For their second Megaways release, developer Skywind Group is visiting the majestic North American plains in their nature slot Big Buffalo Megaways. Actually, we should have said revisiting since not only has Skywind been in this part of the world before, but Big Buffalo Megaways is an updated, Megaways remake of an earlier online slots release titled Big Buffalo. When you get down to it, the two games are very closely related, and the way the original was set up means the Megaways version doesn’t do a whole lot to enhance the experience; let’s take a look.
Big in real life and big in iGaming, buffalo are a motif that pops up time and again in slots – as well as their dreamy home turf. Skywind Group has recycled all of the original graphics, meaning the same dry, red rock formations in a background image set against a cloudy blue sky. What’s nice about the visuals is they have an almost oil painting quality, where you can make out individual brushstrokes. It’s pleasant on the whole, and the Native American inspired soundtrack drapes a heavy blanket of relaxation over the whole scene making Big Buffalo Megaways a satisfying example of this slot.
Big Buffalo Megaways offers stakes ranging from 20p to £250 and may be played on any device. While the concept and gameplay are both typical, the math model may appeal to some players. The RTP is 96.5 percent, and there is no mention of whether placing an ante bet or purchasing free spins affects the statistic in any way. When you press the play button, 2 to 7 symbols appear on each of the 6 reels, giving you a total of 117,649 possibilities to win.
To produce a winning combination, three matching low-pay 9-A symbols are required, or merely two or more of the premiums. All plains animals, such as lynxes, foxes, wolves, eagles, and buffalos, are high-paying, with payouts of 5-7.5x the bet for six of a type. Before moving on to the features, there is one more symbol to consider: the wild, which appears on all reels except the first. Wilds substitute for any pay symbols and appear with multipliers during free spins. Play Big Buffalo Megaways today at Slotzo.
When navigating the Big Buffalo Megaways, players on these plains benefit from three features. Wild multipliers, free games, and an ante bet option are all included. It’s worth noting that Skywind Group has omitted a cascading win system from both the base and bonus parts of the game.
At the moment, ante bets appear to be on the rise, and Skywind Group is getting in on the fun as well. Engaging the ante bet in Big Buffalo Megaways boosts the base stake by 25%, or 5+ coins if you like to think of it that way. When you turn on the ante bet, your chances of winning free spins quadruple.
Big Buffalo Megaways’ free games are its main attraction to get players in, or at least the 6 scatters are. It’s not because they’re particularly innovative; it’s just because you can win a lot of them. Scatter symbols are the entry point to the bonus round, and three, four, five, or six of them in view award you with 8, 15, 25, or 100 free spins, respectively.
The wild multipliers appear throughout the free spins round. During the bonus round, wilds on reels 2 to 6 have a random multiplier of x2, x3, or x5 linked to them to improve wins. If a winning combination contains more than one wild, the multipliers are multiplied together before being applied.
For example, two x5 multipliers would give an x10 multiplier. Scatters remain on the reels during the feature, and landing 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 of them retriggers 5, 8, 15, 25, or 100 free spins.
Following the release of Skywind Group’s first Megaways slot, Book of Gems Megaways, which cleverly combined ‘book of’ expanding symbols with Big Time Gaming’s popular engine, there was speculation about where the company might go next. Because the team has just revamped an existing game, what they’ve followed up with is less imaginative than Book of Gems Megaways. The original Big Buffalo slot was known for its large number of free spins, which the Megaways version has preserved while raising the wild multipliers. Apart from switching symbols on each spin and a greater number of possible win possibilities, there isn’t much to distinguish the two, other than the very significant larger opportunity for bigger winnings. That being said, players still prefer what they prefer, and it seems many prefer this over the former because of these differences.
In terms of aesthetics, feel, and the win-all-ways compensation scheme, very little has changed. Things don’t get much more exciting when it comes to possibility. The maximum win for a Megaways game is 5,000 times the bet, which is a number that appears on a regular basis from companies like Pragmatic Play.
You’ve got a tranquil buffalo game on your hands when you combine the timeless oil painting quality of the images, the sitting around the campfire soundtrack, and a math model more concerned with burying the hatchet than going to war. Some people may appreciate that, but others will imagine earning 100 free spins and watching them drag their way to a modest win cap, much like an injured buffalo going home and slumping in a patch of sand.