Bonanza

Bonanza was launched in 2016 but is just as 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.

The theme of Bonanza is set in a gold mine and our job is to extract as much gold as possible. Duh. The game is all about the Megaways so let us get this at the time revolutionary game mechanic explained before we get into anything else. If you are familiar with Megaways, skip to the next section.

Cleverly and in line with the theme, the Australian game studio BTG use 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 117,649 ways to win.

But Megaways is dynamic. Each outer (leftmost and rightmost) reel is randomly filled with 2 to 7 symbols. And the four middle reels 2 to 6 and the guaranteed cart on top, resulting in 3 to 7 symbols. The number of symbols is randomized on every reel on every spin. 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. Position does not matter.

One more thing. 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. That’s it about Megaways but read on and we will go through how to trigger the free spins round, the bet levels, RTP, and more.

Big Time Gaming does not support play in crypto denominations, but conversions are made automatically when you open the game at any safe crypto casinos. Chose your preferred fiat (the lesser of the evils) and when you leave the game, your winnings will be automatically converted back to the crypto your account was currently set to.

In Bonanza Megaways you can bet anything from 0.20 to 100 USDT equivalent (although often capped at 20 by many crypto casino), which, combined with an amazing 117,649 ways to win, a high volatility and an RTP (or Return to Player) of 96.00%, and a max win of 12,000 times your bet results an insanely good game. The banjo music might get a little tiring in the long run though...

How to Win

We already went through the Megaways win mechanic in our introduction to this review but in case there something was not clear from that. Let us demonstrate with a picture taken from the game.

Symbols

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 the form of A, K, Q, J, 10 and finally 9.

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 scatters. Wild symbols also only appear in the cars above the reels.

To trigger the bonus round you need to spell out G-O-L-D in one spin. This will award 12 spins, 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.

Bonanza Megaways was Big Time Gaming's first big hit and is the result of lbits and pieces taken from previous games. We're thinking of slots like: Queen of Riches, Star Quest and Dragon Born (the first Megaways game).

Bonanza is a modern classic and Big Time Gaming has touched up the graphics over time, although it still feels somewhat dated in this regard. The game mechanics are incredibly solid though and Bonanza is without doubt one for the best implementations of Megaways ever.

The success has also spawned some re-issues. One version connected to BTG’s Megapays progressive jackpot network (Bonanza Megapays) and in a Christmas edition (Christmas Bonanza).