NetEnt it appears takes their time to release a new slot machine. In the past, they rolled out a new casino game every month. Now they drop one every 2-3 months.
Their newest online slot, Jack Hammer 3: Diamond Affair piggybacks on the success of Jack Hammer 1 & 2. The theme of the slot is about the hard-as-nails detective Jack Hammer.
The slot mimics the same visuals and audio track as the previous Jack Hammer slots. They touched it with a few elements to keep things interesting.
The slot features 5 reels, and 6 rows along with a Scatter Pays engine. The RTP is 96.08% but there are worse RTPs as low as 88.04%. Moreover, it’s a medium variance slot offering a jackpot of 1,332x the stake.
The bonus rounds include Free Spins, Sticky Win, Jack Hammer, and Mysterious Multiplier features. A Buy Option triggers the free spins instantly for a fee.
The graphics and animations of the NetEnt slot have that comic book look and the audio track pumps. The symbols on the grid are the broads, lipstick, gun, crooks, jewels, a dog bowl, and Jack Hammer.
For 30 matching symbols the payouts range from 30x to 100x the stake. Furthermore, the wild does the usual substitution duties by replacing symbols adjacent to it except the scatter,
Gameplay and Features
Sticky Wins
You can initiate the Sticky Win bonus on any random spin during the free spins and base game. You’ll trigger the bonus during a scatter pays or when three scatters pitch.
Extra respins ensue when Jack Hammer pops up and when a new symbol forms a winning combo. The bonus round ends when winning symbols no longer appear.
Jack Hammer
The Jack Hammer symbols change the low-value symbols into high-paying symbols. They also bump up the multiplier’s value offering bigger wins.
The Mysterious Multiplier progressive stores every Jack Hammer symbol that lands. During the respins feature it resets but not during the free spins.
Mysterious Multiplier
The key to unlocking the big wins during this bonus is the high-value symbols. They transform the low-value symbols into high-paying ones.
Multiplier wins of 2x, 3x, and up to 4x occur but you need 8 matching symbols to trigger them. When 20 matching symbols appear they off multiplier wins of up to 5x.
Free Spins
The free spins feature awards 10 to 20 free spins for 5 to 10 scatters. The multipliers during the free spins feature grow with each Cascade and retriggers can occur.
But Option Free Spins
You can access the free spins immediately for a price of 75x your stake. The casino game will shoot a bunch of scatters randomly onto the grid.
Paytable
What We Like About Jack Hammer 3: Diamond Affair
The medium volatility in tandem with the Cascading engine awards “plenty of winning spins”. The multiplier values supposedly can reach epic proportions but NetEnt never gave us a figure.
Tips & Strategy
Since the action plays out on a large grid you can bank on plenty of Cascading wins. As such, you can play the slots for real money with a bonus or free spins. However, make sure you understand the bonus terms and gamble responsibly.
How to Win Money
We didn’t go all out since we kinda knew “what to expect”. The volatility plays high even though NetEnt says it plays “nice” with a medium variance flavor.
We couldn’t trigger the free spins feature with a bankroll of $100 even at the lowest betting range. We asked a few of the top NetEnt online casinos for a free chip all of them declined.
That’s disappointing since they told us they offer enough special bonuses to play the slot to win money.
Verdict: Jack Hammer 3: Diamond Affair Slot
Let’s put it this way, Jack Hammer 3: Diamond Affair looks good on paper. In reality, it fizzles out quickly unless you trigger a bonus within a few spins.
We couldn’t trigger the free spins feature within 50 spins and that was at the lowest betting range. That says a lot about the slot. The negative house expectancy is quite brutal even though it’s a medium-variance casino game.
Onto the positive stuff. The free spins feature offers a lot starting with those sticky wins and growing multipliers. During our brief stint, we noticed that the Scatter Pays engine never got going.
We thought 50 spins was not a proper assessment, but we spoke to many players. They told us that the Scatter Pays system is disappointing. And the payouts they got were small.
Jack Hammer 3: Diamond Affair follows a similar path as its predecessors, yet it doesn’t reach the same heights. The way we see it NetEnt released it mere as a “formality” than anything else.