Hacksaw’s Smokey Returns in Stripped-Back Le Bandit Hold & Win
Smokey the raccoon is back on the cobbles, but this time he’s working with a smaller patch. Hacksaw Gaming has trimmed its long-running Le Bandit format right down to a compact 3-reel hold-and-win game, swapping the sprawling cascading grid of the original for a leaner, chip-collecting structure. It’s the latest entry in a series that shows no sign of slowing down.
What’s been released
Hacksaw Gaming’s Le Bandit Hold & Win sees Smokey return to France for another round of mischief, with the iconic French raccoon bandit back for another adventure
. Rather than expanding on the 2023 original, the studio has gone the other way. As reviewers at BigWinBoard noted,
this one remakes the first 2023 Le Bandit slot, but instead of expanding the original, Hacksaw Gaming has gone in the opposite direction, squeezing the action onto a 3-reel grid and peeling off some of the features
.
The setting stays faithful to the source material even as the mechanics change shape.
The visuals keep the same sepia colour tone as the original slot, the piano soundtrack carries over too, and Smokey now holds a crowbar, ready to pounce
. On the reels,
familiar symbols such as bear traps, baguettes, and top hats fill the reels as the angry little miscreant pursues big prizes
.
How it plays
The game trades the original’s Golden Squares cascade mechanic for a more compact hold-and-win structure.
Special bronze, silver, and gold coins appear, with sets of three awarding prizes based on each coin’s multiplier, while jackpot markers represented by coloured casino chips can award the Mini (5x), Major (25x), Mega (250x), or Grand (2,500x) jackpot when they land as part of a win, paid as a multiple of the player’s bet
.
Two bonus rounds carry the feature weight.
Rainbow Fortune Hold & Win kicks off when players land 1 Rainbow scatter symbol, triggering a round where only coins, jackpot markers, pot of gold symbols, clovers and dead symbols can land, players get three respins that reset whenever a non-dead symbol appears, clover symbols carry multipliers of up to 20x, and pots of gold collect all coin symbols present on the reels
. A gold Epic Rainbow scatter
initiates the Rainbow Epic Drop Hold & Win feature that functions similarly to the Rainbow Fortune bonus, with the exception of guaranteeing a full grid of coin
symbols from the off, giving players a faster route into the jackpot chase.
The trade-off for the streamlined format is a lower ceiling. Independent reviewers point out that
with no free spins feature, Le Bandit Hold & Win comes with 2,500 x bet max wins, four times less than Le Bandit and far below other games in the ‘Le’ series
. RTP sits at a respectable 96.27 per cent, and buy-in options for the two hold-and-win rounds are priced at 35x and 100x stake respectively.
Where it fits
Smokey has become one of the most reliably prolific characters in Hacksaw’s catalogue, having already headlined Le Pharaoh, Le Viking, Le Zeus, Le Cowboy and several other instalments since the original Le Bandit launched in 2023. This latest release arrives hot on the heels of the studio’s move into crash games with Moneyplane and its hunting-themed Serengeti title, underlining just how many fronts Hacksaw is working simultaneously right now. For UK players who enjoyed the original’s cascading Golden Squares but fancy something with a shorter play cycle and a tighter, more concentrated jackpot chase, this stripped-down spin-off gives the studio’s most recognisable mascot a different kind of outing without asking players to learn an entirely new theme.
