Tic Tac Take from developer Pragmatic Play and associates Reel Kingdom is a gamblified version of the timeless paper-and-pencil game tic-tac-toe or noughts and crosses as it's also known. Most people are sure to be aware, but if not, tic-tac-toe is played between two players, who take turns to fill spaces on a 3x3 grid with an 'X' or an 'O' until a three of a kind line is made, or all spaces are filled. Playing tic-tac-toe can be so futile; Mathew Broderick used it in the film WarGames to teach a computer on the brink of launching nuclear weapons the idea of no-win scenarios. Fortunately, you can win in Tic Tac Take the slot, with better returns coming via a wild respins feature.
If Reel Kingdom often seems like a budget version of Pragmatic Play, Tic Tac Take is likely to reinforce that assessment. Its attempt to be glitzy comes across as tacky rather than glam, and a glittering background sits behind a game grid covered in a bunch of symbols, many recycled from the baffling Star Pirates Code. Like that game, Tic Tac Take is another Starburst-like slot, offering simple gaming based around building wilds on its middle three reels and triggering respins. The fact we've already got a Starburst, combined with Tic Tac Take's cheesy disco vibe, didn't exactly get us amping to bust a move.
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Beneath the veneer, Tic Tac Take is governed by a highly volatile math model and comes with three RTP settings. If you're shopping around, the highest value is 96.63% before dropping to 95.54% or even 94.57%. Base game hit frequency is quite low, where one spin in every 6.49 on average is a winner, so mentally preparing for a significant number of dead spins may help improve the experience. If you're keen, Tic Tac Take is available on any device and allows gamblers to place stakes of 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin.
Played on a 5-reel, 3-row game panel, 10 paylines are provided to land winning combinations on, which pay left to right or right to left. A payout is triggered as long as three matching symbols hit in adjacent reels starting from the first or fifth reel. This can be as high as 100x the bet for five of the rainbow symbols, declining to 50x, 25x, and 5x for the purple gem, green gem, and the three low pay gems, respectively. The star symbol is wild and substitutes for any regular pay symbol. It appears on reels 2, 3, or 4, when transformed from the O or X symbols.
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Tic Tac Take makes things simple by keeping extras to a minimum. The main extra is called the Tic Tac Take Respin Feature, which triggers naturally at any moment, or maybe bought where feature buys are permitted.
Two more symbols used in the game are the X and the O. These are present on the middle reels 2, 3, and 4 only. When a line of X or O symbols hit in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction, the respins feature is activated. For each line of X's or O's, 1 respin is awarded, up to a maximum of 8. Now, the triggering X's or O's are transformed into wilds and are locked in position for the respin. If new X or O symbols hit, for each new line they create, +1 extra respin is awarded. When respins end, the game grid returns to normal.
The Tic Tac Take Respin feature may be instantly bought for the cost of 100 times the total bet. Once bought, a spin occurs which has a random number of X or O symbols, but at least one line of them is guaranteed to hit, thereby triggering at least one respin. Bought respins have the same RTP as naturally triggered respins. Just like in Starburst XXXtreme, the bonus buy feature continues to be in play until you manually deactivate it.
Well, Tic Tac Take made more sense than its predecessor, Star Pirates Code, did. The previous game was a confusing collection of gems and coins, little pirating, all capped with a strange name. Players are on more stable ground in Tic Tac Take - the disco atmosphere is familiar, and the gameplay links cleverly to the tic-tac-toe theme. In short, it's an improvement on the previous pirate-based Starburst wannabe, though with a few caveats to consider.
There are positives, and it might be sacrilege to say this, but the respin feature is arguably better than Starburst's. For one, it is possible to win a greater number of respins, and they could be quite exciting with a good number of locked wilds on the reels. During testing, filling all three middle reels did occur, resulting in a circa 1,000x win. Tic Tac Take is limited in what it can do, literally, with a win cap of 2,200x the bet in place. Should you manage to hit that amount at any point, respins will instantly come to an end.
For clarities' sake, the biggest win during testing came from a bonus buy, as the base game's low hit rate got a bit tedious and could be brutal. Nowhere near as brutal as buying respins can get, though, and in this, we were reminded of buying Feature Spins 3 in Hacksaw Gaming's slot Harvest Wilds. The reason being is the minimum guarantee of one line of wilds doesn't tend to go very far. Shelling out 100x the bet to buy the feature often ended after just one underwhelming respin. Good things are possible, for sure, yet repeatedly paying 100x for low win respins could hurt. Let's not forget, NetEnt's own redo, Starburst XXXtreme, allows applicable players the option of paying 10x the bet for a guaranteed Starburst Wild on each spin or 95x for two Starburst Wilds. Not saying you're more likely to win there, but Starburst XXXtreme goes stratospheric when it does pop.
Still, players looking for an updated version of Starburst might be interested in what Tic Tac Take has to deliver. It somewhat expands the respins feature and the theme is kind of interesting, though you'd hardly call this next level gaming, plus the visuals leave much to be desired.
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