Bonanza Falls

It’s time to revisit one of the most popular slot releases as Big Time Gaming prepare to introduce us to their new mechanic, Megadozer. The game? Bonanza. Looking back from this current point in time, it’s easy to forget just how influential Bonanza was in the online slot industry.

Offering 117,649 ways to win and an incrementing win multiplier in the bonus round, Bonanza quickly found favour with players across the world – loving it for its potential and maths model, which saw it receive the title of the ‘best wagering game’ amongst many fans.

Now, Big Time Gaming are taking us back to this location alongside the aforementioned Megadozer, as they leave behind the autumnal spirit of More Turkey to offer us tweaks and enhancements in Bonanza Falls.

With a fixed RTP of 96.51% (96.52% feature buy), this highly volatile release can produce wins up to 93,540x bet.

Bonanza Falls Base Game

It’s all very Bonanza today, as we find ourselves in the same location as that of Bonanza, Bonanza Megapays and Christmas Bonanza (albeit a different season). Greenery and rocks make up the majority of the background on the side of this mountain with waterfalls and the famous shack. There’s nothing distinctly different, so you’d be forgiven for thinking this is simply a clone with a new maths model upon loading the game up.

It’s the bonus round where things are changed though. As day moves to night on this mountainside and smoke billows from the shack’s chimney, players will see a huge machine above the reels – the Megadozer machine – working to add enhancements and features into the free spins game. It’s familiar yet slightly different, finished off with the same country-style track we all expected.

Bonanza Falls Offers Players up to 117,649 Ways to Win

Bonanza Falls Base Features

Taking place across 6 reels, wins are formed on Bonanza Falls by matching at least 2 or 3 symbols on adjacent reels, beginning with the leftmost reel. Each reel can hold up to 7 symbols, including the top reel of carts, producing a maximum of 117,649 ways to win. When it comes to symbols there’s been no change from previous Bonanza releases, with those available beginning with non premiums – 9s, 10s, Js, Qs, Ks and As. Land 3 of a kind of any non premium to see wins between 0.15 and 0.20x bet, increasing to values between 0.80 and 1x bet for 6 of a kind matches.

At the premium end we have four gems – green, blue, red and purple. Starting with green, blue, and red, you can see wins between 0.25 and 0.60x bet for 3 of a kind wins, increasing to values between 1.50 and 5x bet for 6 of a kind matches. Purple diamonds are the highest paying symbol and the only to pay for 2 of a kind. Land between 2 and 6 of a kind to see wins between 2 and 8x bet. Finally, dynamite Wilds substitute for all symbols except Scatters and Bonus Coins.

Bonus Coins Can Drop Onto the Reels During Free Spins with Megadozer

Reactions

Like most Bonanza releases, there isn’t a great deal happening in the base game of Bonanza Falls, but reactions do help to move things along somewhat.

On every spin, all symbols involved in a win will be removed from the reels, with all remaining symbols dropping down to the bottommost available position on their respective reels. New symbols will then drop in from above to fill the remaining gaps, with reactions continuing until no new wins are formed.

On the top row of carts, symbols will move in from the right.

Win Exchange

Additionally, Win Exchange is available in the base game. With Win Exchange, whenever you win 100x bet or more, you have the option to exchange 100x bet for 12 Free Spins. If you have won more than 100x bet, only 100x bet will be exchanged, and the remainder will be added to your bonus win.

If you win between 25 and 99x 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.

Megadozer Can Add Wild Symbols, Increase Symbol Multipliers or the Win Multiplier, or Award Additional Spins

Bonanza Falls Bonus

Land 4 Scatters (GOLD) to trigger 12 Megadozer Free Spins, with an additional +4 spins awarded for every Scatter beyond the fourth.

During Free Spins, the top row of carts is no longer in view. Instead, reels 2-5 are now capable of holding 7 symbols on their reel rather than 6 plus a cart, maintaining a potential 117,649 ways to win.

Megadozer

The most important aspect of Free Spins is the biggest change – Megadozer. This is a coin dozer that appears above the reels.

On every spin or reaction, one of four lights can light up, indicating that a coin is going to drop into that area of the coin dozer. This in turn can push Bonus Coins onto the reels, which can do one of the following.

• Add a Wild with a multiplier up to x5 to the reels.
• Adds a random symbol to the reels which counts for multiple instances as shown by the value attached.
• Increments the Free Spins win multiplier by +1.
• Awards an additional +4 spins.

The win multiplier during Free Spins can only be increased by Bonus Coins and does not increment for every reaction, as players may have expected.

Bonus Buy

Players in appropriate regions can fast-track their way into Free Spins with the Bonus Buy, wherein for a cost of 100x bet a bonus is guaranteed with 12 spins. When using the Bonus Buy RTP increases slightly to 96.52%.

Whilst Big Time Gaming usually opt not to place a win cap on their games, the maximum win observed so far in Bonanza Falls has been 93,540x bet.

Bonanza Falls Free Spins

First Impression

Well there you go – that was different, wasn’t it? There’s lots happening in Bonanza Falls, and it’s one of those experiences where if you don’t get off on the right footing and see a bad bonus, you’ll be sitting wondering whose idea this was, and thinking about how daft the whole thing is. It’s not one of those releases where even when you don’t win you can see how you could win, which does affect it slightly. If you get a good bonus though, the Megadozer really is a fun feature.

Of course there’s been no change to the base game, although with symbol win values changing it’s a safe bet that the entire maths model has changed – so if you think you ‘know’ this one, think again. Reactions and Win Exchange do help things to move in the right direction during the base game, but it’s Free Spins you’re aiming for.

Bonus Coins can not only award additional spins, but can increase the instance count of symbols, add Wilds with multipliers up to x5, and increase the win multiplier – which is applied to every win during the bonus. Of course, this comes at a cost of the standard incrementing win multiplier which increases for every reaction, but still – different can be good. When the right combinations occur, wins are possible up to 93,540x bet.

Finally, maths is highly volatile and RTP is fixed at 96.51% (96.52% feature buy), so no complaints there. There’s nothing to say that fans of Bonanza will love Bonanza Falls since we’ve got something entirely different in the bonus, but those players should definitely give it a go.

*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.