The Big Bass series of online slots has turned into something of a monolith in the online casino world of late, with developer Reel Kingdom seemingly having mastered the ability to create an endless stream of unfathomably popular fishing-themed symbol spinners. This latest entry in the franchise Big Bass Hold & Spinner Megaways takes the previous Hold & Spinner variant and blends it with the ever-popular Megaways payout mechanic to create a new machine with a 20,000x jackpot, a 96.70% RTP and even more Megaways than usual – up to 147,456, a change which comes courtesy of some tweaking to the horizontal reel that is usually a single row directly above reels two through five.
I say usually because that isn’t the case on this occasion – the big innovation in Hold & Spinner Megaways is the addition of two extra horizontal rows. This guarantees you will always have five rows on the centremost four reels, but potentially as many as nine! Apart from this one interesting change to the gameplay, most of the remaining features have not changed – we still get fish money symbols along with the fisherman needed to collect them, mystery symbols, and a free spin-based bonus round that boosts the active multiplier every time four fisherman symbols are collected in the meter displayed above the playfield. There’s one more important change too, as it turns out – this version of the game includes a three-spin feature too, which I had wrongly believed was included in the original Hold & Spinner version of Big Bass Bonanza. I’m glad I checked that before submitting this review! Both bonus rounds are available for purchase, provided that you are lucky enough to live in a country where such things are not deemed the work of Satan.
Let’s be honest – you don’t need me to recommend that you give this game a try… Big Bass Bonanza games are controlled by black magic. Well, perhaps not, but the techniques used to popularise these games are of such complete mystery to me that they are indistinguishable from such magic, so why not just go ahead and fire up our Big Bass Hold & Spinner Megaways slot demo? It’s available to play below.
| Provider | Pragmatic Play |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 6 |
| Paylines | 147,456 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 250 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 20,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.70% |
| Our Rating | 7.8 |
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Big Bass Megaways Hold & Spin Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
If you aren’t familiar with the Big Bass Bonanza series…. Then I don’t believe you! You may not be familiar with the original Hold & Spinner variant, though, so that’s a good reference point to check out before you begin to play this new game by Reel Kingdom. What’s really interesting from my perspective though, is loading up the original Big Bass Bonanza game and seeing just how little has changed over the years! In fact, if you check out any random selection of these games – take Bigger Bass Bonanza, for example – it can sometimes be truly tough to tell the difference between them. At least with these Megaways variants, you can be sure of one thing…. The prizes listed on the paytable are sure to be way smaller than the ones with ten pay lines! Of course, that fact has to be balanced with the resulting much-increased frequency of hitting winning combinations, but no matter which style of game you prefer, these are all high-volatility slots with the capacity to deliver huge wins – if you’re looking for something that ONLY pays little and often, you’d best try another franchise.
The regular paytable prizes available in this latest Big Bass Bonanza game start with the spinning bait – probably because of the word ‘spinner’ being present in the title – and on this occasion, these symbols have a maximum return of 50x the total bet for a full payway of six of a kind. That’s the only truly high-paying symbol, I’m afraid – the second-placed fishing rod is only worth 5x for all six of its symbols, followed by the dragonfly at 2.5x, the tackle box at 2x, and the random fish symbols at 1.5x each. That just leaves the lower-paying royals – six tens will get your bet back (1x), while six aces or kings are only slightly more valuable at 1.5x for a complete payway of six of a kind. There’s no premium payout attached to the scatter or wild symbols either, I’m afraid, but don’t despair, as the fish money symbols can pay as much as 5,000x the total bet in this version of the game!
Reel Kingdom build their games on top of Pragmatic Play’s platform, meaning you can be sure of a good degree of flexibility in how much you can bet per spin. In this case, the bet spread is absolutely enormous – €0.20 at the low end and €250.00 at the other! That’s fantastic and all, but it does mean that even Pragmatic Play’s generous three-way bet selection systems start to become a little restrictive towards the upper end of the range. Still, if you are betting more than €100.00 per spin, I very much doubt that increasing your bet in €25.00 increments will trouble you too much!
Base Game & Modifiers
As mentioned in the opening paragraphs, Big Bass Hold & Spinner Megaways does have plenty in common with previous Megaways releases. The first major difference you will likely spot is the three horizontal reels displayed above reels two through five. The top row only contains wilds and blank spaces, whilst the other two horizontal reels can contain any of the regular symbols. All three rows are not necessarily active during every spin, however, and lock/unlock randomly during each game round. Locked reels are shown greyed out, and their symbols are not used when calculating winning combinations.
Fish Money Symbols
The fish money symbol appears in both the base game and during free spins, but frustratingly, the cash values displayed on the symbols can only be collected during free spins. Each fish money symbol takes its value from a random set: 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, or 5,000x the total bet.
Mystery Symbols
The mystery symbol used in this game looks like an old-fashioned gas lamp and can hit randomly during the base game and free spins. During the base game, these symbols function just as you might expect – they will all transform into the same paying symbol before winnings are evaluated.
During free spins, if the fisherman lands, but there are no fish money prizes for him to collect, mystery symbols will randomly appear and transform into other random symbols to ensure that your fisherman has something to do. That’s a nice touch, Reel Kingdom!
Big Bass Hold & Spin Megaways Slot Bonus Features
Most of the previous Big Bass Bonanza games included just a single bonus round – this time, Reel Kingdom has given us two! The main free spins feature awards 10 free spins for three scatter symbols, with 15, 20, or 25 free spins awarded if four, five, or six scatters are included in the triggering combination.
Free Spins Feature
During the free spins feature, fisherman symbols collect the value of all fish money symbols visible on the reels at the end of each game round. Fisherman symbols are also collected in the meter displayed above the reels – after every fourth fisherman is collected, the global multiplier will increase first to 2x, then 3x, and finally 10x. You’ll also receive 10 additional free spins every time the multiplier is increased.
Occasionally, when there is only a fisherman symbol on the screen but no fish for him to collect, a series of dynamite explosions can occur, which will generate fish money symbols on your behalf.
Hold & Spin Feature
This is a three-spin feature that is triggered whenever three or more coin money symbols are visible on the reels during a single game round. Every coin money symbol can have a random value between 1x and 2,000x the total bet.
Once the Hold & Spin feature has been activated, it plays a little differently from a typical three-spin feature; all of the coin money symbols visible on the reels will only have their values collected if a new symbol lands in view. Like other three-spin features though, every symbol that does land on the reels will reset your remaining lives counter back to three.
This part of the game also includes diamond coin money symbols – these can have values of between 50x and 2,000x the total bet, making them extremely lucrative as you’ll collect their value every time a round is played. During my testing, I hit a diamond money symbol and managed a win of over 3,000x my stake – not bad at all for a two-hour test session!
Bonus Buy
The bonus buy options are displayed to the left of the main playfield – the normal free spins cost 100x the current stake to purchase, whilst the Hold & Spinner feature costs 120x.
Pros
- More different to the previous entries than I had anticipated – for a change!
- Tempting jackpot of over 20,000x the total bet.
- Two different but equally generous bonus rounds to experiment with.
Cons
- Just another fishing game at the end of the day.
- Variable RTP levels are available for operators to use.
Final Thoughts
I wish this game used a different theme, but it is what it is – and what it is is a very fun online slot that has multiple lucrative features and stacks of fun waiting for its players. This is one of the better of the Big Bass Bonanza games I’ve reviewed in a while, and that is something I am genuinely happy to be able to report.
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