Have you ever wondered how to milk a fish? I can’t say I have, but if I ever did, I’d give Pragmatic Play a call! The developer has been successfully milking its Big Bass Bonanza franchise for some time now, and if I may mix my metaphors – it continues to bear fruit! The latest game in the series is dubbed Big Bass Bonanza: Hold & Spinner, a ten payline game that offers an RTP of 96.07% and a maximum jackpot of 10,000 times the total bet. This headline number is slightly larger than some of the previous games in the series, which is undoubtedly a good start – but has Pragmatic Play made enough changes to warrant another Big Bass release? Let’s find out!
There are certainly plenty of familiar elements here, but we should expect them when this is the latest game in a long-running franchise. The most obvious example of this is probably the ubiquitous money symbols, although they have at least been given a different look this time around. Money symbols can be worth up to 2,000x the total bet, but the game also features fish money symbols with payouts up to the maximum jackpot of 10,000x. The main bonus round is similar to that offered in previous Big Bass Bonanza slots, where the wild fisherman not only collects fish money prizes, but also offers re-triggers and multipliers. On the left side of the reels, you will see three controls to activate the ante bet and buy either the free spins or the hold and spinner bonus rounds.
Ready for some more fishing fun? I certainly hope so, as I seriously doubt Hold & Spin will be the last game we see from Pragmatic Play in this franchise!
THEME, BETS, PAYOUTS & SYMBOLS
You can’t blame any slot developer – or any other entertainment provider – for trying to make the most of their successful franchises. After all, games like z Big Bass Bonanza, Big Bass Bonanza Megaways and Bigger Bass Bonanza must all have been at least relatively popular for Pragmatic Play to continue developing new variants of the game at the rate they have. However, what bothers me a little is how similar some of these games are – the assets are almost always recycled, meaning you get the same symbols, the same backgrounds and the same music and sound effects. In fact, it would be difficult to tell many of these games apart if you covered up the logo displayed above the reels! This time, however, Pragmatic Play is certainly not the only developer guilty of this practice, and at least this game offers an extra bonus round and a bigger jackpot to set it apart from its predecessors.
Big jackpots have to be paid for, of course, and that becomes clear when you look at the prizes on offer Hold & Spin’s paytable – they’re just a little lower than those of the original Big Bass Bonanza paytable, but it’s still a noticeable drop. The most valuable symbol is the spinner pay 200x the total bet for a full payline of five of a kind, while the fishing rod is worth half as much at 100x for all five symbols. The dragonfly pays you 50x your total bet for a full payline, as does the tackle box, while a combination of any five fish money symbols pays you 20x the total bet – provided the fisherman doesn’t appear to collect his inscribed values! The low paying symbols are divided into two groups, with the Ace/King paying 10x each and the Queen/Jack/Ten paying half as much at 5x for a five of a kind combination.
Pragmatic Play’s usual three-way bet selection system is included as usual, with individual options to control the coins per line, coin value and total bet. These allow you to choose any multiple of the minimum €0.10 bet up to the maximum of €100.00 per spin. If the ante bet option is enabled, these numbers increase by 50%.
BASIC GAME & MODIFIERS
The base game of Big Bass Bonanza: Hold & Spinner uses a typical five reel, three row layout, but wins occur relatively infrequently because it is just ten active paylines. This, of course, can be both a blessing and a curse; on the one hand, fewer paylines means you’re much less likely to win. On the other hand, however, these wins will be much larger than in a game with more paylines.
ANTE BET
If your bankroll allows, I would always recommend playing this game with the ante bet option enabled. This costs an additional 50% per spin but doubles the odds in return to trigger a bonus round. There is also a minimal increase in the RTP of the game when the ante bet option is enabled.
BONUS FEATURES
Unlike many previous games in this franchise, Hold & Spinner contains two main bonus rounds. The Hold & Spinner feature is triggered by hitting three money symbols during a spin in the base game, while the regular free spins are activated by hitting three or more scatter symbols instead.
HOLD & SPINNER BONUS
Whenever three or more money symbols appear during a single spin, the Hold & Spinner bonus feature is triggered. At the beginning of the feature, the money symbols displayed will become sticky while all other reel positions are cleared of their existing symbols.
In this mode, the regular reels are replaced with new ones that only feature additional money symbols. You start the bonus with three spins, and hitting a money symbol will restore your spin counter to the initial total of three. The feature ends when three consecutive spins are played without adding any additional money symbols to the reels.
Each money symbol can be worth up to 2,000x the total bet, and with 15 positions available it is definitely possible to hit the game’s maximum jackpot of x10,000 of the total bet during this bonus round.
FREE SPINS
Hitting three scatter symbols will award you 10 free spins, while four or five scatters will increase this to 15 and 20 free spins respectively. During the free spins feature The fisherman is wild and will collect value of all fish money symbols visible on any spin in which he appears.
Fisherman symbols are also displayed in the collected meter above the reel set. For every fourth wild collected, u re-trigger is awarded, so 10 additional spins are added to your remaining total and the current round multiplier is increased. The maximum available multiplier of 10x is awarded after collecting 12 wilds.
BUY BONUS
Both the Hold & Spinner and Free Spins feature can be purchased in this game under the costs 100x the normal prize per spin. It’s nice that Pragmatic Play has managed to keep the cost of both features the same – the only problem is that these options are not available in some countries and jurisdictions.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Yes, it’s just another Big Bass Bonanza game, but it’s a pretty good one. I have to be honest and say that I think there are probably a few too many of them now, but what do I know? Someone is clearly playing them, but would it hurt to spice up the theme a bit, Pragmatic Play?
