Cubes 2

Cubes 2 Features

Not much has changed regarding the layout of Cubes 2 from the first version. You get a 5×5 grid to start with and that’s made up of a mix of 6 different colours: yellow, blue, red, green, pink, purple.

All of the symbols are worth the same in terms of value, so they are there for aesthetics more than anything. The cluster pays feature of the Cubes 2 means you need to get 5 or more of the same colours all linked to get a winning combination. The higher the number of cube combinations means the bigger the wins. It starts at 01.x for 5 cubes and goes right up to 40x your stake for 25+.

This works just the same as if you were playing Tetris. I can’t help but feel there would be a little more depth if the colours were representative of different values. After around 15 minutes of gameplay, it became a little monotonous, if I’m being honest.

Now, the more exciting bit. — One of the key differences from Cubes to Cubes 2 is the inclusion of corner multipliers. There are now four times more of them (4 vs 1) and there is no limit to how big they can grow! Should any combination land within an “X” corner, then a multiplier will be added, which is equal to the number of cubes in the cluster.

In terms of the meat of the game, you’re getting an RTP of 96.33%, down slightly from the previous game of 96.35% and an increase in volatility, from medium/high to high. Spins can be made from as little as 20p up to a max of £100, making it one for a wide range of bankrolls.

Expanding Grid

I was pleased to see that Cubes 2 had kept the expanding grid element to the game that worked so well in the original. As stated earlier, the game starts with their 5×5 grid and then this increase should a winning combination of 5 or more squares appear.

The next jump is 7×7 and should either that combination increase or a new one appear it expands again to 9×9 and then to 11×11. If you pick up a range of colours in that time it’s stored at the top and this is how you get access to the free spins round.

If you fail to increase your winning combinations, the squares reset, and you head back to the 5×5.

Bonus Buys

Cubes 2 has integrated bonus buys that allow you to get access to the two main features: Free Spins (129x stake) and Multi-Coloured Free Spins (109x stake). Honestly, the value for money is questionable as it was rare from our tests to see the wins outweigh the initial purchase price. Much of the success is due to the initial free spins raffle, which Cubes 2 has going for both of its unique free spin features (see the video above). Also, that’s what you can expect with the 5-out-of-5 volatility.

The bonus buy is a good option to have given that there’s no such possibility in the OG. However, the game strikes at a win frequency of around 15.68%, which means that buying into the feature rounds is not necessarily needed (as with slots like San Quentin), due to the frequency you will get there in normal play modes. The odds of hitting a feature within this game is 1:223, which is fairly good given the volatility.

Free Spins

Unless you buy this bonus for a 129x bet, you will need to hit 5 or more winning clusters in different colours in the base game to trigger this bonus round.

Games start with 5 free spins and then you can get additional ones for your picks, up to a total of 12. Slots can often be pretty tedious when there is little to no interaction for the user. To see that you had a few decisions to make within the free spins round on Cubes 2, was a nice surprise which the developer has kept from the OG. Granted, you aren’t taking on the final boss in a Final Fantasy game here, but you will need to choose special boxes with free spin’s multiplier and your sticky colour.

The max win within them is 10,500x (a record for Hacksaw Gaming so far) but multipliers start from 500x, which are quite attainable. To ping these, you need to take note of your sticky colour from your box picks, then the more of these colours that you get with each spin, head into a box meter that fills up.

You need to trigger 50 sticky colours to get the 500x multiplier. Once you surpass this you move up to 70 for 2,500x and 90 for 7,000x. That is a welcomed improvement on the OG’s single prize which is limited to 2,500x.

It’s worth noting that the RTP dips slightly to 96.30% for both the free spins and multi-colour free spins round.

Multi Colour Free Spins Round

The Multi-Colour Free Spins bonus is an entirely new bonus feature available only in the sequel. And it’s also more exciting than the regular bonus. It’s quite tricky to trigger though, as you’ll need to have the same cube colour in all four corner multipliers in the base game (or 109x for the bonus buy).

In this round, you again need to choose boxes that contain free spins and not one but up to 4 sticky colours! The max multiplier for this bonus game is 7,000x (without the extra ones) and the max number of free spins is 10, compared to 12 in the main free spins game. But, you will get to play with the corner multipliers, which offer a significant advantage.