Bigger Bass Bonanza Slot Review

And, we are back to looking at another Pragmatic Play slot. Technically, this is not a Pragmatic product, but one coming from partner Reel Kingdom. That is a developer that broke through last year with a slot called Hot to Burn. A minor hit in the UK and Eastern Europe. However, they partnered with Pragmatic in June, and the duo enjoyed massive success with Big Bass Bonanza in all markets worldwide. The game was somewhat of a rip-off of the popular ReelTime Gaming Fishin’ Frenzy series.

Big Bass Bonanza landed in online casino lobbies in March 2020 and was the year’s sleeper hit, ruling the reel-spinning landscape as one of its most played games last year. It maintained this ranking in 2021, climbing as high as the number three position, which it still holds at the time of writing.

Hence, it was a no-brainer that the young Reel Kingdom should create a sequel as soon as possible and unleash it on regular and crypto casinos. It did so in early September, under the name Bigger Bass Bonanza. Below, we will get into if this highly-anticipated follow-up lives up to the hype and hits the right notes with spinners the same way its predecessor did.

Theme & Design

The theme of Bigger Bass Bonanza is fishing. Surprise. Bet you weren’t expecting that. We have to come clean. Essentially, this is more or less a remake of the original game. Still, Reel Kingdom has put in some effort to jazz up things. Unfortunately, we found their attempts underwhelming.

The game uses many of the same visuals as Big Bass, as the symbols and bubble images have remained the same here. The background is different, as this slot has a more polished-looking one that sadly is equally as static. We do not understand what palm trees are doing underwater. Another distinction is that when the game is idle, the bubbles between the reels move up in Bigger Bass Bonanza. There is also a water surface animation now, leading the eye to a party town of some sort.

We have to note that Bigger also has a very 2D look to it. Reel Kingdom did not do a decent job of making it more aesthetically pleasing, listening to some of the criticism concerning Big Bass. It has loads of saturated colors that are a feast for the eyes, but all in all, we expected to see something better graphically. The sound effects are also the same, but the background music is new and an improvement. When you hit the appropriate number of Scatters to get some three spins, a 3D model of an animated fisherman appears. Some players call this character Olaf. We are not sure if that is his official name.

The slot uses the standard Pragmatic Play button panel. So, you will have to press spin on the right side of your screen, with the auto-play option below it. The plus and minus bet-adjusters are to the sides of these buttons. In the lower-left, you click three icons to access the info and settings tabs or mute the game.

Specs & Gameplay

Bigger Bas Bonanza is a five-reel, four-row spinner with twelve paylines. It has a slightly below-average RTP of 95.67% that can go as low as 94.62% and as high as 96.71%. That depends on your chosen operator and its licensor. The original had a medium-high variance, whereas this one has a high one and almost double the max exposure at x4,000. The max bet is $240 here, which is $10 shy of the Big Bass maximum. Still, it is an impressive number, attracting high-rollers. Those who do not have deep pockets should not fret, as the lowest wager possible here is $0.12.

As discussed, Reel Kingdom has kept the same symbols in Bigger that got featured in Big. That means that the low-paying ones are the cliché card royals, A to 10. All of these pay x10 for five-of-a-kind. The high-paying ones are a boat, a rod, a lure, a tackle box, and four fish. For five-of-a-kind, these can yield prizes in the range of x50 to x200 your stake. The boat is the most valuable symbol of this batch.

A Polaroid of a fisherman holding his catch is this slot’s Wild, substituting all tokens except for the Scatter, which is a fish about to snag on a line. Both appear on all the reels. The four fish symbols are Money ones. Among these is a golden bass that can carry some impressive cash amounts. We will explain below how these money symbols contribute to the gameplay.

Bonus Features

There is one main bonus feature in this game, the same as in Big Bass Bonanza. That is the Free Spins one. That is where you can line your pockets with money. It is the principal bait of this slot, the same as last year’s release. Pun intended. The added perk here is that the extra row makes things a bit more dynamic.

Hitting three to five Scatters on the reels can activate ten, fifteen, or twenty complimentary reel rotations. When you enter the free spins mode, a display with twelve faded positions will appear at the top of the reel grid. The goal in this mode is to hit a Wild along with some Money symbols on the same spin. When that happens, the Wild collects all the values from the money symbols. It then pays out the win and fills a position on the display above the grid. Every fourth time this happens, you retrigger this mode and get a corresponding multiplier (x2, x3, and x10) applied to future Wild winning spins. You can reactivate the Free Spins feature only three times, and you can fill the twelve spots above the grid with landed Wilds only. You do not need the combo of a Wild plus Money symbol.

Note that if you reach the max win potential of x4,000 your stake in this round, instantly ends.

GOSU Verdict

Bigger Bass Bonanza is bigger than Big Bass Bonanza, no arguing that. It has an extra row, two more paylines, a higher variance, and almost double the max exposure. Nevertheless, none of these boost its playability. It remains pretty much the same game we played last year. So, given our expectations of this sequel, we have to say that it is a disappointment. As a standalone game, it is decent. It adds a few extra thrills compared to Big Bass. So, we will give it that, at least.

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