Do you know that feeling that you get when you’ve seen something before even though it is apparently brand new? Call it déjà vu or the brain playing tricks on you. Either way, it’s always a little unsettling.

That brings me to Forest Fortune slot, a new release from Hacksaw Gaming. Except it isn’t. I knew I had seen it before! The game was first released in early 2021. We even reviewed it here. So, why is Hacksaw calling it a new game?

A reskin or a hoodwink?

Now a reskin or a sequel to a slot game is nothing new, and every slot provider does it. However, what Hacksaw has done with Forest Fortune slot isn’t that. The game has received a slight update to its graphics but on the whole, it looks virtually identical with exactly the same set of bonus features.

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A clue to what’s going on could be what has changed between the two releases. In addition to the RTP being significantly higher at 96.31% in the new version as opposed to 94.6% in the old, the old version offers a staggeringly high €3,000,000 max win which has got a severe haircut in the re-release, which now features a max win of just €250,000. Volatility has also shifted from very high in the old version to medium in the new.

So, what does all this mean? It means that the old version was risky for casinos to carry and not all that rewarding for players to play. In short, it wasn’t very popular. The new game balances small consistent wins with an average max win amount. This makes it a much more attractive option for both players and casinos like BitStarz.

Let’s review those features

Since it has been over a year since I looked at the slot’s features, let’s do a little refresher, shall we?

In the base game, wilds will come with the wind. When they arrive on the reels, they’ll be blown in a random direction spreading across the reels in that direction for as many spaces as wilds appeared on the reels. So, if two wilds appear on the reels, the wind will blow and add two additional wilds per wild onto the reels. However, if there is no space to expand in the direction the wind has blown, you’ll be out of luck.

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Then we get the free spins feature or the Forest Fortune slot version of free spins that is. Once triggered, you will be taken deeper into the forest to a second set of reels. The reels will feature either inactive dead leaf symbols or a multiplier. The reels also feature global multipliers with values starting at 1x above each reel. As the reels spin, you have the chance to add multipliers to each reel’s global multiplier. Some multipliers will just add their value to the total while others will multiply the reel’s total value. Once your spins have been depleted, the multipliers for each reel will be added together and multiplied by your bet amount to calculate your winnings.

If you’re not keen on waiting for the winds to change, you can also select to buy a round of the free spins feature.

Is Forest Fortune slot worth a revisit?

Yes, it is. The way this was handled wasn’t great. I don’t understand why they couldn’t add a feature or two, change the graphics a little and call it Forest Fortune 2 or Forest Fortune Returns. Despite this, the new version of Forest Fortune slot did actually fix a lot of gripes I had with the original. That massive max win was great, but it was given at a cost to everything else including entertaining gameplay. The new version is actually something I’d come back to.

If you’re looking for something more original from Hacksaw, I recommend giving Hand of Anubis and ITERO a try.