Beam Boys

Beam Boys: Slot Overview

Beam Boys… Beam Boys… nope, got nothing clever to say about that, so let's hand it over to maker Hacksaw Gaming to intro us in: 'Pack your safety goggles and immerse yourself in the world of Beam Boys – where the kittens finally team up with the laser pointers!' Okay, kinda got it. Beam Boys is an online slot where cats shoot laser beams out of their eyes and, in doing so, layer wild symbols across the gaming grid. Sounds interesting? Let's take a look, with regular eyes, rather than Scott Summers-style laser beams.

Just as the art world goes through fads, fashions, and movements, so too apparently does Hacksaw Gaming. Beam Boys belongs to the studio's 'black and white' phase, coloured in a similar manner to earlier releases such as RIP City, Chaos Crew, and Itero. This means a lot of monochrome, punched through with blasts of blue or orange. One intriguing aspect of Beam Boys is that players can choose their preferred volatility level. Similar to what you find in Pragmatic's Zeus vs Hades, click the switch to Normal Volatility, and the screen is bathed in blue; then flip to Extreme Volatile, and orange is the spot colour used. To the side of the grid is Beam Boys' lead feline, which not only has lightning bolts firing out of its empty eye sockets, but it also has metallic implants, like a bizarre cyborg kitty.

As for volatility, on the Normal (sometimes referred to as low) setting, it's got a 2/5 rating, whereas on Extreme, it ratchets up to 5/5. The RTP changes depending on the setting you've chosen, from a default of 96.35% on Normal to 96.26% on Extreme. In either mode, players can pick stakes of 10 c to $/€100 as well as sift through four feature buy options. Beam Boys uses a ways-to-win method on its 6x4 game board rather than paylines, which is a bit unusual for Hacksaw Gaming, awarding cash when matching symbols land from the leftmost side of the grid along adjacent reels. The game claims 6,561 ways to win, which is hard to work out since most ways systems on 6x4 gaming grids come with 4,096.

The pay symbols used are greyed out 10 to A card ranks, then a dead mouse, a dead bird, a dead fish, a rabbit, and a snake. Hitting a winning way consisting of 6 matching royals is worth 0.5 times the bet, while a 6-matching premium symbol result pays 0.8 to 2 times the bet. Wilds are the Laser Cat symbol, and the lightning bolts it spreads to other positions are wild, too, substituting for all regular paying symbols.

Beam Boys: Slot Features

In this section, we've got extra info on the previously noted volatility switch, plus Beam Boys' Wild Rows, bonus game, and feature buys.

Volatility Switch

When set to Normal Volatility, players usually win smaller but more often, whereas the Extreme setting means you usually win bigger but less frequently. The default hit rate in Normal is 35.75% and 33.11% in Extreme.

Wild Rows

Wild Laser Cat symbols can land on reels 2 to 6. When one lands, the Wild Laser Cat shoots a laser beam to the left across all positions on the same row, turning them wild.

Bonus Game

Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols in the base game awards 5, 10, 20, or 40 free spins, respectively. During free spins, there is a better chance of landing Wild Laser Cat symbols. Also, hitting 2 scatters awards +2 free spins, or hitting 3 scatter symbols awards +4 free spins.

Bonus Buy

Beam Boys's feature buy comes with four options that are available in both volatility settings:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins – 5x the bet where each spin is 10 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. RTP for Normal(low) Volatility is 96.32%, while the RTP for Extreme Volatility is 96.38%.
• Wide Spectrum FeatureSpins – 50x the bet for at least 1 Wild Laser Cat symbol to land on reels 2 to 6. RTP for Normal (low) Volatility is 96.3%, while the RTP for Extreme Volatility is 96.32%.
• Narrow Spectrum FeatureSpins – 200x the bet for at last 1 Wild Laser Cat to land on reels 4 to 6. RTP for Normal (low) Volatility is 96.3%, while the RTP for Extreme Volatility is 96.4%.
• Photonic Fur Bonus – 110x the bet to get 10, 20, or 40 free spins. RTP for Normal (low) Volatility is 96.32%, while the RTP for Extreme Volatility is 96.33%.

Beam Boys: Slot Verdict

It's funny, Beam Boys has many of the usual sort of explosive ingredients which show up in a Hacksaw Gaming slot, including some new additions, but it was a game that lacked a big warm heart to cosy up to. Maybe it was the low palette range coupled with blank, white-eyed cats, hard to say, but Beam Boys was a lot harder to like compared to a lot of Hacksaw Gaming's work. Even compared to the spooky stuff. For instance, Hand of Anubis or Mayan Stackways had more heart than Beam Boys. Not saying a slot is only good if it's full of cuddly teddy bears, yet Beam Boys' cold, lifeless, chromed outer casing was a tad distracting.

Hacksaw Gaming does know how to make a slot which can pop, though, and Beam Boys has the requisite components to do just that when it's on a streak. It helps that Beam Boys operates with a ways system rather than paylines, because, for example, a Wild Lazer Cat falling on the rightmost reel will stretch wilds all the way to the left, thereby linking every single pay symbol on the grid. This is partly why the game's 12,500 maximum winning potential is possible in all modes, base game or bonus.

Then again, a lot of Hacksaw Gaming slots can achieve their max win in all phases of play, such is the weaponry this developer loads out its slots with. As far as Beam Boys goes, the volatility switch and the spreading wild effect are all neat tricks, but there are slots in Hacksaw Gaming's catalogue that were more satisfyingly wholesome in a number of areas, not just in novelty factor like Beam Boys felt it was.