Bison Rising Megaways: Slot Overview

This one’s a bit of a curiosity. We’re all familiar with studios giving older slots a quick reskin and sending them back out, but Blueprint Gaming has pushed that idea even further. In practice, if you’ve played 2018’s Buffalo Rising Megaways, then Bison Rising Megaways is essentially its twin. Honestly, the main difference is that “Buffalo” has been replaced with “Bison” in the name. Blueprint Gaming clearly has sharp commercial minds behind the scenes, and there’s likely a sensible business motive for doing this, though at the time of writing we didn’t know what it was. Either way, if you’re up for another ride with this familiar setup, jump in.

Anyone who knows Buffalo Rising Megaways will recognize almost everything here. That includes the presentation, which once again shows the same North American landscape in the same cartoon-like style. It wasn’t exactly the most captivating desert scene before, and it hasn’t become one now. There are no dramatic sunsets, for instance, but it’s still pleasant enough, and the drifting clouds look pretty good.

And it’s not just the visuals that are reused—the math model is, too. That means a medium/high volatile slot with a theoretical return to player of 96.5%. The betting range isn’t huge, but it should suit plenty of players, beginning at 10 p/c and topping out at $/€10 per spin. Bison Rising Megaways runs on any device, and the gameplay takes place on a grid featuring 6 main vertically spinning reels plus a 4 symbol horizontally spinning reel at the top. In other words, it’s the classic Megaways format.

Hit spin and you’ll see 2-7 symbols on reels one and six, 2-6 on the four middle reels, and four on the top reel. Because the reel heights vary, the ways to win vary too, reaching up to 117,649. Winning combinations land from the leftmost reel and continue across adjacent reels. The low-paying symbols are 9 through Ace, paying 1-1.5x the bet for six of a kind, followed by elk, wolves, beers, and bison, which return 2 to 50 times the bet for six of a kind. Wilds show up only on the top reel and substitute for any regular paying symbol to help form winning ways.

Bison Rising Megaways: Slot Features

Just like before, Bison Rising Megaways relies on the same set of mechanics to add some spark to the action: cascades, mystery symbols, free spins, and the optional Bison Bet.

Cascading Symbols

Any winning ways set off the cascade mechanic, removing the winning symbols from the reels. New symbols then drop into the gaps, and if another win is formed, the process repeats, continuing until no further win appears.

Mystery Symbols

Mystery symbols may land anywhere on the grid. When they appear, they all transform to reveal the same symbol, which can be any symbol except the diamond free spins scatter.

Free Spins

In the base game, scatter symbols land on the main six reels (not the upper reel), and hitting at least 4 triggers the free spins bonus. Activating the bonus with more than 4 scatters grants additional free spins. After that, players are shown 4 bonus round options and choose one:

• 15 free spins where the win multiplier starts at x1. If triggered by more than 4 scatters, each extra scatter awards +4 free spins.
• 10 free spins where the win multiplier starts at x5. If triggered by more than 4 scatters, each extra scatter awards +2 free spins.
• 5 free spins where the win multiplier starts at x10. If triggered by more than 4 scatters, each extra scatter awards +1 free spin.
• Mystery Choice – randomly awards 5, 10, or 15 free spins with a starting win multiplier of x1, x5, or x10.

Once in free spins, the win multiplier increases by +1 after each cascade, with no cap. In addition, scatters can also land on the upper four-symbol reel. Hitting 3 or 4 of them awards +5 or +10 extra free spins, respectively.

Bison Bet

Picture Bill and Ted enthusiastically shouting “Buffalo!” That’s the vibe here when a buffalo win lands or when the Bison Bet is used, allowing eligible players to purchase free spins for 100x the stake. After buying in, you can select one of the four options described above. The RTP for the Bison Bet is 97.01%.

Bison Rising Megaways: Slot Verdict

It is a little odd, isn’t it, that Blueprint Gaming has effectively swapped out one word in the title and released another slot. As noted earlier, there’s almost certainly a smart business reason behind the decision. There was that dispute some time ago involving Aristocrat and Pragmatic Play about trademarks tied to certain buffalo characters—how many buffalo appeared, how they were drawn, how they faced the player, and so on. That’s purely speculation, of course, and the move from Buffalo Rising Megaways to Bison Rising Megaways may have nothing to do with any of that. Still, wondering why this version exists was part of the entertainment while reviewing it.

The other part was actually playing it, and Bison Rising Megaways is, to be fair, a robust buffalo—sorry, bison—style Megaways slot. Even if it had arrived as a brand-new game, it wouldn’t be overflowing with new ideas. The feature set is a familiar mix of cascades, mystery symbols, and free spins with an unlimited increasing win multiplier. The ability to choose your preferred free spins and starting multiplier combination isn’t everywhere, but it also doesn’t feel as novel now as it might have when the original Buffalo title launched. As before, the win cap is 250,000 credits or 50,000x the bet, whichever comes first, though that may be slightly optimistic since there’s never been an official 50,000x win that we’re aware of, or anything close.

Buffalo Rising Megaways arrived a few years back, and the market has moved forward since then. Even so, as a dependable Megaways game built around bison and other prairie wildlife, Bison Rising Megaways remains a decent pick. The upside is respectable, the features are well-worn but reliable, and being able to choose the free spins round that suits you is a useful touch. Overall, Bison Rising Megaways does what it’s meant to do—again—without making a big show of it.