RIP City: Slot Overview

Cats and mice have been sworn rivals for ages. That feud plays out not only in real life but across film and TV too, with the Tom & Jerry cartoons as a classic example of cat-and-mouse chaos. Now the pair return in an online slot from developer Hacksaw Gaming called RIP City, blending a vintage cartoon look with modern mechanics, including two bonus rounds and several ways to tackle the game if bonus buys are available where you play.

Leaning into the retro vibe are the two leads, illustrated in a classic Walt Disney/Hanna-Barbera-esque style. Ro$$ is the cat, posted up on the left side of the screen, while Maxx the mouse sits on the right, taking a drag on a ciggy and clutching a spare for a quick swap. Visually, Hacksaw Gaming relies mainly on black, grey, and white, then splashes in pinks, yellows, blues, and greens. It’s a high-contrast approach the studio likes, seen in earlier titles such as Chaos Crew, Outlaws Inc, and Break Bones. It works reasonably well here—slightly dull in places—but the two characters and their obvious hostility bring some welcome attitude.

Between the two troublemakers sits RIP City’s reel set. It uses a 5×5 matrix with 19 fixed paylines, where wins form with three to five matching symbols. On the math side, RIP City carries a general rating of 3 out of 5 for volatility and a top RTP of 96.22%. That said, it’s worth checking the paytable, as the slot is also available with three lower return settings. You can jump in on any device, and stakes run from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin.

A closer look at the paytable reveals ten regular paying symbols split evenly between low and high values. The low symbols are 10-A royals, paying 5-10x the bet for five-of-a-kind. The premium set includes a peeled banana, a skull with a candle on top, two dice, a smiley face, and an eight-ball/heart icon, with five-of-a-kind paying 15 to 20 times the stake. There are also two kinds of wild symbols, and they can appear on all reels. Wilds replace any paying symbol and award 25x the bet for a five-of-a-kind line.

RIP City: Slot Features

This cat-and-mouse scrap comes with an expanding Wild Cat symbol, the Ro$$ Bonus round, the Maxx Bonus round, plus five feature buy choices.

Wild Cat Symbol

The Wild Cat symbol appears as a 1×1 tile and expands to the bottom of its reel if it would be part of a winning combination once expanded. Every position covered by the expanded Wild Cat symbol becomes wild. If it doesn’t expand, it simply acts as a 1×1 wild. Only one Wild Cat symbol can be present on a reel at any time. If a Wild Cat symbol expands through a wild symbol, it gains a multiplier that applies to the entire expanded Wild Cat symbol. Possible multiplier values are 2x-10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x, or 200x. If a win contains more than one multiplier, the values are added together and then applied to the win.

Ro$$ Bonus

Hitting 3 FS scatter symbols in the base game awards 10 free spins in the Ro$$ Bonus. In this round, there’s a better chance of landing Wild Cat symbols and wilds compared to the base game. If exactly 3 FS symbols land, players receive +4 free spins. Alternatively, if 4 FS symbols land, Maxx Bonus free spins play when the current spin ends – if the number of free spins is less than 10, the number is set to 10; otherwise, the number of spins remains the same.

Maxx Bonus

Land 4 FS scatters in the main game to trigger the Maxx Bonus with 10 free spins. During this feature, when a Wild Cat symbol lands, it activates its reel. Once a reel is activated, a Wild Cat symbol is guaranteed to land on that reel until the feature ends. Players gain +4 free spins when 3 FS scatters land while this feature is running.

Buy Bonus

If available, pressing the yellow round Buy Bonus button lets players access RIP City through the following modes:

• Bonushunt FeatureSpins – 3x the bet where each spin is five times more likely to activate a bonus game. Volatility is high, and the max RTP is 96.44%.
• 2 Wild Cats FeatureSpins – 20x the bet where each spin guarantees at least 2 Wild Cat symbols. Volatility is very high, and the max RTP is 96.34%.
• 3 Wild Cats FeatureSpins – 50x the bet, where each spin guarantees at least 3 Wild Cat symbols. Volatility is very high, and the max RTP is 96.31%.
• Ro$$ Bonus – 110x the bet. Volatility is high, and the max RTP is 96.2%.
• Maxx Bonus – 2000x the bet. Volatility is high, and the max RTP is 96.41%.

RIP City: Slot Verdict

While playing, it sometimes felt like RIP City might contain an inside joke or some hidden reference that only a small circle of people would catch. Maybe it’s even a jab at a rival studio? Hard to tell. It’s a bit like trying to decode why The KLF burned a million pounds in cash in the 1990s—was it anti-capitalist protest, performance art, a stunt, Discordian mischief? We’ll probably never know. So it’s best not to spiral into theories and lose the plot in this post-modern, noir-tinged riddle starring a cat named Ro$$ and a mouse named Maxx.

Putting that mystery aside, one thing is clear: RIP City is unmistakably a Hacksaw Gaming slot. That can mean a rough ride, no question, with moments of excitement thanks to expanding wilds and multiplier potential, but it’s also not among the studio’s strongest efforts. The retro cartoon concept is a nice touch, yet it doesn’t hit with the same visual impact as some of Hacksaw Gaming’s more standout releases. Hand of Anubis came to mind immediately as a point of comparison. Even a less flashy title like Chaos Crew carried a cheeky energy that cut through, despite its fairly restrained background palette.

In terms of play, RIP City feels geared more toward bonus-buy players than those sticking to standard spins. That impression grew stronger during the first proper session, where the game burned through loads of base spins with very few natural bonus triggers. The expanding wilds do add some life to the base game, but seeing what RIP City can really do makes the buy button feel hard to ignore. The 2 or 3 Wild Cat FeatureSpins might be worth a look, though they’re expensive at 20x or 50x the bet for a single spin. Ro$$ free spins were middling—essentially the base game with supposedly more wilds—while Maxx free spins, with activated reels and guaranteed wilds, could be genuinely interesting at times.

Ultimately, RIP City should still appeal to fans of Hacksaw Gaming’s style. It has the capacity to be brutal, delivering the Ramen or Lambo attitude the studio is known for, along with a top potential of 12,500x the bet if the cat vs mouse feud goes completely off the rails on the reels. It’s just not the best Hacksaw Gaming has produced, missing some of the spark and energy found in its stronger titles.