Big Bear

Bears! Big, burly and badass. We also consider them to be our spirit animal. Not because we’re particularly strong or anything. We just also like to gorge ourselves and then take extended naps! But this is no ordinary bear. Oh no, in this Playtech release, this bear is instrumental in bringing forward some super lucrative jackpots! Big Bear is played on a 5×3 board with 243 ways to win. Forgoing a more traditional payline setup works well, as it allows for more frequent wins. There are two very important special features to keep a look-out for. First are the free spins, which come attached with Wild multipliers. The other is the Hold and Extra Spin bonus, which can award some awesome prizes!

This slot doesn’t have the most spectacular graphics we have seen. Don’t get us wrong, it can impress you from time to time. We’re quite partial to the roaring bear Wild when it appears! But symbol design is quite basic, and failed to captivate us. There also weren’t many cool animations to get players excited, which was a missed opportunity. Instead, the game instead entices gamblers using its gameplay, which we find to be a much better arrangement. You play the Playtech release on a 5 reel board, where each reel is three icons tall. To win, players have to collect three or more identical symbol in consecutive positions, starting with the leftmost reel.

Gamblers can set their wagers between $0.10 and $500 per spin. To choose your total bet, press the plus or minus key until you reach a number you’re satisfied with. Big Bear has a medium-high variance slot, with an RTP of 95.48%, which is below the current average. The maximum cash prize you can win is worth 2,430x your total stake.

We mentioned that we weren’t too thrilled with icon designs earlier. It’s everything we expected it to be going into this game. You have playing card royals acting as filler, and various animals that share the bear’s habitat. Either as food, or as rivals. The bear himself is Wild, while a drum with a bear print on it is Scatter. Collect three or more Scatters to trigger the free spins round. We quite like that the players are given a choice to pick their favourite. There are three in total. Wilds can only appear on the second or fourth reel, or both at once.

• Option one: 20 free spins.One Wild increases your multiplier by 2x, while two increase it by 4x.

• Option two: 15 free spins.One Wild increasesyour multiplier by 3x, while two increase it by 9x.

• Option three: 10 free spins.One Wild increases your multiplier by 4x, while two increase it by 16x. This choice also carries over to the Hold and Extra Spin bonus. Depending on your pick here, this is what special feature you’ll get when it activates.

• Option one: One Wild comes with a 3x multiplier, two come with a 9x increase to all wins.

• Option two: One Wild comes with a 4x multiplier, two come with 16x increase to all wins.

• Option three: One Wild comes with a 6x multiplier, two come with a 36x increase to all wins.