Sauce Boss BBQ Slots

Sauce Boss BBQ is an online slots game developed in-house at DraftKings through its Black Thrones Studios group. The game offers colorful and fun animation paired with some innovative and unique game play, including their trademarked “Symbol Boost” feature. The extra “state” that carries forward spin after spin adds a unique element of game play that is absent in nearly all online slots games. Whether this becomes your game of choice or not, we give the DraftKings team credit for continuing to roll out new game play features and formats.

First Impressions

There is a lot of animation in this game during the intro as well as in game play (when your food truck changes locations). Is it too much? Not necessarily. I appreciate the attention to detail and the fun that it brings. I typically prefer games with minimal animation as I like to focus on game play. I’d like the option to be able to skip the animation introduction.

It takes a minute to get used to the various “states” that occur and persist during game play. First, the menu on the right hand side of the screen is where the “symbol boost” comes into play. As you win paylines during spins, you can count off various items on the menu. If you expire them (take them from 15 to 0), it leads to a boost where those symbols are upgraded to the next one. You’ll see some fun animation on the right hand side, but you’ll really notice this kick in if you can “sell out” or expire a few items in a row. In our video below, you can see this happen. When this happen, you can really start to add up the wins as you start to fill up the reels more and more with the same symbol. This gets pretty exciting.

The other item to be aware of is the bad reviews. When you get a 1-star symbol during game play, it will add a bad review to your bad reviews indicator (just below the main reels). When you get three bad reviews, your right hand side menu is reset and your food truck changes location. The changing of location is kind of a fun element to mix in here.

While the symbols and graphics aren’t necessarily my favorite, the additional game play elements really is fun. I love games that push the envelope with new features and new ways of playing. Sauce Boss BBQ absolutely does that.

First Spins

While we typically go for 100, due to production difficulties, we were only able to capture the first 15-20 spins or so. Luckily for us, we hit some serious menu “sell outs” and started to really cash in on some wins. Not only was it fun, but we are thrilled to be able to show the Crossing Broad audience what this looks like during actual game play. You can see the video below:

Sauce Boss BBQ Game Play

Let’s have a look at what the game play looks like. In the next screenshot, you’ll see the standard slots screen for the game. A few things to be aware of… First, under “Specials Remaining” on the right hand side, you’ll see the brisket, the ribs, the wings, the mac and cheese and the corn each with 15 items remaining. The higher the item on the list, the more they are worth (the brisket being the most valuable). As you check off items, you can sell them out, and they’ll point to the next one up the list. You’ll see this on the next screenshot in a moment.

Additionally, take a look at the bet amounts at the bottom. They are set amounts such as $1.50, $3.00, etc. This is different from other slots games in that your “Specials Remaining” save across spins, but only within the same wager amount. If you bet $1.50 a few times, and you only have 3 corns left, if you switch to a $3.00 wager, you’ll notice corns is back at 15. So, you’ll want to stay within the same wager amount at least until your specials reset (as a result of getting 3 bad reviews).

Under the reels 3, 4 and 5, you’ll see your BAD REVIEWS counter. As you land on 1-star symbols, your bad reviews will go up. When you hit 3, your specials remaining will all reset to 15.

On this screen shot, you’ll see we landed 5 wings. This is in part because the corn and mac and cheese have already sold out, so whenever we get corn or mac and cheese on the reels, they switch to wings. This means your symbol boosting effect tends to accelerate as you eliminate options on your specials. Note on the specials remaining menu on the right hand side, you can see mac and cheese and corn have already been expired or eliminated.

This screen shot shows the rare situation where all specials on the right have been eliminated. If you can get here, you’ll start to lock in some big wins. Check out the video above to see how this works.

But this screen shot also shows landing a third 1-star symbol or bad review. You can see my bad reviews counter has now hit 3, and the game is about to reset all of my specials back to 15.

Learning the game isn’t difficult. You can play in demo mode on DraftKings to get the hang of it. Start getting some spins, notice how the specials remaining start to sell and expire, and more importantly, notice how your winning potential goes up as items get expired. Again, you can watch our youtube video to see this in action.

Our Grades

Uniqueness: 5 out of 5
Super creative concept and graphics. Innovative and trademarked “Symbol Boost” makes this game unlike any other. If you like trying out new and unique games, this is a must.

Fun Factor: 4 out of 5
Boss Sauce BBQ is fun. The unique game play elements are what draw me and make it interesting to me. The standard components of game play such as food symbols and what not are good. No bonus round exists, however it gets quite exciting as you “sell out” more items and really start to see the benefits of the symbol boost.

Ease of Understanding: 3 out of 5
For the most part, this game is a standard slots game. It might take you a few spins to understand the bad reviews counter and how the menu works on the right hand side.

Where You Can Play Sauce Boss BBQ

This game is only available at DraftKings Casino, and can be played in real money mode in Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Users can unlock tremendous online casino bonuses in these states. Moreover, demo mode is available for users wanting to experience Sauce Boss in non-online casino states.