Buffalo Blox Gigablox: Slot Overview
In certain respects, you have to give Swedish developer Yggdrasil credit. The studio has a strong “one for all, all for one” mindset and seems happy to share what it has with the partners it collaborates with. Whether that’s “bounty” is another matter, but Yggdrasil is clearly prepared to let other studios use its game mechanics. This time, it’s rising studio Jelly benefiting from that generous approach in a slot called Buffalo Blox. As with other titles tied to Yggdrasil’s ecosystem, Jelly has built the game around the Gigablox mechanic, supported by extras like free spins, stacked symbols, and instant coin symbol cash prizes.
So far, Jelly slots have generally leaned toward either nature themes or mythology, and Buffalo Blox lands firmly in the former. The setting is the North American wilderness—plenty of scenery, not many people. When you think about it, aside from streaming, playing slots is a pretty solitary hobby. Maybe there’s some connection between online gamblers and those who opt out of modern life to live alone in the middle of nowhere? Perhaps hermits and slot players share some undiscovered trait? Just musing. Either way, Buffalo Blox delivers a picturesque take on the North American landscape, only slightly undermined by the diamond symbol, which looks a bit out of place in such an untouched environment.
Still, Buffalo Blox is an online slot, not a wildlife film, and it runs on a 5-reel layout. With every spin, Gigablox combines at least two reels to form larger symbols, scaling up to huge 4×4 colossal icons. The RTP isn’t quite colossal, sitting mid-pack at 95%, while wins land at a frequency of 24.27%. For staking, you can play from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, and the game works across all devices.
Whenever Gigablox symbols contribute to a win, they’re split back into standard 1×1 parts for the payout calculation. The game uses 20 fixed paylines, paying when three or more matching symbols appear left to right starting from the first reel. Symbols range from 9-A card ranks as low pays to various animal premiums, topped by buffalo symbols that can land stacked. Coin symbols award instant cash prizes, which are explained in the next section. For now, note that some coins are wild, meaning they can help complete paylines with regular paying symbols.
Buffalo Blox Gigablox: Slot Features
Coins have another purpose too: if six land on the screen, they award an instant cash prize. If you manage to land all 20 coins during free spins, it triggers a payout worth 2,500x the bet.
Free Spins
Free spins start when at least 5 diamond scatter symbols appear. Each diamond that triggers the feature awards either 1 or 2 free spins. In free spins, only 4 coin mega symbols are needed to award a prize. On top of that, keep an eye out for extra buffalo or coin symbols. Free spins can also be retriggered whenever any diamond symbol lands.
Buffalo Bet
The Buffalo Bet can be switched on in the base game. It increases the wager by 25% to increase the chance of triggering free spins. When Buffalo Bet is active, symbol values do not change.
Buffalo Blox Gigablox: Slot Verdict
Buffalo Blox can be satisfying for the right type of player, but it isn’t especially fresh in terms of gameplay or theme. One source suggests there are around 350,000 to 400,000 wood bison in North America, and at times it can feel like there are almost as many buffalo slots roaming the iGaming plains too. Not literally, of course, but there are plenty, and Jelly’s Buffalo Blox sits somewhere in the middle of the pack. The visuals are strong and the features will appeal to some, yet it doesn’t bring the kind of standout twist that buffalo slots like Push Gaming’s Bison Battle or Hacksaw Gaming’s Buffalo Stack’n’Sync delivered.
That doesn’t mean Buffalo Blox Gigablox is without appeal. Jelly has given it a tidy, Grizzy and the Lemmings-style vibe that some players may find entertaining. Scatter/money/coin mechanics that lead to instant cash prizes are hugely popular, so this is another option for anyone who enjoys that sort of experience. The payouts aren’t enormous, but they’re broadly in line with other slots built around similar cash prize systems. Next to benchmark titles like 9 Masks of Fire and some of the larger releases Just For The Win has produced, Buffalo Blox Gigablox’s 2,500x the bet top prize (in free spins) feels fairly standard.
The overall potential isn’t particularly eye-opening, and although an in-game message claims 5,000x the bet is possible, the default maximum multiplier in the game docs is lower, at 2,898x the bet. That’s worth bearing in mind if you’re considering a trip to the Great Plains for some buffalo spotting. Either figure looks modest next to 4ThePLayer’s Gigablox entry, 90K Yeti Gigablox. As the title implies, the Yeti game offers 90,000 times the bet—an extraordinary sum that was nearly hit, and in the base game no less.
Even though it’s put together well, it’s difficult to call anything Buffalo Blox does truly thrilling. It runs smoothly and does what it sets out to do in a restrained, competent manner, without demanding too much attention. Still, players after an outdoorsy, back-to-nature slot featuring scatter symbol cash prize wins may find Buffalo Blox appealing—so long as chasing huge maximum potential isn’t essential.
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ProviderJelly
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RTP95.0%
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VolatilityHigh
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Reels5
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Rows4
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Paylines20
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Min/Max Bet0.20/100
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Max Win2,500x
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Hit Freq24.27%
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Release DateJune 30, 2022