Time to head back to the west, courtesy of Big Time Gaming. Alongside destinations like Ireland and Egypt, the wild west continues to be a point of interest for game studios and players alike, and what more famous animal to encounter in this landscape than the bison? Time to dust off your saddles and pack a bag as we come back to earth after our outer space adventure in Over the Moon to join Big Time Gaming in Big Bad Bison. With a fixed RTP of 96.58%, this highly volatile release can produce wins up to 67,640x bet.
Like I said, we're in the wild west today, on a dusty landscape that looks familiar to the Stone Desert in Utah. A pale lilac sky at dusk helps things to look pretty, whilst symbols on the rope-lined reels help to bring the theme to life – with wolves, deer, eagles, and bisons, along with a pretty, rainbow styled Wild. Other than this, things are fairly straightforward and quite distinctively BTG, with even non premiums not having changed much since the early days. Finally, a western style tune rings through – sounding eerily similar to Apache, from The Shadows.
Big Bad Bison Base Features
Taking place across 6 reels, wins are formed on Big Bad Bison by matching at least 2 or 3 symbols on adjacent reels, beginning with the leftmost reel. Each reel can hold up to 7 symbols, producing up to 117,649 ways to win. Symbols available begin with non premiums, with 9s, 10s, Js, Qs, Ks, and As, awarding wins between 0.20 and 0.30x bet for 3 of a kind matches, increasing to values between 0.70 and 0.80x bet for 6 of a kind wins. At the premium end it's the usual suspects, with green, blue, and red symbols – deer, wolves, and eagles. Land 3 of a kind of any premium to see wins between 0.40 and 0.50x bet, increasing to values between 1 and 1.50x bet for 6 of a kind matches. Purple bisons are the highest paying symbol and the only to pay for 2 of a kind, awarding wins between 1.50 and 25x bet for matches between 2 and 6 of a kind. Finally, rainbow Wild symbols are available, substituting for all symbols except gold coin Scatters.
There isn't a great deal happening in the base game of Big Bad Bison – it's really all about the bonus. One feature we do have available though are Wild symbols. As mentioned, Wild symbols substitute for all symbols except Scatters, but they can land in two forms – regular Wild symbols, or multiplier Wild symbols, wherein they can have multipliers attached up to x5.
Apart from this, Win Exchange™ is available. With Win Exchange, whenever you win 50x bet or more, you have the option to exchange 50x bet for 12 Free Spins. If you have won more than 50x bet, only 50x bet will be exchanged, and the remainder will be added to your bonus win.
If you win between 12 and 49x bet, you have the option to exchange the entire win for a chance to be awarded 12 Free Spins – by gambling. The chance of winning the gamble is represented by green on the wheel, and the chance of losing is represented by red. The higher x bet the win, the more green will be present on the wheel.
Big Bad Bison Bonus
Land 3 gold coin Scatters to trigger 12 Free Spins, plus an additional +4 spins for every Scatter beyond the third. During Free Spins, each time 2 Scatters land the minimum Megaways is increased. Each possible minimum value is listed to the left of the reels – 64, 729, 4,096, 15,625, 46,656, and 117,649 ways. This value will be the minimum ways per remaining spin, not the guaranteed amount. Once the top of the trail has been reached, the remainder of spins will be played at maximum Megaways – this takes 5 retriggers.
Alongside this, each time 2 Scatters land and the minimum Megaways increase, an additional +4 spins are awarded, plus an additional +2 spins for every Scatter beyond the third. It remains possible to land Wild symbols and multiplying Wild symbols up to x5 during Free Spins.
Players in appropriate regions can take advantage of the Bonus Buy, wherein for a cost of 50x bet, players are guaranteed 12 Free Spins.
Whilst Big Time Gaming usually opt not to place a win cap on their games, the maximum win so far in Big Bad Bison has been 67,640x bet.
First Impression
It's hard to know how to judge Big Bad Bison, since it's not the most ‘out there' slot that we've seen – from this team or any other. That said, a popular theme and a popular mechanic is often all that matters to players, who are less concerned with ‘innovation' than they are with playability and potential. There's not a great deal happening in the base game, but multiplying Wilds help to move things along, aided by Win Exchange for players lucky enough to trigger it.
In Free Spins, minimum Megaways carry the bulk of the weight – there are no cascades and no win multipliers, although multiplying Wilds can still land. This is one release where it's difficult to really spot the true potential – in testing, I had 38 spins, with many of these at minimum 117,649 ways to win, and wasn't lucky enough to bypass 100x. When the right combinations occur though, wins are possible up to 67,640x bet – so the potency is somewhere in there.
Finally, maths is highly volatile, and RTP is fixed at 96.58%. And that's it – a fixed RTP and studio reputation keeps the score up on this one, which others might consider a fairly tame release.
*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.
