Great Rhino Megaways: Overview

The distant rumble you may have noticed isn’t a herd on the move, but the buzz around Pragmatic Play’s first Megaways powered slot. It’s now official: Pragmatic Play has secured the sought-after Big Time Gaming license for its famous game engine. That’s the positive. The downside is that, rather than building a fresh concept to show off the mechanics, the studio has opted for the safer route, as becomes clear.

Pragmatic Play has taken one of its earlier releases, the wildlife packed, nature-driven slot Great Rhino, and given it the Megaways treatment. The original did well enough but never felt like a standout, so does the Megaways conversion transform it? The initial look is nice, though it doesn’t really bring a big “must-play” factor.

The scenery is easy on the eyes, with that familiar golden light over the African plains. Early on, the best touch is the calming nature ambience in the background. Once you press spin, however, the calm is interrupted by the heavy drum hits that have long been a staple of African themed slots. Overall, this edition is a modest upgrade on the original, while also ticking the usual boxes you’d expect from a Megaways slot.

Tap the coin icon to begin and choose stakes from 20 p/c up to $/€100 per spin – either by spinning manually or using up to one hundred auto spins in a batch. Under the hood, the game runs on a highly volatile math model, hinted at by the 5 bolts of lightning indicator on the main screen. The swings are softened a little by a solid default RTP, which can sit between 96.47% and 96.58%, so the headline numbers look respectable.

Pragmatic has leaned into the Megaways mechanics properly. You play on 6 reels with 2-7 symbols per reel, plus a horizontal bonus reel that adds an extra spot above reels 2-5. When fully expanded, the layout reaches up to 200,704 ways to win. Wins use a cascading symbols mechanic: when a combination lands, the winning symbols disappear and new ones drop into the gaps. Cascades keep going until no further wins form, then the next spin starts.

The symbol set is close to the original, with a small reshuffle. The rhino is now wild and appears only on the bonus 4 symbol reel at the top. It can replace any other paying symbol and does so with a slick little animation. The remaining paytable is divided into 5 low and 5 high symbols, and the low pays now feature a wooden, tribal look that fits the setting more naturally. For the higher pays, there are flamingos, hyenas, crocodiles, updated gorillas, and cheetahs. Payouts range from 1.5 times the stake for six flamingos up to 50 times the stake for six cheetahs. Up to this point, it’s all very familiar Megaways territory—so what about the features?

Great Rhino Megaways: Features

You certainly can’t call Great Rhino Megaways packed with extras. The main mechanic is the golden rhino coin scatter symbol—land 4 or more anywhere in view and you’ll activate the free spins round. Before it begins, you’re offered 4 choices, each with different rules and different volatility levels:

• 15 free spins with a starting win multiplier of 1x.
• 10 free spins with a starting win multiplier of 5x.
• 5 free spins with a starting win multiplier of 10x.
• Mystery Choice with a random number of free spins and a random starting win multiplier.

If you trigger the free spins feature with extra scatter symbols, you receive additional starting free spins. During the bonus, the win multiplier increases by +1 on every tumble – with no cap. If another 4 scatters show up in view, they award 5 extra free spins to keep the feature going.

There’s also one additional option players may see: the Ante Bet feature. When available, it lets you raise the bet setting from 20 (default value) to 25, which places more scatter symbols on the reels and doubles the likelihood of triggering free spins.

Great Rhino Megaways: Verdict

Along with its limited feature set, Great Rhino Megaways is also short on fresh ideas. A studio’s first step into Megaways is often cautious, and Pragmatic’s first release fits that pattern. It’s not that the game is poorly produced, but there’s little here that feels exciting or conversation-worthy from a novelty angle. Between the familiar theme, the reuse of an older title, and the free spins selection mechanic that feels borrowed straight from Blueprint Gaming’s playbook, Pragmatic has clearly chosen the safe—some would say easy—path.

That said, it functions exactly as a well-built Megaways slot should. It doesn’t feel like a rough or clumsy first attempt in the way Raging Rhino Megaways did. Visuals are solid, animations run cleanly, and the overall play experience is smooth and reliable. If you’re after straightforward Megaways action, it does the job. The win potential is also respectable, with a ceiling of 20,000 times the stake. Reaching anything close to that in the base game is naturally difficult, so the top-end results depend heavily on the one extra feature doing the work.

Ultimately, Great Rhino Megaways is perfectly capable of providing enjoyable sessions, and there’s nothing glaringly wrong with it. It’s just disappointing that Pragmatic played things so carefully for their debut, and the Blueprint-style bonus choice setup won’t earn it many originality points either. Still, Pragmatic has finally set the Megaways wheels in motion, so the real question is what comes next—more restrained and forgettable releases, or something with a stronger identity? Time will tell.

Don’t Miss…

A Christmas themed edition of this title exists called Christmas Carol Megaways. It offers the same stats and features as this one and could be a fitting pick for the holiday season.