Release the Bison: Slot Overview

Players, fancy a quick “Release” lesson? Roll back to 2020, when Pragmatic Play brought Release the Kraken up from the deep, then followed it a couple of years later with Release the Kraken 2. With that gap came two noticeably different slots. Now, in early 2024, Pragmatic Play has unleashed a very different beast. The game is Release the Bison, and the switch in creature also comes with a handful of mechanical tweaks.

Out of the earlier Release titles, Release the Bison is closest to Release the Kraken 2. Not visually, of course. Here, the backdrop is a striking outdoor setting of mountains, meadows, and woodland. It’s a pleasing view, even if the calm is broken by some oddly expressive animal symbols on the reels. Still, they’re unlikely to put anyone off; if anything, it’s Release the Bison’s technical setup that may do more to dampen excitement.

The RTP isn’t really the issue, as the default 96.54% is perfectly respectable. Volatility shouldn’t surprise either, assuming highly volatile is what you’re after, and the broad 20 c to $/€240 betting range should suit most budgets. By adding an extra 50% to the stake, players can enable the ante bet for a higher chance of winning free spins. Release the Bison plays out on a 5-reel, 3-row layout with 20 paylines used to evaluate wins.

Symbol-wise, it’s a nature-themed mix: 10-A card ranks make up the lower values, while 4 animal characters sit at the top end. Five matching royals return 0.5 to 1.5 times the bet, and five of the premium symbols pay 2 to 10 times the bet. Bison feature as wild symbols and can land on any reel. Wilds replace standard pay symbols and can deliver up to 12.5 times the stake for a 5 wild win.

Release the Bison: Slot Features

While Release the Bison shares some DNA with Release the Kraken 2, the feature set has been reworked. This time around, the highlights are wild respins, guaranteed wins, free spins, and feature buys.

Wild Respins Feature

In the base game, hitting at least 4 wild symbols activates respin mode. During this feature, all wilds wander the reels, moving to random positions after each respin, with the game paying out after every respin. Any new wild that lands awards another respin, and the multiplier applied to all wins increases by +1. The newly landed wild also becomes a roamer. Any scatter that appears during the feature is collected up to 5, and if at least 3 scatters have been collected by the end, then free spins are triggered.

Guaranteed Win

At random in the base game, a non-winning spin can be converted into a win worth 10x to the 40x the bet.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 or more scatter symbols launches the free spins bonus. Also at random, if 2 scatters land in the base game, a respin may occur on reels that don’t contain a scatter. If a third scatter lands, free spins are awarded. Before the bonus begins, a wheel with two sides determines a multiplier and a number of free spins, based on how many scatters triggered the feature:

• If 3 scatters triggered the round, then 8-18 free spins with a multiplier of x1 to x5 are awarded.
• If 4 scatters triggered the round, then 8-18 free spins with a multiplier of x2 to x5 are awarded.
• If 5 scatters triggered the round, then 10-18 free spins with a multiplier of x3 to x5 are awarded.

In free spins, any wild that lands on the grid transforms into a roaming wild that stays on the reels until the feature ends, shifting to a random position between spins. Every new wild is collected in a meter. From the fifth collected wild onward, each additional one grants +1 more free spin and the multiplier increases by +1. A maximum of 10 wild symbols can be collected in this way.

Feature Buy

Players can purchase the free spins feature from the base game for 80x the bet for a 3 scatter trigger (RTP 96.55%), 150x the bet for a 4 scatter trigger (RTP 96.57%), or 300x the bet for a 5 scatter trigger (RTP 96.51%).

Release the Bison: Slot Verdict

Just as bison are less monstrous than krakens would be (if they existed—maybe they do?), Release the Bison also feels less intimidating than either Release the Kraken slot. Pragmatic has pared back parts of Release the Kraken 2—the title Release the Bison most closely mirrors—and also reduced the overall win potential. The Shifting Stack Wild symbols are gone, for instance, and the guaranteed win element has been scaled down. Yes, the free spins count can be higher, but the top starting multiplier values have been tightened. Add a little here, take a little there, and you end up with Release the Bison.

On the whole, these adjustments make for a less thrilling experience, not least because the win cap now tops out at 3,000x versus 5,000x in Kraken 2 or 10,000x in the original. Even the paylines stay the same when moving from the base game into free spins, rather than doubling like before, and the Kraken Offer/box picking has been removed. If this review sounds a bit grumbly, that’s because it’s hard not to notice that many of Pragmatic Play’s changes aren’t exactly the kind that raise a smile, with the few positives largely outweighed by the drawbacks.

“Release the Kraken!” is a quote from the 2010 movie “Clash of the Titans,” spoken by the Greek God Zeus, played by Liam Neeson, in a remake of the 1981 original that later became an Internet meme. That line simply carries more punch—it’s far more ominous coming from a Greek God than “Release the Bison!” ever would, and the same comparison fits the online slot versions Pragmatic Play has put out.