Roar of the Bear Megaways: Slot Overview

To give some of its titles a bit more bite, developer iSoftBet devised the Apex Predator series concept and packed it with some seriously intimidating creatures. The line launched with Tyrant King Megaways, centred on the T-Rex, one of the most terrifying lizards ever to roam the earth (even if it might struggle in an arm wrestle), and later continued with the shark-heavy slot Ocean Hunter. Now iSoftBet is taking players into the woods to face Roar of the Bear Megaways. As the name suggests, the bear is the top hunter here, and it devours symbols via a growing, sticky, roaming wild during free spins.

A lifelike bear welcomes players on the loading screen, mid-roar, before the main play area appears. At first glance, Roar of the Bear Megaways didn’t come across as especially savage. That might be down to the soundtrack, which blends Native American tones with Western touches and what sounds like a jaw harp, too. Add in the ambient nature sounds, and it fits the North American scenery of mountains, trees, and river. Visually, Roar of the Bear Megaways isn’t as striking as Tyrant King, though it felt more engaging than Ocean Hunter, so early impressions land somewhere between those two.

One aspect of Roar of the Bear Megaways that immediately stands out is the reel setup, featuring 6 reels plus two 4 symbol tracker reels – one positioned above and one below the main grid. Being a Megaways slot, the symbol count on each main reel varies, and when the layout is fully expanded, there are 200,704 ways to win available. To start spinning, choose your stake first, with 20 c to $/€20 matching the familiar iSoftBet range. With a highly volatile model, the game runs at an RTP of 96%.

The paytable mixes wilderness icons and royals, with 10-A card ranks as the low pays and the higher pays made up of a raccoon, an owl, a moose, a cougar, and a wolf. Thanks to the cascading mechanic, winning symbols are removed, and replacements fall in from above on the main reels and slide in from the sides on the tracker reels. The bear also lends a hand as the wild, replacing any standard pay symbol.

Roar of the Bear Megaways: Slot Features

Roar of the Bear Megaways includes features like mystery symbols, Max Megaways, Wild Eagle & Wild Salmon modifiers, free spins, a bonus buy, and the Wild Bet.

Mystery Symbols

Glowing moon symbols act as mystery symbols and can show up on any spin. When they land, they reveal the same sort of symbol, excluding scatters and wilds.

Max Megaways

The Max Megaways modifier can activate on any spin. It triggers at random and notifies players when it’s in effect, forcing the reels to hit the maximum number of Megaways (200,704).

Wild Eagle & Wild Salmon Modifiers

If the eagle symbol lands on the top tracker, it activates the Wild Eagle, and all high symbols on the reels below become wild. Alternatively, landing the salmon symbol on the bottom tracker activates Wild Salmon, and all low symbols above become wild. Eagle and Salmon can be 2-4 positions wide, but they can’t appear on the same spin, and they are not available during free spins.

Bonus Round & Free Spins

Hitting 4, 5, or 6 scatters in the base game awards 1, 2, or 3 bonus spins, respectively. During a bonus spin, a separate reel set spins and can land blanks, free spins symbols, or Golden Claws. Once the bonus spins end, the total number of free spins shown is counted and granted, while the Golden Claws determine the starting size of the roaming wild.

During free spins, main reels 2 to 5 are fixed, meaning they always land 5 symbols in the highlighted area. Inside this area, a roaming wild appears in random spots while the reels are spinning. When Golden Claw symbols land, they are collected. For every 3 Golden Claw symbols collected, the roaming wild grows in size, and +2 free spins are awarded. The roaming wilds sizes are 1×2 – 2×2 – 2×3 – 3×3.

Bonus Buy & Wild Bet

With the bonus buy, players can spend 100x the bet to activate the bonus round, while enabling the Wild Bet raises the stake by 50%, increasing the likelihood of triggering modifiers and the bonus feature.

Roar of the Bear Megaways: Slot Verdict

Tyrant King kicked off the Apex Predator series with a thunderous roar, Ocean Hunter dialled things back to a soggy whimper, and as mentioned earlier, Roar of the Bear Megaways lands between them. It arguably sits closer to the shark title than the dinosaur one. The forest-and-bear concept is executed competently, but it doesn’t feel standout. A familiar cast of animals fills the reels, and the backdrop is pleasant yet fairly generic, leaving Roar of the Bear Megaways easy to look at but slightly underwhelming given how many nature-themed slots share a similar style.

Mechanically, the larger-than-usual Megaways layout isn’t merely decorative, which adds some appeal. It provides plenty of extra ways, and the Eagle Wild and Salmon Wild features take advantage of the added space – when they actually show up, which likely won’t be too often. Still, they feel more like supporting acts than the headline attraction. The main draw in Roar of the Bear Megaways is the expanding, roaming wild in free spins. Oddly, it can seem almost independent, frequently choosing to linger as far to the right of the grid as it can. Now and then it drifts left and can help piece together a respectable win.

So, there’s room for both good and bad sessions, but overall Roar of the Bear Megaways didn’t hook in the way some similar titles have, such as Push Gaming’s ‘Fat’ slots. By the end it was fine, though it came across as if iSoftBet’s momentum behind the Apex Predator concept had started to fade.