Big Bass Bonanza Demo & Review

Big Bass Bonanza is a basic 5x3 fishing-themed online slot with 10 fixed win lines. It is a high-volatility game with an RTP of 96.71% that comes with a chance for consistent payouts, especially during its bonus feature. 

Our review of Big Bass Bonanza slot covers it all – how to play, get free spins, and play for free in demo mode.

Big Bass Bonanza Slot Summary

Big Bass Bonanza Demo

Play the Big Bass Bonanza demo below before you play the game for real money. And try this slot for free to see why millions of other players have fallen in love with this online slot.

Big Bass Bonanza is the archetype of Pragmatic Play slot machines. It has the same simple and self-explanatory interface - although its colour scheme is a bit different than in the case of other titles. When it loads, you are greeted by a welcome screen, one that you can turn off in the game’s settings - for this game, in turn, the designers opted for one that’s simpler than usual.

Step 1: Understand the Game Interface

After Big Bass Bonanza finishes loading, a welcome screen appears which can be disabled in the game’s settings. Before you play, familiarize yourself with the settings and features on the screen:

• Game Settings: To adjust the settings, click on the hamburger menu where you can access game history, enable "Quick spin", activate battery saver, adjust music and sound levels, and toggle the intro screen on or off.

• Volume Control: Use the volume icon on the left side to control the game’s sound.

• Game Information: Click on the information button to learn more about the game (although we’ve covered the important bits in this review).

• Bet Settings: Inside the hamburger menu, set your total bet per spin.

• Credit and Bet Display: Monitor your available credit and current bet per spin. Toggle between displaying your balance in currency or coins.

Step 2: Decide on Your Bet

• Select the number of coins per win line (1-10 coins), set the coin value (R0.15 to R37.5), or adjust the total bet per spin (R1.5 to R3,750).

• The minimum bet is R1.5 or 10 coins.

• Use the “-” and “+” signs around the spin button to modify your bet per spin.

Step 3: Start Playing

• Spin the Reels: On a desktop, click the Spin button or press the Spacebar to start playing.

• Turbo Mode: For a faster gameplay experience, press and hold the Spacebar to activate Turbo mode.

• Autoplay Option: If you don’t want to spin the reels yourself, use the “Autoplay” feature to set the speed. It skips any screens that may interrupt your session and sets the number of automatic spins up to 1000.

Big Bass Bonanza Symbols

As its name suggests, Big Bass Bonanza is a fishing-themed video slot machine. This, of course, means that at least part of its symbols are inspired by fishing - the high-paying ones, to be exact.

Low-paying symbols

All the low-paying symbols in Big Bass Bonanza have the exact same payout. There are five of them - 10, J, Q, K, and A - and they each pay between 0.5 (for 3 matching symbols) and 10 (for 5 matching symbols) times your bet per spin.

High-paying symbols

The high-paying symbols in the Big Bass Bonanza slot are all fishing-themed:

Special symbols

• The Scatter symbol (a fish out of the water, with a hook near its mouth) can appear on all reels during the base game and the free spins. Three or more Scatters will trigger the game’s bonus feature.

• The Wild symbol (the fisherman himself) will only appear during the bonus feature. It substitutes for every other symbol, except for the Scatter symbol.

Big Bass Bonanza Bonuses Features

As usual for video slot machines, in general, three or more Scatter symbols trigger the free spins feature in Big Bass Bonanza. Depending on the number of scatters that trigger the feature, the number of free spins changes:

• 3 scatters – 10 free spins

• 4 scatters – 15 free spins

• 5 scatters – 20 free spins

Aside from being free, these spins come with many special functions only available during the bonus feature.

The Wild symbols only appear during the Free Spins feature of the Big Bass Bonanza slot, but not in the base game. Aside from the normal function for a wild symbol - substituting for every other symbol (except the scatter), this one has an extra function: it can reward you with the biggest payout in the game.

During free spins, all the Fish symbols on the reels of the game turn into Money symbols. Each Fish symbol gets a random cash value at the beginning of every spin - and its size changes as well. The bigger the fish, the more money it’s worth. But you don’t get the amount inscribed on the symbol - not until a Wild symbol also lands on the screen. When a Wild lands on the screen together with Money symbols, all the amounts are collected and added to your total winnings for that spin. To make things better, if two Wilds happen to land on the screen at the same time, both of them collect all the amounts on money symbols, so your wins are instantly doubled.

To make things even more rewarding, the Wild symbols are collected whenever they land on the screen. Every fourth Wild symbol that lands on the screen and is collected will retrigger the Free Spins, and give you ten more. And with every retrigger, the Money symbols increase in value: 

• After the first retrigger, the value of the money symbols doubles

• After the second retrigger, the value of the money symbols triples

• After the third retrigger, the value of the money symbols grows 10X!

• The third is the last retrigger - after that, the feature can’t be retriggered anymore.

Remember that the retriggered free spins begin only after your original free spins are consumed. The multipliers are applied only when the retriggered free spins begin. If, at any point, your total win reaches the maximum win for the game - 2100 times your bet per spin - the free spins feature ends immediately, and you’ll forfeit your remaining spins.

Big Bass Bonanza RTP & Volatility

Pragmatic Play’s Big Bass Bonanza slot machine has a return to player (RTP) of 96.71%, slightly above the industry average. Its volatility is high, which means that you can expect it to pay more infrequently - about once in every eight spins, on average.

Big Bass Bonanza Strategy & Tips

Slot machines are well known for their immovable nature. There is nothing you - or the online casino where you play for that matter - can do to influence the outcome of any of the rounds you play. But you can always adjust your attitude toward playing. 

In Big Bass Bonanza, most winning spins will have returns that will hardly ever exceed the value of your bet per spin. But don’t be disappointed - it will more than make it up to you for any low-paying spin once you trigger the bonus feature. On average, the game triggers its free spins once every 800 spins or so, and the average payout is around 50 times your stake. 

Big Bass Bonanza Graphics

Big Bass Bonanza is not actually a Pragmatic Play slot machine. It was developed by Reel Kingdom, an up-and-coming studio based in Cardiff, the UK. It shouldn’t be a surprise that it has slightly different graphics when you compare it to other Pragmatic Play slot machines. Not that it’s any inferior - it’s just different. This, and the fact that it was released a couple of years ago, might make the Big Bass Bonanza slot machine look and feel a bit outdated for some players.

The graphics of other Big Bass games launched down the line have improved a lot. The vanilla Big Bass Bonanza, in turn, remains the same nostalgic and fun-looking slot machine it ever was, with colourful, crisp graphics - even if not entirely up to date.

Big Bass Bonanza On Mobile

Big Bass Bonanza, like all other slot machines published by Pragmatic Play works great at South Africa’s mobile casinos. It has a simpler user interface on mobile, but everything you need to set is still just a couple of taps away. The game works great both in portrait and landscape mode, on pretty much any device.

Should You Play Big Bass Bonanza?

If you are a fan of fishing and gambling - maybe at the same time - Big Bass Bonanza is the perfect game for you. If you plan on playing it for fun, it might not be the best choice - some casual players get bored of it relatively quickly.

But if you plan on winning, Big Bass Bonanza deserves a chance. While its base game lacks truly big payouts, its free spins feature comes with a potential for consistent wins. Remember, the biggest possible payout in the game is 2100 times your bet. And with a maximum bet of R3,750 per spin… you do the maths.