Tic Tac Take: Slot Overview

Tic Tac Take by Pragmatic Play and partner studio Reel Kingdom turns the classic pen-and-paper pastime tic-tac-toe (also known as noughts and crosses) into a slot format. Most will know the rules already, but in tic-tac-toe two players alternate placing an ‘X’ or an ‘O’ onto a 3×3 grid, aiming to complete a line of three, or else the board fills with no winner. The game can feel pointless at times; Mathew Broderick famously used it in the movie WarGames to show a computer close to launching nuclear weapons what a no-win situation looks like. Thankfully, there are wins to be had in the Tic Tac Take slot, with the strongest potential coming from its wild respins mechanic.

If Reel Kingdom can sometimes feel like a cut-price take on Pragmatic Play, Tic Tac Take probably won’t change that perception. It tries to look flashy, but the result leans more gaudy than glamorous, pairing a sparkly backdrop with a symbol set that includes plenty of familiar faces, many lifted from the puzzling Star Pirates Code. As with that title, Tic Tac Take is another Starburst-style game, keeping things straightforward by focusing on building wilds across the middle three reels and then kicking off respins. With Starburst already doing the rounds, and Tic Tac Take’s cheesy disco styling, we weren’t exactly itching to hit the dancefloor.

Under the shiny surface, Tic Tac Take runs on a highly volatile math model and offers three RTP configurations. If you’re comparing casinos, the top setting is 96.63%, with lower options at 95.54% and 94.57%. The base game hit frequency is on the sparse side, with roughly one spin in every 6.49 paying on average, so expecting plenty of blanks can make the session feel less harsh. For those who want to try it, Tic Tac Take works across devices and supports wagers from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin.

The slot uses a 5-reel, 3-row layout with 10 paylines, paying both left to right and right to left. Wins land when at least three matching symbols connect on adjacent reels starting from reel one or reel five. The top payout reaches 100x the bet for five rainbow symbols, then drops to 50x, 25x, and 5x for the purple gem, green gem, and the three lower-value gems, respectively. The star symbol is wild and can replace any standard paying symbol. It shows up on reels 2, 3, or 4 after the O or X symbols convert.

Tic Tac Take: Slot Features

Tic Tac Take keeps the add-ons lean and easy to follow. The key extra is the Tic Tac Take Respin Feature, which can trigger in regular play at any time, or be purchased in jurisdictions where feature buys are available.

Tic Tac Take Respins

Two additional symbols in play are the X and the O. These only appear on the central reels 2, 3, and 4. When a line of X or O symbols forms in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal pattern, the respins feature begins. Each completed line of X’s or O’s awards 1 respin, up to a maximum of 8. The X’s or O’s that triggered the feature are then transformed into wilds and remain locked in position during the respins. If extra X or O symbols land, every new line they create grants +1 additional respin. Once the respins finish, the grid resets back to its standard state.

Buy Respins

The Tic Tac Take Respin feature can be instantly bought for 100 times the total bet. After purchase, a spin is played containing a random number of X or O symbols, with at least one line guaranteed to land, ensuring at least one respin triggers. Purchased respins use the same RTP as respins triggered naturally. As in Starburst XXXtreme, the bonus buy option stays active until you switch it off yourself.

Tic Tac Take: Slot Verdict

Tic Tac Take is easier to grasp than the earlier Star Pirates Code. That previous release felt like a muddled mix of gems and coins with very little pirating, topped off by an odd title. With Tic Tac Take, players get something more coherent: the disco setting is instantly recognisable, and the mechanics tie in neatly with the tic-tac-toe concept. Overall, it’s a step up from the pirate-flavoured Starburst imitator, though there are still a few catches worth weighing up.

There are upsides, and it may sound like heresy, but the respin feature could be considered stronger than Starburst’s. For starters, you can collect more respins, and the sequence can get genuinely lively when plenty of wilds lock into place. In testing, the three middle reels did fill completely, producing a roughly 1,000x win. That said, Tic Tac Take has a hard ceiling, with a win cap of 2,200x the bet. If you reach that limit at any time, the respins stop immediately.

To be clear, the largest win during testing came via a bonus buy, because the base game’s low hit rate started to drag and could feel punishing. Not as punishing as purchasing respins can be, though, and it brought to mind buying Feature Spins 3 in Hacksaw Gaming’s Harvest Wilds. The issue is that the minimum guarantee of one wild line often doesn’t achieve much. Paying 100x the bet for the feature frequently led to just a single, fairly disappointing respin. Big moments can happen, absolutely, but repeatedly dropping 100x for low-return respins can sting. It’s also worth remembering that NetEnt’s own rework, Starburst XXXtreme, gives eligible players the option to pay 10x the bet for a guaranteed Starburst Wild each spin, or 95x for two Starburst Wilds. That doesn’t mean wins are more likely there, but when Starburst XXXtreme does connect, it can really take off.

Even so, anyone after a more modern spin on Starburst may want to see what Tic Tac Take offers. It adds a bit more scope to the respins concept and the theme has some appeal, though it’s hardly cutting-edge, and the presentation leaves a lot of room for improvement.