Big Bucks Bandits Megaways: Overview

ReelPlay, the studio best known for Infinity Reels, returns for another run on the Megaways engine. Up to now, the Australian developer’s Megaways efforts have been a bit hit-and-miss. Atlantis Megaways and Hypernova Megaways may have found their fans, but neither truly made waves across the slots scene. Their third attempt, Big Bucks Bandits Megaways, appears to follow a similar path, as the Western-themed game arrives with largely familiar gameplay and a very comparable set of features.

In classic Megaways fashion, the slot uses 6 reels, set in front of a desert landscape that looks to be somewhere around the Grand Canyon. The scenery is easy on the eye, though the symbol artwork is less impressive, coming across as oddly inconsistent—sharp in places, yet also somewhat dated.

Chasing the big payouts starts with choosing a wager, with stakes available from 20 p/c to $/€25 per spin. Once the reels spin, up to 7 symbols can land on each reel, generating as many as 117,648 ways to win. Any win triggers the reaction mechanic: winning symbols disappear from the grid, briefly exposing the backdrop, while new symbols cascade into the gaps. The chain keeps going, potentially delivering multiple wins from a single spin, until no further winning combinations land.

Big Bucks Bandits Megaways leans heavily into Western-themed iconography. Among the lower-paying symbols are bottles of moonshine, skulls, flowering cactuses, hats, boots and pistols. Higher up the pay scale you’ll find horses, bandits, little ladies, and a Clint Eastwood lookalike. Clint is clearly the headline act, paying from just two of a kind, while 6 of him return 100 times the stake. By comparison, the other symbols pay 0.5x to 5x for six across a win. Wilds remain handy, showing up only on the 4 space bonus reel and substituting for all symbols except the scatter.

Here’s an old West saying – ‘If a cowboy goes to town to buy a new hat, it’s still the same old cowboy underneath it.’ For Big Bucks Bandits Megaways, that line (which we may or may not have invented) fits pretty well. In other words, the game delivers a medium volatile math model alongside an RTP of 96%. Not an exact match to the previous two titles, but it’s certainly in the same ballpark—just like the feature set.

Big Bucks Bandits Megaways: Features

ReelPlay are clearly fond of respin-style bonuses. In Big Bucks Bandits Megaways, the Jackpot Heist Respins feature triggers when 6 or more money bags appear. When it does, the money bags that activated the feature lock in place. You then start with 3 respins, which reset whenever an additional money bag or trophy symbol lands. The feature ends once the respins drop to zero, or if luck goes your way and every position becomes filled.

Alongside money bags, players can also hit trophies during the feature. Each trophy awards a fixed jackpot—bronze, silver, gold, or platinum—worth 10x, 50x, 250x, or 1,000x respectively. Bronze and Silver jackpots can be collected multiple times, while Gold and Platinum are limited to once per feature.

After the Jackpot Respins finish, the game adds up the total win and then launches the Double Cross Gamble feature. Two gunslingers face off with a segmented prize wheel between them. Players may cash out at any point or choose to gamble by spinning the wheel. Hitting a green segment boosts the prize by up to x5 its original amount, while the worst outcome wipes the winnings entirely.

The final bit of positive news for anyone drawn to the bonus is the Bonus Buy option. Where available, players can pay 60 times the stake to activate Jackpot Heist Respins on the next spin.

Big Bucks Bandits Megaways: Verdict

Big Bucks Bandits Megaways is the kind of slot you can judge by looking at its close relatives. Here, you’ve got two obvious comparisons: Hypernova Megaways and Atlantis Megaways. If those appealed to you, this is essentially their cowboy-themed counterpart. If they didn’t, then you probably won’t feel like tipping your hat to this one either. All three share almost the same gameplay flow and feature structure. The old saying goes, if it isn’t broken don’t fix it—but in this case, a bit more experimentation would have been welcome.

That said, it isn’t completely identical, thanks to an expanded bonus sequence that introduces extra gambling potential. A notable change is that the top trophy jackpot of 1,000x is only half of what it is in ReelPlay’s other two Megaways titles. Big Bucks compensates by attaching the Double Cross Gamble, which lifts the ceiling—provided you’re quick enough, or lucky enough, since maximum wins of around 10,000 times the stake are now on the table. Winning a showdown takes a cool head, much like seeing the feature through to the end.

Overall, while the bonus-game addition does make things feel a touch more varied, the full package still plays like a familiar ReelPlay Megaways release. Some gunslingers will enjoy the added risk; others will simply straighten their hats and wander back to the saloon.