Toshi Video Club

Step inside the faded world of Toshi Video Club

Picture this: you push open the door to an old-school Japanese video store, shelves stacked high with VHS tapes, faint city lights flickering outside. That’s the mood Toshi Video Club throws at you right from the first spin. This isn’t your cookie-cutter slot theme. Instead, Hacksaw Gaming goes full throttle into a retro, comic book-inspired slice of 1990s Japan—Ben Day dots, minimal beige and orange palette, and characters that feel hand-inked.

Visually, the reels are crammed with everything from grinning frogs to running bears to vintage TVs, plus splashes of turquoise from rare multipliers. It’s quirky in a way only Japanese pop-culture tributes can be. The faint city street in the background and those newspaper-like printing effects crank up the nostalgia. Over the top, a haunted, slightly tense soundtrack pulses—a heartbeat drum and some ghostly chimes, making things light but just mysterious enough. If you’ve got a soft spot for retro anime, manga, or even just old videotapes, it hits the right notes. And because it’s from Hacksaw Gaming, a developer that never repeats itself, you know you’re in for something original.

How Toshi Video Club plays (and pays)

The game looks at first like one of those cluster-cascade slots, but don’t be fooled. Toshi Video Club uses a 5x5 grid but locks you into 15 fixed paylines—so you’ll want three or more matching symbols on a line for a win. It’s a straightforward idea in a body that looks anything but, and honestly, it’s kind of refreshing.

Betting is flexible enough to suit most bank rolls. Spins can be as cheap as €0.10 or €0.20, and rolled up to €100 for the high rollers. For most players, that starting point keeps things accessible. The RTP sits at 96.17%, which is bang on with the industry average. You get a fair shot, but don’t expect a gentle ride. This is high volatility territory—so those wins might not drop every other spin, but when they land, they can be monsters. There’s a listed hit frequency close to 18.56%, which means you’ll feel the droughts, but the game can suddenly flare up when the multipliers start stacking.

Autoplay and turbo settings are easy to toggle in the menu for those who want to rip through spins or let things run in the background.

Multipliers, cascades, and the Daruma surprise

Toshi Video Club isn’t just about spinning and waiting. Every win triggers a cascade, clearing out your winning symbols and letting new ones drop in. When you hit a streak of cascades—paired with a multiplying Daruma—you can see some chunky payouts build off one lucky spin.

The game’s big selling point is the Daruma multiplier feature. Daruma symbols land randomly, and if they appear in any winning combination, they reveal a multiplier. The twist? These are either added to a running multiplier or, with a rare Green Daruma, actually multiply your current multiplier total. The action shows up top on the screen, so you can watch your multiplier do wild things during a good bonus run.

There are three (well, four) types of Daruma, based on size or color: small ones bring multipliers from 1x–5x; medium ones go 10x–20x; and the chunky big boys hit up to 100x in a single drop. The green variety doesn’t just add—it multiplies your entire stack by up to 5x. It’s simple once you see it, but reading the paytable might make your brain cramp if you haven’t seen this style before. That’s where the Toshi Video Club demo comes in: a few free play spins, and you’ll get it quickly.

Free Spins: the real club experience

Land three Free Spin symbols anywhere, and you’re in for the bonus round: 10 free spins with a huge twist. In the base game, any multipliers you collect reset between spins. In the bonus, they don’t—so your multiplier just keeps piling up. If you’re lucky with those Darumas, especially the green ones, this mode goes off the rails (in the best way).

Each spin checks your accumulator at the top, then applies it to every win. There’s a real sense of building momentum here—the kind that makes high volatility games worth the wait when they finally pay. Hitting Free Spins might take patience (1 in 261 spins on average), but when you finally get there, the possibility for a 10,000x max payout starts looking a little more realistic.

Symbols, wins, and how it all fits together

Winning symbols fit neatly into that Japanese VHS dreamscape—a cassette tape, a nerdy TV, a sushi roll, bowl of noodles, retro controller, and that iconic frog. The frog’s got the top payout for non-wilds, paying 20x for a five-symbol hit. The wild is even juicier, giving up to 40x for its own five-of-a-kind and filling in for everything but the Free Spins symbol.

Lower pays are classic—think stylized card suits, keeping things uncluttered. The Free Spins symbol lets you know exactly when you’re in business, but otherwise doesn’t pay. Animation is subtle, but pops of color and those comic-influenced graphics make even basic wins feel lively.

Getting started (and where to try Toshi Video Club free play)

Setup is classic Hacksaw—no fuss. Hit the + or – to pick your bet. If you want to check payouts, hit the menu and look for the ‘i’. You’ll find the paytable, a rundown on the Daruma mechanics, and a look at the lines. All the essentials in two clicks. The spin button does what you’d expect, and autoplay/turbo are one menu hop away.

First few spins feel straightforward—low win rate, but occasionally, a Daruma shows up and bumps an average result into ‘this could go places’ territory. Give the Toshi Video Club demo a spin first if you want to see how the multipliers work before betting real money.

How it stacks up against other slots

Anyone who loves unique multipliers, like what you’d find in Jammin’ Jars or Push Gaming’s wildest, will dig Toshi Video Club. It’s not a Megaways clone, nor does it feel like all those grid-based or cluster-pay copycats. The blend of fixed lines and cascading with rolling multipliers is something you just don’t feel often.

If retro-themed slots like Retro Tapes, Punk Rocker, or anything with a vintage toybox vibe are your speed, this sits right alongside. For those really hunting maximum volatility, this isn’t as ruthless as some Nolimit City titles—but the top-end potential can still pop off nicely. And purely on looks, nothing quite lands the same scratched-manga feel.

Final word: should you check out Toshi Video Club?

If a high volatility slot with a big-canvas, Japanese nostalgia feel sounds like your sort of Friday night, Toshi Video Club delivers. The multipliers genuinely offer a fun twist, and the base game never feels too dry thanks to the wilds and cascades. The bonus round is what you’re grinding for—but the trip there is stylish, weird, and sometimes surprisingly generous.

Want to try something similar or branch into more of Hacksaw’s roster? Don’t miss Chaos Crew for more wild multipliers or explore East Asian themes in slots like Moon Princess or Koi Princess. But for a shot at 10,000x and that offbeat Tokyo mood, Toshi Video Club is a club well worth a visit.