Blaze Buddies

Blaze Buddies: Slot Overview

Software provider Backseat Gaming's slot Blaze Buddies might sound like a group of stoners hot-boxing the living room before launching into a session of video games and snacks, but it's actually a game focused on fantastical creatures. Those fantastical creatures are none other than dragons and they do appear to be very friendly in the game. In this respect, Blaze Buddies came across a bit like the then Microgaming, now Games Global slot Dragonz, and in this game, a troop of scaly creatures are accompanied by a free spins round, which can be bolstered by randomly picked modifiers, keeping in mind little to no extras have been left over for the base game.

Graphically and atmospherically, Blaze Buddies is a feel-good slot, mostly on account of the four happy, smiling, huggable dragon characters. The buds inhabit a snowy domain for the base game, where not a huge amount of activity takes place before winging off to a hot, lava-ry realm for the free spins round, where modifiers and features are able to appear. It's been said that smiling when meeting someone for the first time helps make a positive first impression, and after playing Blaze Buddies, this price of social advice does seem to make sense.

In the base game and in free spins, the dragon pals (and other symbols) land on a 5x4 reelset on which wins are evaluated by 20 paylines and winning combinations must start from the leftmost reel. Gamblers may wager 10 c to $/€100 per spin, while the highly volatile math model comes with an RTP of 96.37% as its highest configuration.

Four dragon buddies are the high-pay symbols. They award 5 to 20 times the bet when landing a 5 OAK matching symbol winning line. Down from them are 10 to A card ranks, paying 1.5-2 times the bet for a 5 OAK winning line.

Blaze Buddies: Slot Features

Blaze Buddies' free spins feature is the place to be, which begins with a pick sequence to activate various modifiers for the bonus round. Also available are bonus buys.

Dragon's Delight

The Dragon's Delight bonus game is triggered by landing at least 3 scatters in the base game. Once in, 10 free spins are granted, as are 3 feature picks. Each time scatters land on the leftmost and rightmost reels, an extra pick is granted, up to 6 in total.

Blaze of Glory

In the base game, scatters land on all reels; in free spins, they may land on the leftmost and rightmost reels. The Blaze of Glory bonus game is triggered when 4 or 5 scatters land in the base game. A total of 10 free spins are awarded here as well, as are 4 or 5 feature picks depending on the number of triggering scatters. Each time scatters land on the leftmost and rightmost reels, an extra pick is granted, up to 6 in total. After 6 picks have been awarded in a bonus round, scatters no longer appear in the bonus.

Feature Picks

At the start of the bonus round, players pick a number of dragon eggs on the screen based on the number of scatters landed in the base game or when the bonus round is bought. All 3 modifiers can apply to the same dragon. Extra spins can only be picked once when there are 3 initial picks. It is possible to get more free spins from retriggers or when 4 or more picks are initially awarded.

• Expanded Dragon - 1 of the 4 high pay symbols lands as a 1x4 symbol, except if it is not a golden wild symbol. This feature can only be picked once per bonus game, and only 1 dragon can get it. Expanded dragons cannot land more than once per reel.
• Wild Dragon - 1 of the 4 high pay symbols is converted into a golden wild when it lands on the grid. If the dragon symbol is expanded, the whole expanded reel becomes wild. Wild dragons substitute for all regular pay symbols and pay 20x for a 5 wild symbol win.
• Dragon Multiplier - 1 of the 4 high pay symbols receives a multiplier of x2 to x100. This multiplier is applied to all paylines involving the selected symbol. Multipliers on a single payline are added together.
• Extra Spins - +2, +3, or +4 extra spins are granted.

Bonus Buys

At the bonus buy area of Blaze Buddies, players may activate these: BonusHunt FeatureSpins (2x the bet) - each spin is 3 times more likely to trigger a bonus game, Scorching FeatureSpins (50x the bet) - all dragons of a single type land as a wild reel with a multiplier, Dragon's Delight (100x the bet), and Blaze of Glory (200x the bet).

Blaze Buddies: Slot Verdict

We drew parallels between Blaze Buddies and Dragonz at the start of the review, but the two games are arguably more different than they are alike in many ways. The vibe is comparable, being a feel-good, buddying up, high-fiving, maybe even hugging event. However, the gameplay is a bit different. For one thing, Blaze Buddies keeps the base game free of extra features, meaning it might be a bit dry, a bit dull, and the max win is not achievable in that phase of play. The hit rate is high, though, at 57.4%, according to the game documentation, so maybe that will keep players busy in between bonus rounds.

As for free spins, they could be quite exciting. Individual dragon symbols can be hit with more than one modifier at the same time, so it is possible to have expanding wild dragons, let's say, in play. Spreading modifiers amongst more than one dragon is also quite enjoyable, as they hit in solid quantities during the review. Not that this means they always will, of course. But should the fire-breathing compadres get a real firestorm going, they're able to produce winning potential of up to 10,000 times the stake. Multis, full reel wilds, it's possible to see how this might theoretically occur.

Thanks to the faint link to an older slot, something akin to nostalgia-tinged the already feel-good factor generated by the quartet of happy dragons. The base game might get stuck in low gear, but when Blaze Buddies shifts into its free spins feature, its set of modifiers is able to stoke a sizable blaze should its parts manage to kindle some action.