Big Bass Bonanza Reel Action

Theme and Design

Simple, Colorful and Cheery Visuals and Sounds

Big Bass Bonanza Reel Action is identical in looks to Big Bass Bonanza. Put them side by side and maybe this version has slightly sharper graphics, but that’s about it. It’s a nice design with an underwater cross section with bubbles floating upwards and seaweed waving in the current. The lasting appeal of this game is partly down to its cheery nature and that is here in abundance with the upbeat twangy guitar, brightly colored fishing gear and smiling fisherman. All present and correct.

RTP and Variance

Big Bass Bonanza Reel Action has three RTP rates – 96.5%, 94.5% and 95.5%. Which you play at will be at the discretion of your casino operator. Most pick one of the lower 2 rates, but MrQ from Lindar Media consistently runs Pragmatic slots at the optimum RTP which is why I recommend playing this game there. For comparison, 96.5% is very marginally less than the RTP found in the first Big Bass Bonanza slot (96.71%).

But wherever you play you can check the RTP for yourself by hitting the ‘I’ button under the grid then scrolling through the game info screens. When you see Game Rules, scroll down until you see Return to Player.

Of course, Reel Action is also a high variance slot, rated 4/5 on Pragmatic Play’s own scale, which is the same as the original Big Bass slot. In fact all the games in the series are rated either 4/5 or 5/5.

Maximum Win

The max payout from a single spin here is 2,100x. Not a huge sum by any stretch, but in line with the first Big Bass slots so not surprising. If you want to stick with this series but cast your line for bigger catches then the best to go for are Big Bass Hold and Spinner Megaways (20,000x) or Big Bass Day At The Races and Big Bass Amazon Extreme (both 10,000x).

Symbols and Paytable

The game format is a familiar one too with 5 reels, 3 rows and 10 paylines to win on. You’ll need to hit 3 or more identical symbols across a line from left to right, starting at the left most reel, to trigger a win.

There are 10 pay symbols to trigger wins. They are the 5 cards – 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace, valued at from 0.5x for 3 10s up to 10x for 5 Aces – and the 5 premiums – shoal of bass, tackle box, may fly, rod and reel and float, valued at from 1x for 3 shoal of bass up to 200x for 5 floats.

The fisherman with his catch is the wild, but he only shows up in the free spins round. As ever, his job is to substitute for any pay symbol to complete a line AND most importantly, to activate fish money symbols that appear on the reels at the same time.

Features and Gameplay

Big Bass games are (in most cases) ALL about that free spins round. Not much happens in the base game so keep your eyes peeled for scatter symbols – represented by the leaping bass – to trigger the feature.

It works as follows:

• 3 scatters gets you 10 free spins
• 4 scatters gets you 15 free spins
• 5 scatters gets you 20 free spins

Now, during free spins, every one of the shoal of bass symbols to land will carry a cash value of 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x or 2,000x. These values are unlocked and paid out when a fisherman wild lands on the same spin.

In addition, there is a wild meter above the reels. Every 4^th wild collected unlocks the next level in the free spins round. That gets you 10 more spins, and a global win multiplier increases to 2x after 4 wilds, 3x after 8 wilds and 10x after 12 wilds. Once the meter hits 12, the round cannot be extended any further.

And finally, Reel Action also has a near miss feature. If a wild lands during free spins but there are no fish money symbols to collect then random fish symbols may be added anyway to give you a payout.

Ante Bet

The one stand out difference (aside from the very, very small difference in RTP) between this version of Big Bass and the original Bonanza game, is the Ante Bet option. Here you can increase your bet value by 1.5x to increase the number of scatters in play thereby increasing your chances of triggering the free spins round.

NOTE: Outside the UK Reel Action also has a Bonus Buy feature which allows you to buy direct into the free spins round by-passing the base game entirely. But Bonus Buy is banned here.