Bison Bonanza

Bison Bonanza Overview

The United States wilderness located in what was once called the Wild West is a place of stark beauty and intriguing folklore. It is also home to some of the most exciting animals that the country possesses. We are talking here about the great bison, the bald eagle, and the lynx. It is this fascinating world that BluePrint Gaming invite you into to play their latest game – Bison Bonanza. Mechanically this is a six reel, five-row game that uses a scatter pays dynamic. The RTP is 96.5%, and the max win tops out at 10,000x the stake.

The features start with the cascade dynamic. This is triggered every time that there is a win. When this happens, all the winning symbols are removed from the reels and replaced by a new set that falls into their place. This mechanic gives players multiple chances of winning from the same spin. The next feature is a free spins round, triggered when players land four or more of the gold bison scatters on the reels. You will then be given a choice of four free spin rounds with varying free spins and multipliers. Finally, this game also has a bonus buy feature which allows you to purchase access to the free spins. All features will be explained in greater detail later on in the review.

Theme and Symbols

This game has a North American wilderness/ native American theme. This is one of the more popular themes at the moment and one being adopted by most manufacturers. Although the game centres on the bison, this game also introduces us to a host of other North American animals. These include the bald eagle, one of the icons of North America, as well as the brown bear and grey wolf. Although these animals don't necessarily live in the same habitat, Blueprint seems to be throwing anything vaguely North American at this game in an attempt to make things varied and exciting.

The background is a large gorge or valley in the middle of an arid red earth desert. A setting such as this might be found in a few states in North America, most of which can be found in the large area in the country's west. These include Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and even Texas. However, the tall cacti, scorching sun and red earth make a better case for this being Nevada, where some of the hottest temperatures on earth are recorded. The quality of the background isn't amazing, but it is satisfactorily pleasing to look at. The playing window for this game is a wooden sign with mounted bison horns and native American trinkets tied to the posts.

The symbols for this game are split into low-value, high-value and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the club, diamond, heart and spade. The spade is the most valuable of these, worth 8x the stake for the top combination of 12+ symbols. The more valuable symbols are the lynx, the wolf, the eagle, the bear and the American bison. The bison is the most valuable symbol of these, paying out at 59x the stake for the top combination. The only special symbol in this game is the gold bison coin scatter.

Game Play

Bison Bonanza is played on a 6-reel, 5-row machine with a scatter pays mechanic. To win combinations, players must land eight or more matching symbols anywhere on the board. They do not need to form any sort of pattern.

The betting range for Bison Bonanza is 20p to £10 per spin. To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stake up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information, including a short tutorial and a display of the paytable, can be found via the menu button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The spin and auto spin buttons are located in the centre of the screen.
Volatility for this slot is rated in the medium to high range. The return to player percentage for Bison Bonanza is 96.5%, which is above average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 10,000x your stake.

Features

The first feature in this game is the cascade bonus mechanic. This bonus triggers every time that there is a win registered on the board. When this happens, all of the winning symbols are removed from the reels and replaced by a new set that falls into their empty positions. The new set will then give you another chance to win. The mechanic only stops when a new set of symbols does not form a win.

The next feature is the free spins game. This game is activated when four or more golden bison scatters land anywhere on the reels. The game will then give you the choice of four free spin options. The options basically give you a number of free spins and a range of multipliers. The more spins that you pick, the lower the multipliers are. These are explained below:
Option 1 comes with 12 free spins and an attached multiplier of between 2x and 100x the stake.
Option 2 comes with 8 free spins and an attached multiplier of between 4x and 200x the stake.
Option 3 comes with 5 free spins and an attached multiplier of between 8x and 500x the stake.
The Mystery Option comes with 5-12 free spins and an attached multiplier of between 2x and 500x the stake.
Multipliers can also be topped up by multipliers landing them in the game itself. This bonus also adds five extra spins if you land three or more scatters during the bonus.
This game also comes with a Bison Bet feature that increases your bet by 25% to give you double the chance of triggering the free spins.
Finally, the bonus buy option allows you to purchase access to the free spins for a certain multiplication of your stake.

Conclusion

With a standard yet still exciting theme, a solid set of features and an admirable win potential, this game has all the makings of a decent slot game. The RTP and top win are particularly favourable, especially considering the relatively low volatility for a game such as this. This game may not be breaking new ground, but at least it's not going to disappoint.