Stickem Slot Review
A yellow cartoon fellow in a bowler hat stands grinning beside a floating reel frame, in a meadow so hazy the grass looks half-asleep. Stickem is a game that barely pays for its own reel spins: the symbol wins are small, the real money is deferred to the end of a single sticky feature, and whether that’s a smart design or a stingy one is the argument of the whole game.
The oddness is deliberate. Hacksaw Gaming built this one around a grinning bloke in gloves and a logo in fat yellow bubble letters with a tiny hat tipped on the S, in the same stripped-back vein as Stack ‘Em and Chaos Crew.
The numbers are plain: 96.08% RTP, a 5×4 grid, 1,024 ways to win, and bets running from 0.20 to 450.00 per spin. Underneath sits a sticky re-spin feature that can build to 2,048x the bet. The hat stays on.
Base Game & Features
Wins work left to right: any run of the same symbol across consecutive reels, starting from the leftmost one, counts as a winning way. Multiple wins in a round add together, and only the highest combination on each way pays. With 1,024 ways on a 5×4 grid, that’s a lot of ways for a game this quiet-looking.
The bet is set with arrows either side of the BET display, and the game starts with a press of the spin button; the spacebar does the same job. Autoplay runs a chosen number of rounds automatically, with a stop button always available, and advanced autoplay settings let you set the number of plays and further conditions before it stops. A turbo mode strips each round down to its fastest possible pace.
Winnings and winning combinations are paid according to the paytable, with each win in a round added to the total shown in the WIN field. Balance, bet and win all sit along the bottom of the screen, and the paytable itself always reflects the bet you’ve chosen.
There’s no wild in Stickem, which is unusual. The special symbols carry everything: the thumbs up drives the sticky feature, and the two scatters handle free spins and the bonus game. The rest of the paytable is a motley crew of cash, dice and bones.
Symbols pay as multiples of the total bet:
- Brown pouch: 1x for three, 2x for four, 3x for five
- Thumbs up: 0.2x for three, 1x for four, 2x for five
- Coin, diamond and green cash: 0.5x for three, 1x for four, 1.5x for five
- Crossbones: 0.5x for three, 0.6x for four, 0.7x for five
- Playing cards A and K: 0.4x for three, 0.5x for four, 0.6x for five
- Flask: 0.3x for three, 0.4x for four, 0.8x for five
- Dice: 0.3x for three, 0.4x for four, 0.5x for five
- Star: 0.1x for three, 0.2x for four, 0.3x for five
The values are modest. Even the top pouch pays just 3x for a full line of five, so the base game isn’t where the money lives. It’s where the thumbs up lives, and the thumbs up is the whole idea.
Three symbols of a kind is the minimum for any pay, and every value scales from the total bet rather than a line bet, which matters in a ways game. The tiers sit close together, so most five-of-a-kind wins land within a narrow band of each other rather than jumping between riches and scraps.
Sticky Win Spin
Three or more thumbs up symbols forming a win triggers the Sticky Win Spin. The triggering symbols lock in place and a free re-spin follows. Any new thumbs up that lands during that re-spin sticks too, and each one awards another re-spin.
The loop is simple: land a thumbs up, keep the re-spin; land nothing, the feature ends. When it does end, the game totals up every thumbs up that landed across the whole run and pays it as a single award. The ceiling is 2,048x the bet.
That closing payment is the feature’s real character. Nothing pays out spin by spin during the run; every sticky symbol that lands is a promise rather than a payout, and the whole feature’s value arrives in one lump at the end. A run that dies early after four or five sticky symbols pays for those symbols and nothing more.
Two things can’t happen during it: the bonus game and free spins can’t trigger. So a good sticky run blocks the other features for its duration. That’s the whole tension of the game, in one small rule.
Stickem Free Spins & Bonus Game
Free Spins
Free spin scatter symbols trigger the round, which plays out with added high value symbols on the reels. The awards scale with the scatter count:
- 3 scatters: 5 free spins
- 4 scatters: 10 free spins
- 5 scatters: 15 free spins
The spins run automatically until none are left. Each spin’s win appears in the WIN field while the accumulating total sits beside the count of remaining spins, so you can watch the round build without doing anything.
The free spin symbol itself doesn’t appear during the round, so there’s no retrigger. The spins you start with are the spins you get, and the added high value symbols do the rest. The base game’s winning requirements carry over unchanged: the same left-to-right combinations count, and every wager stays eligible for every winning combination.
Bonus Game
Three bonus scatter symbols in the same spin trigger the bonus game, built around a bonus wheel. Wins on the wheel go up to 1,000x the bet.
All bonus game wins are proportional to the bet level of the round that triggered it, so the wheel scales with your stake. Bonus scatters appear in the base game only; you won’t see them during free spins or the sticky feature.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7/10
Playing Stickem is mostly waiting: small line wins ticking over while you hope the thumbs up starts a run and keeps it going. That waiting is exactly why somebody would pick it. Every sticky symbol that lands raises the pot and the stakes of the next re-spin, and the bloke in the bowler hat grinning through it all is the right mascot for a game built on delayed gratification.
The best thing here is that single deferred payout. One award at the end of a run, capped at 2,048x, gives the game a nerve that paid-out-per-spin features never manage. The worst thing is the gap around it: line wins top out at 3x, and free spins can’t retrigger, so the stretches between features are lean.
It’s for players who like one mechanic deep rather than five shallow, and who don’t mind a long quiet spell before the payoff. Anyone who wants constant feature variety will find it sparse. On its own terms, in its own sleepy meadow, it delivers.
Stickem FAQs
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What is the RTP of Stickem?
96.08%. -
How many paylines does Stickem have?
Stickem offers 1,024 ways to win on a 5×4 grid. Wins form when the same symbol appears on consecutive reels from the leftmost reel onwards. -
What is the grid size of Stickem?
Stickem plays on a 5×4 grid with 1,024 ways to win. -
What is the minimum and maximum bet on Stickem?
Bets run from 0.20 to 450.00 per spin. -
Who makes Stickem?
Stickem is made by Hacksaw Gaming. -
How does the Sticky Win Spin feature work?
Three or more thumbs up symbols forming a win trigger a free re-spin with the triggering symbols held in place. Every new thumbs up that lands also sticks and awards another re-spin, and the feature continues until a re-spin brings no new thumbs up. All thumbs up symbols that landed during the feature then pay out as a single award, up to 2,048x your bet. -
How many free spins do you get in Stickem?
Three free spin scatters award 5 spins, four award 10, and five award 15. The round plays with added high value symbols and cannot retrigger, as the free spin symbol doesn’t appear during free spins. -
What does the bonus wheel pay in Stickem?
Three bonus scatter symbols in the same spin trigger the bonus game, which features a bonus wheel with wins up to 1,000x your bet. All bonus game wins are proportional to the bet level of the round that activated it.
