Anyone who has watch the famous cartoon will find plenty of easily recognisable imagery in this slot game - joining the lower value A, K and Q symbols are 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 himself is the wild, offering awards of up to 500 coins per payline.
If you wish, you can increase your standard bet and bring the Better Bonus into play - this costs more per spin (50% more) but can add some extra goodies when you do trigger a feature. In the base game, there are 3 modifier extras which can become live at random on any spin:
- Mystery Stacked Reels feature - symbols on any given reel can magically transform into the same matching symbol.
- Random Wild feature - between 3 and 10 symbols (11 with the Better Bonus active) are added to the reels and a new payout calculation is made.
- Wild Reels feature - when this hits, 1 or more reels will turn totally wild and a new payout is made.
Wacky Races also comes with 5 character led bonus features. These are triggered by landing the Wacky Races or Wacky Races Wild on reels 1, 3 and 5 symbols on the same spin. 5 cars will then have a race. Which 1 wins determines which bonus feature you play. Before the race begins, 1 of the cars gets an overhaul. If that car wins, extra goodies are awarded during the feature. Here are the details:
- Creepy Coupe Free Games feature - if this car wins, you’ll get 10 free spins with the Random Wilds or Wild Reels extra landing on each of them. A new Gruesome Twosome symbol is added here, turning wild whenever it hits. Land 3 of these on reels 1, 3 and 5 and you’ll re-trigger another round of 10 free spins – there’s up to 200 free spins to be won in total.
- Penelope Pitstop Free Games feature - 12 free spins are awarded if you land this round. Look out for the heart symbols which can hit here. The more that land, the more reels will turn wild and lock in place – there’s up to 4 reels that can become locked wilds!
- Muttley Wacky Scrap Yard Bonus feature - in this pick me round, you have the chance to win prizes ranging from between 15 and 100 times your stake and multipliers of between 2x and 5x. There are 5 levels of picks on offer. Try and avoid the bombs which bring the round to an end. Extra lives mean more picks. In total, you can win up to 500 times your stake.
- Professor Pat Pending Wheel Bonus feature - spin the wheel to win 1 of the Mini, Minor, Major or Mega Jackpot. The Mega Jackpot is worth 400 times your stake!
- Peter Perfect Trophy Bonus feature - select from the trophies to reveal cash prizes of up to 400 times your stake.
As you’d expect from a branded game from a big name developer, the imagery here is very good. It’s a real shame that Bally has wasted half the screen on a cabinet style format making those images quite difficult to see. The backing track is a far cry from the original Wacky Races music too.
Those design missteps are unfortunate as there’s a good game on offer here. If you like a bumper range of features then you won’t go too far wrong with Wacky Races which offers some great variety.
As one of the best TV cartoons ever made we had high hopes for Wacky Races. Unfortunately, we were a little disappointed. The features were fine but the portrait-style game engine was a missed opportunity. There are some good extras on offer here which makes the visuals even more frustrating. It’s good as far as it goes but Wacky Races could have been even better. If you like cartoon inspired slot games, The Flintstones by Playtech is recommended.