did they put them in a live casino style slot cabinet which makes everything very hard to see? Do we really need to see Dick Dastardly’s grinning face above the reels when we can barely make out what’s going on on the reels? It’s a similar story with the soundtrack. Gone is the classic funky soundtrack from the original cartoons and in its place is a very cheesy sounding affair.

Saying that, you can win big in most of the bonus features – the Wild Reels feature in the base game and the 2 free spins features in particular. If you like branded titles, Bally offers you Titanic and Michael Jackson King of Pop which also have plenty of bonus features.