Hacksaw Gaming was founded in Malta in 2018 and began with instant-win scratchcards before moving into slots. Within a few years it had a string of titles that streamers and players kept returning to, most notably Wanted Dead or a Wild. Its style is so recognisable that you can usually tell a Hacksaw game within one spin.
This page explains that style, which games represent it best, and how to decide whether the studio suits the way you play. Short version: it suits people who like long odds, and it punishes people who expect steady returns.
How to Recognise a Hacksaw Game
- Portrait-first design. Hacksaw builds for phones. Reels and buttons are laid out for one-handed play, and the desktop version is often the phone layout, centred.
- Clean, graphic art. Bold outlines, limited palettes, a slightly comic-book feel.
- Extreme maximum wins. Caps of 10,000x and well above are common, which tells you how much of each game's value sits in rare outcomes.
- Several bonus modes. Many titles have two or three bonus rounds of increasing volatility, triggered by different scatter counts, and a menu of feature buys where the market permits it.
Games That Define the Studio
| Game | Year | Why players know it |
|---|---|---|
| Chaos Crew | 2020 | Early hit; sticky multiplier symbols |
| Wanted Dead or a Wild | 2021 | Duel reels with multipliers up to 100x, very high volatility |
| Stack 'Em | 2021 | Stacking symbols; lighter theme, same appetite for risk |
| Hand of Anubis | 2023 | Cluster pays with multipliers in an Egyptian setting |
| Le Bandit | 2023 | A raccoon in Paris; golden squares and a rainbow feature |
Years are approximate to the release season. Each game's rules screen lists its current RTP and maximum win, and those are the figures to trust.
RTP and the Feature-Buy Menu
Hacksaw publishes RTP figures for each game and, for titles with feature buys, often for each buy option as well. Buys can carry a slightly different return from the base game. Two practical consequences:
- Read the buy menu, not just the price. Two buys of different prices may take you to very different rounds, with different volatility.
- Check the base-game RTP in the rules. As with most studios today, casinos may be supplied with more than one configuration.
A point we make to every reader who asks about Hacksaw: a buy is not a shortcut to value. It is a way of spending the same expected amount faster, on a more extreme distribution.
Budgeting for Extreme Volatility
Standard rules of thumb do not work here. For Hacksaw titles we use a stricter one: your stake should be at most one four-hundredth of your budget, and any single feature buy should cost no more than a quarter of it.
With 60 units, that means a stake of 0.15 and a buy limit of 15 units. At 0.15, most buys on high-end modes are out of reach, which is exactly the point. If you want to see the features, the base game at a small stake will show you the bonuses eventually; if you want to buy them, you need a much larger budget than most players bring.
Use demo mode generously. Most casinos offer Hacksaw games in free play, and they are the games where a demo saves the most money, because it lets you feel the length of the quiet spells.
Where to Play Hacksaw Games
High-volatility slots in the Hacksaw mould are part of the catalogue at the five casinos below. Feature buys are switched on or off per market, and so are individual titles, so search before you plan a session around one. The welcome code goes in at the cashier, before you pay.
