Zicke Zacke: Slot Overview

It’s time to knock back a stein or two in the spirit of Oktoberfest with Stakelogic’s online slot Zicke Zacke. In full, Zicke Zacke comes from the chant ‘Zicke zacke zicke zacke hoi hoi hoi’, a loud invitation to lift your glass and take a swig. While digging into Oktoberfest trivia to pin down that phrase, we also ran into plenty of other classic festival nods. One of them is ‘Schunklen’, a dance you can do without even standing up. Just link arms with the people next to you and sway from side to side. Convenient. But before we disappear too far down the Oktoberfest rabbit hole and end up soaked, let’s fire up Zicke Zacke and see how well it sets the mood.

It kicks off in a seriously upbeat way, and a lot of that comes from the oompah band soundtrack, which makes it hard not to smile and tap along. The graphics keep the same lively tone, showing a traditional German setting with charming buildings, blue skies, warm sunshine, kegs, sausages, and of course the main attraction for many Oktoberfest visitors – beer. Did we say cheerful? It definitely is, and the feel-good vibe Zicke Zacke creates was more than enough to make us hit play and see what it had lined up.

The action is served on a 5-reel, 4-row layout with 20 fixed paylines. Players can jump in on any device and choose a stake that fits, ranging from 20 p/c to $/€40 per paid spin. If you feel like turning things up, the Super Stake button doubles the wager while doubling the chance of triggering free spins or the Beer Tower feature in the base game. Rated medium-high volatile, Zicke Zacke has a default return to player of 96.2%, though it’s worth watching out for lower RTP versions that may be available.

Standard wins pay left to right from reel one, and there are nine regular symbols in total. The first five are wooden 10-A card icons, paying 2.5-5x the bet for a five-of-a-kind line. The other four are beer mugs/steins, and they pay 10-50x the bet for five matching symbols on a payline. Wild symbols assist by substituting for any normal paying symbol and can appear on all five reels. When wilds form a win on their own, they pay the same as the highest-value symbol.

Zicke Zacke: Slot Features

Wilds also connect to a base game feature. If wilds land in a stack on reels 2, 3, or 4 during the base game, they transform into the Beer Tower feature, awarding 3 respins. With each respin, the top wild symbol becomes empty, and once all wilds are empty, the feature ends. There is, however, a chance the feature randomly retriggers after the third respin, refilling the wilds and granting 3 additional respins.

Free Spins with Pick and Click

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols triggers the Pick and Click game. Players choose a coaster to decide which wild feature will apply in free spins – sticky wilds, dropping wilds, or expanding wilds. With 3 scatters, you win 8 free spins with sticky wilds, 10 free spins with dropping wilds, or 12 free spins with expanding wilds. If the bonus starts with 4 or 5 scatters, players receive an extra 4 or 10 free spins, respectively.

Sticky wilds remain fixed to the reels once they land until the feature finishes, dropping wilds fall down one position each spin before dropping off, and expanding wilds expand to fill the reel they appear on. In addition, during free spins, when the Collector Symbol lands, it is added to the Collection Bar. Every time 4 Collector Symbols are gathered, +5 free spins are awarded and the win multiplier increases to the next level. Once the win multiplier reaches x20, the Collection Bar stops filling.

Buy Bonus

Where offered, the feature buy menu allows players to purchase 8-12, 12-16, or 18-22 free spins for 100, 200, or 400 times the bet, respectively. A fourth option costs 125x and gives a chance to win one of the three options above.

Zicke Zacke: Slot Verdict

So, did Zicke Zacke leave us wanting to top up a few steins and get loud at a digital festival? In a way, yes. Oktoberfest is a theme packed with strong ingredients for developers to use. Between the drinks, traditional outfits, food, infectious oompah music, and all-round good vibes, it’s easy to see why millions head to Munich every year to celebrate. Stakelogic has managed to capture a solid dose of that Oktoberfest spirit, so anyone wanting a bit of d’Wiesn on the reels will find it in Zicke Zacke.

The gameplay has plenty of energy too, and for us it felt even livelier with the Super Stake option switched on. Super Stake doubles the bet, but with it active, free spins seemed to land fairly regularly, though that may simply have been a fortunate run. The fact that the bonus round can award three different random wild features adds a bit of variation as well. None of them are especially original; in fact, they’re not original at all, although sticky wilds can deliver, and expanding wilds can also come through, while dropping wilds felt like the least thrilling of the three during our session. The Beer Tower feature was a decent extra too, and at times more than one Tower could trigger together, most often on reels 2 and 4. The outcomes weren’t mind-blowing, but it was a nice base-game addition, like nibbling a brezen while waiting for the Schwienshaxe to show up.

In the wider xylophone line-up of online slots, Zicke Zacke may sit around the middle of the pack, and there are slightly stronger options available such as Helga Goes Wild, but it still has a place. In particular, players after a colourful, upbeat Oktoberfest slot filled with familiar sights and sounds, plus a trio of wild free spin features, should find plenty to enjoy in Zicke Zacke.