Rusty & Curly: Slot Overview

Western slots are everywhere, aren’t they? Developers keep heading back to the frontier to see what fresh twist they can bring to the theme. Most of the time, it’s a gritty affair set in a creaky one-horse town, where tumbleweeds rolling by are only rivalled by the amount of gunfire. It’s a crowded genre with plenty to choose from—some excellent, some not so much. Stepping away from the usual vibe is Hacksaw Gaming’s take, Rusty & Curly. Instead of stern desperado drama, this one leans into comedy, pairing two unlikely leads with their loyal animals, Crispy & Chewy, for something like Dork Unit colliding with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

So which one is Rusty and which one is Curly? Hard to say, but Curly seems like the guy on the left of the reels thanks to the curlier hair, while Rusty looks like the skinny-armed, pot-bellied, dad-bod fella on the right. We might have that backwards—sorry Rusty & Curly if we do. Either way, the duo are hanging out in the middle of nowhere on the roads of Dorkville: one trying to pull off a bow-legged tough-guy stance, the other wearing the kind of blank stare you’d expect if the universe’s secrets had just been uploaded into their head, but their brain didn’t have the RAM to process it. In short, they’re oddball heroes who set the comedic mood before the reels get going.

Sitting between the two “funslingers,” as the game info labels them, is Rusty & Curly’s 5-reel, 4-row setup. It runs on 14 paylines, paying when 3 to 5 matching symbols connect along a line starting from the leftmost reel. Using the default RTP configuration, the theoretical return is 96.29%, although certain feature buys can influence that number. The math model is medium volatile, scored 3 out of 5 by the Hacksaw team, and stakes can be set from 10 c per spin, up to $/€100 maximum.

Card ranks from Jack down to Ace make up the low pays in Rusty & Curly, delivering 1 times the bet for a 5-of-a-kind line of matching royals. Higher-value symbols include a skull, a hat, a bottle, a horseshoe, and a sheriff’s badge, paying 3 to 10 times the bet for a 5 OAK line win. Wild Posters appear on all reels, substituting for any regular paying symbol, and a line of 5 Wild Posters pays 10x the bet.

Rusty & Curly: Slot Features

Rusty & Curly ties its theme and characters neatly into the feature set. Alongside Wild Poster symbols that can trigger respins and multipliers, there’s a Stick To The Plan! bonus that enhances the base mechanics, while Who Shot The Sheriff? pulls the whole crew into a multi-cycle collect-and-payout style feature.

Almost Sticky Wild Posters

Wild Posters may appear with hearts, a multiplier, or both. They remain on the reels and award respins for as long as at least 1 heart remains. Each Wild Poster can hold up to 3 hearts, and one heart is removed with each respin. Once all hearts are gone, the Wild Poster is cleared away on the next respin. Wild Posters can also land with multipliers of x2 to x10. While respins are running, any landed FS scatter symbols are collected on the progress bar above the reels.

Stick to the Plan! Bonus

Landing 3 FS scatter symbols in the base game triggers 6 free Stick to the Plan! spins. During this bonus round increases the chance that Wild Posters arrive with a greater number of hearts and bigger multipliers, with values now ranging from x2 to x100. As long as there is at least 1 Wild Poster on the reels with 1 heart or more, respins are awarded which do not count towards the awarded free spins. FS scatters do not appear during this feature.

Who Shot The Sheriff? Bonus

If 4 FS scatters land in the base game, players receive 12 free Who Shot The Sheriff? spins split across 3 Cycles. Each Cycle is made up of 1 Collect Phase spin followed by 3 Payout Phase spins. In the Collect Phase, Rusty, Curly, or both show up and expand to a wild reel on a random reel. They then shoot 1 to 6 times at the multipliers on the grid. The total value of the multipliers they hit is added to the wild reel for the Payout Phase. Multiplier values can be anywhere from x1 to x200.

The Payout Phase has 3 spins featuring paying symbols. Rusty & Curly’s wild reels are sticky, keeping the multipliers gained in the Collect Phase. After the 3 Payout Phase spins, the feature goes back to the Collect Phase again. In the Payout Phase, Crispy & Chewy symbols can land and expand to wild reels, but do not have multipliers. They also aren’t sticky. Landing 3 FS symbols during the feature grants +1 extra Cycle, while landing 4 FS symbols grants +2 extra Cycles.

Bonus Buy

In the bonus buy menu, players can pick how they want to approach Rusty & Curly. Every option is highly volatile, apart from Stick-Up FeatureSpins, which sits at medium volatility.

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins – 3x the bet, each spin is 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. (RTP 96.4%)
• The Stick-Up FeatureSpins – 50x the bet, each spin guarantees at least 5 Wild Poster symbols. (RTP 96.29%)
• Stick To The Plan! Bonus – 100x the bet (RTP 96.29%).
• Who Shot The Sheriff? Bonus – 300x the bet (RTP 96.41%).

Rusty & Curly: Slot Verdict

What else would you expect from a slot that includes a free spins description like: “Come on down to Bonus Town, where the grass is dead and the girls are gritty”? You’re in for a few laughs, and Hacksaw Gaming has built a game loaded with comedic moments. Think back to Wanted Dead or a Wild—Rusty & Curly couldn’t be more different in atmosphere. One of the funniest thoughts is trying to picture Rusty or Curly actually shooting a sheriff, before deciding the most realistic scenario is one of them dropping their six-shooter, accidentally firing a shot that ricochets off the bell in the bell tower, angles down into the lawman’s office, and tragically catches him in the chest.

Still, this is Hacksaw, so the maths behind Rusty & Curly isn’t messing around. There are plenty of ways the game can tease, frustrate, and—when things go your way—pay out. The best part is how tightly the mechanics are woven into the theme, from the almost-sticky Wild Poster wilds to Rusty & Curly’s wild reels blasting multiplier values in phase 1 of the Who Shot THe Sheriff? bonus. That feature is a major standout. Hacksaw Gaming has used multi-phase collect-and-payout bonuses before—Alpha Eagle is one example—but not quite in this style, and as expected, Who Shot The Sherrif? can turn into a classic do-or-die Hacksaw moment. It can be brilliant if both Rusty & Curly show up and stack a heap of multipliers, and a letdown when it goes the other way.

Both of Rusty & Curly’s bonus rounds can reach the 10,000x win cap, though the base game seemingly can’t. That adds extra motivation to trigger (or buy) the bonus rounds, on top of getting to enjoy the quirky gameplay they deliver—especially Who Shot The Sheriff?—in a Western slot that feels genuinely different.