Big Bass Amazon Extreme

Big Bass Amazon Extreme is our slot of the month for June. Much like a small boat enthusiast in a Jaws movie, we usually keep our distance from large fish, especially when it comes to slots with ‘Big Bass’ in the title.

But this latest entry in endless Reel Kingdom franchise actually deviates from its six billion predecessors and offers something new! As well as a graphical upgrade, the game includes cash collection symbols with multipliers and a free spins pick game with a four upgrades.

Theme/Visuals

For visuals for BBAE are a major step-up from previous entries in the series. The symbols are more colourful and more detailed with the action taking place in a nicely-drawn Amazon river-setting complete with a fisherman in boat. It’s not jaw-dropping you understand and the symbols aren’t that different from the other games. But the overall aesthetic is much better.

How to Play Big Bass Amazon Extreme

The ever-present playing card numbers and lettering are in place, representing low-value symbols. Medium-to-high value symbols are represented by the usual fishing Big Bass bric-a-brac including a back-back, fishing rods, Toucans and floats.

The back-pack and fishing rods are worth 50x your bet for five symbol combinations while the Toucans are worth 100x your bet. But it’s the fishing float that’s the most valuable, paying up to 200x your bet when you land five on a pay-line. Manage to fill the screen with the floats and you’ll win 2000x your stake.

Money symbols are also in play during the base game and are worth up to 1000x your bet. After each base game spin, their values are collected and a random multiplier of up to 50x applied to the total accumulated value. There’s also a wild symbol although this only appears in the bonus game as we shall see.

Free Spins Feature

The free spins round is really where it’s at for Big Bass Amazon Extreme. It’s activated when you land three, four or five fish scatters in any reel position. You’ll then receive 10 free spins. However, should you only manage to land two scatter, you can still trigger the bonus round one of two ways.

Either any visible scatters move down a position and the scatter-less reels spin or a fishing hook pulls one of the reveals upwards to unveil another scatter.

Free Spins Pick-Me Game

Before the free spins round commences, you’ll be presented with a pick-me game. You’ll then get the chance to select from different pots which contain extra free spins, guaranteed fish collected wilds, low value fish removal. Here’s more information.

• Extra Free Spins – this awards one two or three additional spins
• Guaranteed Fish – this awards one fish symbol as many as three times per spin for the entire round
• Collected Wilds – this awards up to 3 fisherman wilds to a progression trail, increasing your chances of upgrade the bonus round
• Low Value Fish Removal – this removes lowest value fish symbols during the bonus round

Fisherman Wild Collector Symbol

During the free spins round, the Fisherman wild collector is in play, collecting all fish cash symbols before being collected himself. The fisherman is then added to a trail installed above the reels. Every fourth fisherman wild will retrigger the free spins bonus round with another 10 free spins awarded. This can happen 7 times. In addition, the fish collection multiplier is upgraded with each re-trigger. So for seven retriggers, the multiplier increases incrementally from x2 to x50.

Free Spin Modifiers

Retriggering the bonus round also awards one of four modifiers randomly. These are as follows:

• Hook – this appears when cash symbols are in play, pulling a fisherman wild onto the reels
• Waterfall – the waterfall changes up the symbols, provided a fisherman wild is in play and there are no fish symbols
• Random money symbols – here fish prizes are awarded after a spin as long as there’s a wild collector with no fish prizes on the reels
• Random hook – this pulls fisherman wilds onto the reels as well as cash fish symbols

Conclusion

It was with a heavy heart that we tried our luck with this latest Big Bass mutation. But we were actually presently surprised. As well as being easier on the eye, there are other welcome additions such as those cash collect multipliers, as well as the pick-me game. Both add a sense of much-needed unpredictability to what could have been another formulaic game.

But it’s the free spins round that’s the prize catch here. As well as decent hit rate, the progress trail really has been enhanced be fisherman wilds and those potentially lucrative re-triggers. So a good game then and perhaps the beginning of something really special for a franchise that was beginning to get a bit stale.

Dale Shelabarger

Freelance Contributor, creating content since 2003

Read more