Bonanza

Bonanza was launched in 2016 but is still relevant today. It wasn’t the first game to introduce Big Time Gaming’s trademarked Megaways mechanic, but it turned out to be the game that made it popular with the masses.

Bonanza is set in a gold mine, the goal being to extract as much gold as possible. The game is all about Megaways, so let us take a closer look at this - at the time - revolutionary game mechanic, before we get into anything else. If you are familiar with Megaways, skip to the next section.

The Megaways mechanic

Cleverly and in line with the theme, the Australian game studio BTG uses carts on top of the board to complete the Megaways reel setup, which at its best measures 7-7-7-7-7-7. Multiply those numbers and you get no less than 117,649 ways to win!

Megaways is dynamic. The symbols on the reels vary in size, which is why the number of symbols we end up with after every spin isn’t fixed. Each outer (leftmost and rightmost) reel is randomly filled with 2 to 7 symbols, while the four middle reels can have between 2 to 6 symbols. At the top we get the mine carts that move from right to left and add one more symbol on reels 2-5, giving us a total of 3-7 symbols for these reels.

This is the core principle of Megaways, with “ways'' working like always: start from the leftmost reel and line up identical symbols on adjacent reels to the right. The symbol’s position and size do not matter.

Another interesting point is that in winning combinations in Megaways, slots usually explode and new symbols fall in from the top, as is the case in Bonanza. This means a game round can keep going almost indefinitely. Read on to find out more about how to trigger the free spins round, the bet levels, the game’s RTP, and more.

Though the visuals can seem dated, the game mechanic is simple enough to understand and complex enough to keep you engaged and interested, hitting the sweet spot right between too easy and too complicated.

The gold mine theme is charming, but the audio is a bit lacking. When you start the game there is no music, only ambient sounds - until you hit spin, that is. As soon as you do, a super jaunty banjo tune starts to play, making you think of saloons of the Wild West and the Gold Rush era - and it keeps going, stopping only when the reels stop spinning. As soon as you hit spin again, the banjo restarts playing. This is an aspect of this slot that we weren’t massive fans of, but the gameplay and potential for big wins more than make up for it.

FAQ:

The high paying symbols in Bonanza come in the form of a sparkling diamond, a ruby, a sapphire, and an emerald. This is followed by the lower paying symbols in form of A, K, Q, J, 10 and finally 9, just like a deck of cards.

The scatter symbols come in four variants which together form the word GOLD. The wild symbol is a bundle of burning dynamite with “wild” written on it. These symbols replace all standard symbols for the best possible winning combination, but not the scatter symbol. Wild symbols also only appear in the cars above the reels.

To trigger the bonus round you need to get 4 scatter symbols on the grid. This will award 12 spins, and for every extra scatter symbol we get an extra 5 spins to start with.

The free spins bonus round is played with a win multiplier that starts at 1 and with every successful game event (read win) it increases by one. This multiplier is persistent and applies to all subsequent wins for the remaining free spins.

During free spins, scatter symbols can only appear in the mine carts row above the reels and 3 are required for an extra free 5 spins, while 4 scatters give you 10 extra spins.