Badge Blitz

Badge Blitz: Slot Overview

It be that time, players, to strap on your spurs and load up the six-shooter in order to get your virtual swagger on. The occasion is Badge Blitz, a Western-designed online slot created by the busy beavers at Pragmatic Play, featuring free spins and a respin hold 'n win round, set in the quick or the dead environment that was the American wild frontier circa the 1800s. Or, at least, casino game makers' typical representation of it.

How can we put this nicely? It is not beyond the realms of possibility to get the impression that Badge Blitz isn't exactly one of Pragmatic Play's premier releases. A quick perusal of the paytable may well reinforce any doubts formed after scoping Badge Blitz's generic presentation. You know the Western slot drill - tumbleweeds blowing through an empty, dusty, wood-built town in the middle of Sadler's Gooch, Wyoming. Or some such place. There was nothing to shout about when Badge Blitz first appeared, and by the end, well, there wasn't a lot to shout about then, either.

Banged up out of wood in the middle of this windy wee town is Badge Blitz's gaming grid. Nestled beneath 5 listed jackpot prizes are 5 reels, each holding 3 rows and embedded with 25 paylines for evaluating wins. All regular line wins begin from the leftmost reel. Four and a half lightning bolts indicate this is a highly volatile slot (despite the not-high winning potential), and players can expect, at best, a theoretical RTP of 96.5% when wagering 25 c to $/€250 per spin.

On the ladder of pay symbols, Badge Blitz has J-A as the lower lot, then a hat, a pistol, a cart, a bag of loot, and sheriff as the high pays. Lines of 5 identical royals pay 2-3 times the stake, while a line of 5 identical premium symbols is worth 4-8 times the bet. Stallion wilds appear on all reels except the leftmost reel. Wilds substitute for any of the regular pay symbols.

Badge Blitz: Slot Features

Badge Blitz's features are divided between a free spins round, a Money Respin feature, and a feature buy.

Free Spins

Scatters appear on reels 2, 3, and 4 in the base game only. Landing 3 or 4 scatter symbols awards 5 or 8 free spins, respectively. It is possible for the scatter on reel 4 to land as a double scatter, counting as two symbols. In the free spins round, at least 2 full reel expanded wild symbols will land on every free spin. The Money Respin feature can be triggered from free spins. If this happens, the respins are played before the free spins round resumes. Free spins cannot be retriggered.

Money Respin Feature

Landing at least 6 Badge symbols triggers the Money Respin feature, which starts after any line wins have been paid. The triggering Badge symbols convert to Coin symbols, and the bonus is played on a reel set that lands only blanks or new Badges. Coin symbols display possible values of 0.8x to 16x the bet or the 10x Mini, 50x Minor, 100x Major, or 250x Mega prize. Coins with Mega values pay once, then the Mega transforms to another random value. Coin symbols are sticky.

The round starts by granting 3 respins. Each time a new Badge lands, the values of all Coin symbols on the reels are awarded, and the respin count returns to 3. Following that, the new Badge symbols transform into Coin symbols with a random value. The bonus ends when there are no respins left or all 15 positions are filled. In the latter case, the 1,000x Grand prize is awarded. If respins end without a new Badge symbol hitting, the total of all Coin symbols in view is awarded.

Feature Buy

Players are able to buy Badge Blitz's Money Respins feature for 100x the bet, but not the free spins feature.

Badge Blitz: Slot Verdict

Pragmatic Play releases a lot of slots, and a lot of them are quite good - some are exceptionally good. Badge Blitz, not so much. The words 'filler slot' get thrown around every now and then, and it's hard to think of a more fitting summation for Badge Blitz. There's just nothing this game excels at. Nothing it really does is above average. The Western theme has been adequately dealt with, but there are far better examples of this style of game available to saunter bow-legged through. The soundtrack isn't terrible (though the dancy segment is a bit out of place during win count-ups), yet that's not saying a lot since a studio would have to try really hard to butcher the moody, twangy tune Western slots tend to come with.

Moving to the features, and the same can be said about them as the theme treatment. For starters, the respins feature is okay, the way all new Badge symbols award all Coin values in view is interesting in its way. But again, there are far, far better examples of hold 'n win action than the sort Badge Blitz is able to drum up. Free spins, hmm, okay, four full reels of wild symbols is quite a thought, but at best, getting them with a reel of stacked sheriff symbols (if that is possible) is still 'only' worth 200x. Free spins can't be retriggered, so Badge Blitz is limited in what it can do. Hamstrung, kneecapped, however, you'd like to describe it. The same goes for the bulk of the Money Respins awards, which just aren't very exciting.

The last meh moment is Badge Blitz's 3,000x the bet win cap, and if you've been struggling to keep your eyelids from sealing closed so far, that figure might be the final excuse needed to give in and drift off to slumberland. As mentioned, Pragmatic Play has a substantial number of highly entertaining slots stored away in its games cabinet, but Badge Blitz isn't one of them.