Mad Cars: Slot Overview

At its core, a car’s purpose is simply to travel from A to B, then back to A again—perhaps with a brief detour to C and D. For the punks tearing through Push Gaming’s post-apocalyptic online slot Mad Cars, though, vehicles are weaponised hot-rods bristling with spikes and machine guns, battling in the wasteland spectacle known as the Mad Race. What that means for the game’s inhabitants is anyone’s guess, but for players it translates into a high-energy slot loaded with Instant Prize symbols, a Boost Reel & Boost Reel symbols, plus a Mad Bonus feature where hot-rods pay out prizes when they successfully cross the line.

We’ll likely reference the Money Train franchise more than once in this review, as the two titles share a number of familiar traits. One clear similarity is the setting: a dusty, sepia-tinged vision of future ruin complete with a windmill. Tumbleweeds roll past wrecked vehicles in a decaying industrial yard, while barrels dangle from metal frames for reasons unknown. Maybe they’re meant to brighten the place up? If so, it doesn’t work—Mad Cars looks like a harsh world to scrape out a living in. The game never spells out what caused the apocalypse, but Push Gaming has done an excellent job making the aftermath feel both bleak and strangely inviting for anyone wanting to test their luck alongside a gang of punk petrolheads.

Players kick things off by choosing a wager of 10 p/c to $/€100 on any device. The action runs on a 5-reel, 6-row layout, with 50 win lines cutting across the grid to form winning combinations. As many will expect, the gameplay is highly volatile, and if you’re not purchasing one of the bonuses, the top return to player figure is 96.39%. There are other versions that drop as low as 88.49% depending on the market, so that’s something worth keeping an eye on.

In Mad Cars, line wins are created when three to five matching symbols land on a payline starting from the left-most reel. The lower-value set includes traffic cones (with knives stuck through them), spanners, steering wheels, and spiky dice, each paying 5 times the stake for five of a kind. The premium symbols are four characters, growing more unhinged as their value rises, and they pay 20-100x the bet for five on a line. Mad Car does not utilise wild symbols, though there are several other symbol types to cover next.

Mad Cars: Slot Features

One of the key additions is the Instant Prize Car symbols, which show bet multipliers of 1x to 100x and can only land on the bottom row. More than one Instant Prize Car symbol can appear on the grid, and they pay their displayed value once they cross the top row. They remain on the reels until they award their prize, or they can be removed when another Instant Prize Car symbol crosses the top row. Also appearing randomly on the bottom row are Scatter Car symbols. When a Scatter Car reaches the top row, the Mad Bonus feature is triggered. The Scatter Car symbol carries an instant prize of 10x the bet, and this value cannot be multiplied.

Boost Reel

The Boost Reel is a special row positioned at the top of the grid. On every base game spin, the boost real may show Multipliers, Gas, Multiplier & Gas Combo, Survivor, or Blank spaces. Boost symbols only activate when an Instant Prize Car symbol is directly beneath them:

• Multipliers – multiplies the value of the Instant Prize Car symbols by x2 to x100.
• Gas – moves the Car symbols forward by 1-6 positions.
• Multiplier & Gas Combo – multiplies the value and moves Car symbols.
• Survivor – adds a life to its respective Car symbol. If another Cars symbol exceeds the reels, this one will not be removed from the grid. Then, the Survivor function deactivates from it.

Mad Bonus Feature

This feature starts when a Scatter Car symbol passes the top row, granting 7 free spins. A total of 5 Instant Prize Car symbols are positioned on the bottom row, and regular pay symbols are removed from the reels. Each time a Car symbol passes the top row, a new one is added at the bottom of the reel, and +1 free spin is awarded.

The Boost Reel behaves the same way as it does in the base game, with the exception that the Survivor does not appear. During the Mad Bonus feature, some additional modifier symbols may land on the Boost Reel, including Line Up, Persistent Payer, Persistent Collector, and the Persistent Payer & Collector Combo:

• Line Up – when this is applied to an Instant Prize Car symbol, all other Instant Prize Car symbols are aligned in the same row.
• Persistent Payer – Persistent Payers give their values to all other Instant Prize Car symbols for the current spin and all future spins while it is on the reels. Does not give values to itself.
• Persistent Collector – collects values from all Instant Prize Car symbols on that spin and all following spins where it is present. Does not collect its own value.
• Persistent Payer & Collector Combo – gives its value to all other Instant Prize Car symbols, then collects the prize values from all other Instant Prize Car symbols. It does this on the current spin and all following spins. Does not pay or collect its own value.

Finally, the Mad Race feature can randomly trigger after the final free spin. If it activates, all Instant Prize Car symbols exceed the top row and pay out their prizes.

Bonus Buy

Tap the star icon (if available) to access the four-choice bonus buy menu. From here, you can purchase the standard Mad Bonus for 115.7x the bet, The Payer Bonus (with a Persistent Payer guaranteed from the start) for 301x the bet, or the Collector Bonus (guaranteeing a Persistent Collector from the start) for 456x the bet. The fourth selection is the Mystery Mad Bonus feature for 624x the bet, which can award one of the previous options or a version that begins with a Persistent Payer & Collector already in play.

Mad Cars: Slot Verdict

Depending on who you ask, Formula One drivers can lose 2-3 kgs of water weight during a race due to dehydration and the sheer physical strain of competing at that level. After finishing a session on Mad Cars, it felt a bit like that. Then again, nobody promised life in a post-apocalyptic world would be comfortable. If Mad Cars is any indication, it’s a wild, anything-goes environment packed with spills and thrills—but it’s far from forgiving.

In certain respects, Mad Cars came across as harsher than Money Train 2. Looking at both through the lens of bonus buy play, Mad Cars can be punishing. Yes, you get four choices, but it’s easy to get drawn into repeatedly chasing the Mystery Mad Bonus feature in hopes of landing the Persistent Payer & Collector. That’s a difficult target, and seeing bonus buys return as little as zero after paying 624x the bet is a hard outcome to stomach.

There’s another factor that can make Mad Cars feel like a bumpier journey. In the Money Train games, what appears on the grid during the bonus is effectively what you receive. That isn’t always true in the Mad Bonus feature, because Prize Car symbols must cross the line to actually award their prize—and that doesn’t always happen. This wasteland arena isn’t trying to be friendly, and the Mystery Mad Bonus feature proved to be one of the most unforgiving bonus buys we’ve dealt with in quite some time.

It’s fairly common to find slots offering a Money Train-style experience with a twist, but few titles twist as aggressively—or as often—as Mad Cars. Push Gaming may have taken a handful of recognisable ideas from the Relax Gaming smash-hit franchise, yet Mad Cars still feels like a creature all its own. And it really is a beast. This isn’t a charity slot, and it’s not here just to show off a ruined future, even if the audio-visual presentation is strong. Mad Cars is built for racing, full stop. If you manage to hit pole position—or something close to it—wins of up to 25,000x the bet can happen, but if you don’t, it can be a punishing grind.