Bonanza Megaways

Bonanza Megaways Slot (Big Time Gaming): Overview

Everyone already knows all about Bonanza at this point, so allow us to start this review by sharing our first encounter with it. It was during the early days of our casino streaming era that the Megaways phenomenon hit with full force. Before that, the streaming sessions were mostly dominated by high variance offerings from the likes of NetEnt, Thunderkick, WMS, Play'n GO, and Microgaming. Although some 1024 win ways slots had started to appear, Microgaming's 243-liners were otherwise where players turned for the fix that was eventually to be replaced by the Megaways engine.

When Bonanza rolled out across the digital shelves, it initially did so without making much noise. As time went by, however (we're not talking about a very long time span here), it slowly started to gain recognition from the casino streaming community, picking up pace and snowballing from there - until the point where no one ever seemed to play anything else other than Bonanza. Here was a game that was completely different from anything anyone had ever seen before - from the quirky music and the strange reel layout, to the unprecedented win ways and unmatched potential. Chasing the "D" (as in G.O.L.D.) became one of the first memes in the history online slots.

So, what about the game then? For those new to online gaming, here's a rundown. Bonanza is a 6-reel gold mine themed slot that, albeit not the first Megaways creation, was the one that would become most widely associated with the Megaways concept. New features were introduced with the release, such as cascading reels, the extra horizontal reels to help form winning combinations, an increasing win multipler and a staggering amount of paylines - up to 117,649 of them. Still highly popular at the time of writing, this high variance offering can be played from 0.20 to €/$20 per spin across all devices and can be found across most SG Digital/Microgaming casinos supplying the platform for the game.

Overlooking a busy gold mine, Bonanza has a gold rush narrative. In the backdrop, you'll see hills and waterfalls as well as the iconic little hut that can also be spotted in Lil' Devil. The first six of the symbols come in the shape of different coloured playing cards. They are the aqua 9, the yellow 10, the green J, the blue Q, the red K and the purple A. You’ll also see five coloured gemstones appear as higher-paying symbols. There’s the emerald, the sapphire, the ruby and, finally the amethyst. This one is able to multiply your overall wager by up to 50 times your stake for a six of a kind combination.

Bonanza Megaways Slot (Big Time Gaming): Features

So, once you access Bonanza, it’s not all about the visuals. Granted, these are quite the exciting part of the game, but the features that have been injected into the game are also very thrilling alongside. First of all, you’ll see carts appearing on a Horizontal Reel. These carts are filled with symbols, and they appear above reels 2-5. Essentially, this adds an extra symbol to those four reels, providing you with the chance of forming additional or bigger wins on every single spin. This is also the only place where you'll come across wild symbols.

Something that stands out as being even better about Bonanza though, is its Reactions. Whenever you form a winning combination across the reels, this is a perk that will come into play. Essentially, every winning symbol that forms part of a win will react and disappear from the reels. These will then be replaced by symbols coming from above and from the right in the aforementioned carts should they also create wins. From this special feature coming into play, you’re able to form several wins from a single spin, which really makes Bonanza extra appealing.

And that's not all. Spell out the word G O L D in the base game, you will be on the receiving end of 12 Free Spins in total (each extra scatter beyond that will add an extra 5+ spins to your starting total). Additionally, should 3 scatter symbols comes into view during the free spins round, it will add an extra 5+ free spins on top of your current total remaining. Not only that, but there’s an Unlimited Win Multiplier in operation for the round. This starts at 1x but increases with every single Reaction that takes place during free spins.

Bonanza Megaways Slot (Big Time Gaming): Verdict

Bonanza has been highly influential, popularising the Megaways concept whilst also propelling Big Time Gaming almost overnight to become one of the top providers in the industry. It also further cemented Big Time Gaming's reputation as the leading provider of high variance, ultra high potential games. Some have argued that its success and influence has been on the level of Starburst, which may be true in some aspects, but we would argue that its impact has been far greater than that.

As we write this in the year 2019, the Megaways concept still completely dominates the market and we are yet to see a new innovation to threaten its position. In fact, more and more competitors are lining up to acquire a Megaways license of their own, which just goes to show how incredibly successful it has been and continues to be.

There's little need to analyze Bonanza or to break it down in detail. Few games have been discussed as much as this one, or received as many spins for that matter. To add to that, there are now an endless number of Bonanza variations available on the market that have been produced and released by various Megaways licensees such as Blueprint Gaming and Red Tiger. There's not much left to say other than to state the obvious - Bonanza is one of the best online slots ever made, and if you haven't played it yet, that should be the first thing on your list as a slot player to do.