Wild Bison Stampede

Wild Bison Stampede: Slot Overview

If a good rider gets thrown, but a better rider gets back on, then software provider Slotmill earns its spurs through the release of Wild Bison Stampede, a distant cousin of the studio's earlier Western-themed title Raging Riches. Mechanically, the two slots are completely different, but thematically, they both fling players way out west on the American prairie, where the sun shines a bit brighter, horses gallop free, and all that other romanticised frontier stuff. For Wild Bison Stampede, it would appear that Slotmill has picked an audience, and set the game charging at them, chewing up the dust with homely visuals, and a host of reliable, wild symbol heavy gameplay.

Anyone who has been out these ways before will be well accustomed to Wild Bison Stampede's lay of the land. We're talking about cactus country, lots of dust, the sort of place where a tumbleweed could roll for days without bumping into anything human-made. The West, but without people spoiling the landscape or upsetting the wildlife. Slotmill has made about as nice a view of it as any game designer has, but the imagery here is also about as cliched as it gets. Energy is injected by a soundtrack which significantly ups the honky tonk factor though, and it should be said that if this style gets your blood pulsing, then the nicely presented, if overly familiar, looks should scratch that out on the range under a hot desert sun itch.

The stampeding happens on a 5x4 grid, decorated with feathers, and in possession of 20 paylines to evaluate winning combinations. Medium-high is the volatility rating, and of the two RTP variants, 96.01% is the preferred version. Players may stake $/€0.20 to $/€60 per spin, and to speed the action along, Burst mode may be engaged to rocket through a set number of spins without the main graphical representation covering the maths.

Classic symbols of the frontier make up Wild Bison Stampede's pay symbols. On the low side are Wild West-style J-A royals paying 3x to 5x the bet when landing a 5 OAK combination. Above them are raccoons, cats, wolves, and eagles, worth 10x to 28x the bet for a five-of-a-kind hit.

Wild Bison Stampede: Slot Features

Wild Bison Stampede is all about its wilds, which land in two forms in the base game and the three bonus rounds. Fast Track bonus buys are also available.

Wilds & Random Wild Feature

Single Wilds can appear on the leftmost, middle, and rightmost reels in the base game. Wilds substitute for all regular pay symbols. Stacked Wilds can appear on the second and fourth reels in the base game, covering the entire reel. A line of 5 wilds is worth 28x. The random wild feature may trigger in the base game, causing Single Wild or Stacked Wild symbols to appear randomly on the reels.

Free Spins Bonus Games

Scatters also appear on the leftmost, middle, and rightmost reels in the base game. Hitting 3 scatters triggers the free spins bonus game. When entering the bonus, a coin flips to determine which round will be played: the Sticky Wild Bonus Game, the Nudging Wild Bonus Game, or the Super Free Spins Bonus Game:

• Sticky Wild Bonus Game - 9 free spins are awarded with Single Wilds on all reels. When a wild lands, it sticks in place till the round ends. A full reel of wilds merge into a sticky Stacked Wild and award +1 free spin.
• Nudging Wild Bonus Game - 7 free spins with Stacked Wilds on all reels are awarded. Any Stacked Wild that lands partially in view nudges to cover its reel. A fully Stacked Wild sticks in place till the end of the feature and awards +1 free spin.
• Super Free Spins Bonus Game - 12 free spins are awarded with Single Wilds and Stacked Wilds. As in the base game, Single Wilds land on the leftmost, middle, and rightmost reels while Stacked Wilds land on reels 2 and 4. Both types are sticky till the round concludes, and act as they do in their respective bonus round.

Extra-Bet & Fast Track

Activating the Extra-Bet increases the stake by 50% to make it 3 times more likely to trigger a free spins bonus. The Fast Track provides direct access to the features. For 30x, the Random Single Wild guarantees a random Single Wild, while the Random Stacked Wild at 40x guarantees a random Stacked Wild. The Sticky Wild Bonus can be bought for 80x, the Nudging Wild Bonus for 100x, or the Super Free Spins Bonus for 400x the bet.

Wild Bison Stampede: Slot Verdict

Like Raging Riches, Wild Bison Stampede sees Slotmill step away from its usual, more experimental work, shall we say and concentrate on a specific section of the mainstream gambling market. That is, a game which may appeal to players looking to unwind after a hard day at the salt mine, kick back, and let the mind drift west to a place where spreadsheets, customers, and KPIs don't exist. A pure land of animals, land, and sky. A place where… You get the picture, and while there is a lot of bison-themed gaming already grazing the market, Slotmill has cobbled together enough of the right bits to excite gamblers drawn to this style.

It will help if wild features are of personal interest, as well, since that's basically all Wild Bison Stampede has in terms of grid-modifying features. In the base game, Single Wilds aren't hugely special, so it's arguably Stacked Wilds you want there, augmenting them. As for free spins, both wild types have value on account of them both being sticky when they land. Multipliers are absent at all times, so a sheer weight of wild numbers is needed to really push the game into overdrive. Positive results were produced in all three bonus rounds, though super free spins were the most thrilling, since they award the greatest number of free spins to play with and will happily land either type of wild. Wild Bison Stampede's winning potential isn't as beefy as its main character, but the 6,688x the bet top prize is a decent amount to aim for with the ways and wilds combo twirling from holsters.

And so Wild Bison Stampede should be a satisfying game in the hands of the right player, but a pretty cliched one by Slotmill's creative standards. It has been well built, looks the part, and the wild features can blow out sizable results when they're sticking up the place. It all means Wild Bison Stampede is an energetic beast for bison fans to ride, or attempt to ride, but is unlikely to impress Slotmill's usual crew.