Bandit Megaways

Bandit Megaways: Slot Overview

Bandits in real life are pretty nasty, picking on the vulnerable, grabbing their money and other worldly possessions. However, in the Wild Wild West, or at least the online slot industry's version of it, everything is romanticised (unless you're Nolimit City), and that includes bandits. Case in point is Pragmatic Play's Western slot Bandit Megaways, which, as well as serving up a reheated Megaways version of its smash hit title Gates of Olympus, does so in the company of a tall, dark, broody bandit chap and his associates.

Just as Pragmatic Play hasn't reached into the unknown to find features, so it has stuck with the tried and true in terms of presentation, too. What this means is a dusty, middle of way out the back of nowhere, wooden shanty town, the sort where tumbleweeds blow through on a regular basis. Free spins move play inside the saloon, and while nothing about Bandit Megaways' optics is going to insult your eyes, there's nothing out of the ordinary about them either.

Bandit Megaways gaming space is made of 6 vertically spinning reels and a 4-cell horizontally tracking reel above the middle four main reels. When including both parts of the grid, up to 7 symbols may land in each column, producing up to 117,649 ways to win. Basically, it's a default Megaways configuration. The game's maximum RTP sits on the solid side with a 96.55% figure when betting 20 c to $/€240 per spin, or 96.54% when buying either feature. In all cases, this is a highly volatile online slot.

Winning combinations start from the leftmost reel, and 11 pay symbols land on the reels. These are 10-A card royal low pays and 6 character high pays. Hitting ways of 6 matching royals awards 0.5-0.8 times the bet, or hitting 6 OAK high pay combinations is worth 1 to 7.5 times the bet. Wild symbols are not part of Bandit Megaways but a tumble feature is. Bandit Megaways' tumble mechanic makes every winning symbol disappear after the combinations have paid and fill empty spaces with a symbol tumble. Tumbling continues until no more winning combinations appear.

Bandit Megaways: Slot Features

Bandit Megaways drops multiplier symbols onto its reels to multiply winning combinations in the base game and the bonus round. However, in its bonus round, multipliers can accrue on a persistent global multiplier.

Multiplier Feature

The multiplier symbol may land on spins or tumbles in the base game and in free spins. When a multiplier hits, it has a value of x2 to x500, and remains in place until tumbles end. When tumbles end, the values of all multiplier symbols in view are added together, and the total win of the sequence is multiplied by the total multiplier value.

Free Spins

Hitting 4, 5, or 6 scatters triggers the free spins round, awarding 15, 20, or 25 free spins, respectively. During free spins, when a multiplier symbol hits, and the spin produces a win, the multiplier value is added to a global total multiplier. For the round's duration, whenever a new multiplier hits, and there is a win on the spin, the total multiplier value is used to multiply the win. Landing 3 to 6 scatters during the round grants an extra 15 to 30 free spins.

Feature Buy

Bandit Megaways comes with two feature buys. The first costs 100x the bet and triggers free spins with 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols. The second costs 500x the bet, and 4-6 scatters also trigger the feature, but during it x10 is the minimum value a multiplier symbol can have.

Bandit Megaways: Slot Verdict

Well, it's hard to fire off slots at the frequency that Pragmatic Play does without some crossover occurring, and if you've played Gates of Olympus (and a lot of gamblers have), then the links to Bandit Megaways are clear. Obviously, this is no scatter paying slot, though, but rather one running on a Megaways game engine. That in itself goes some way to justifying Bandit Megaways' existence on this planet. At times, it can feel like the rise and rise of scatter paying slots is edging out Big Time Gaming's engine in the popularity stakes, yet Megaways continues to possess lashings of clout, and it works like a charm with the particular multiplier feature used here.

Like Gates of Olympus, the multiplier symbol can hit in any phase of play, yet it shines brighter in free spins due to the addition of a global total multiplier. The ride is similar as well, meaning multiplier symbols bait you when they land, but no win occurs, causing them to go to waste, as does the global multiplier when it's sitting there, not modifying wins because multiplier symbols are not present. The opposite is possible as well, though, and tumble wins are able to trigger some sweet hand-rubbing suspense when they're building a juicy total while simultaneously landing multiplier symbols. It's a fairly simple yet exciting combination of features that has entertained a lot of online slot players from Gates of Olympus on down.

It's not all exhilarating news, though. What might cause one to pause is a win cap of 5,000x, which is a little bit disappointing for a Megaways slot. Still, despite the generic title, the generic looks, and recycled gameplay, Bandit Megaways' use of this feature combination has the ability to provide a new round of Western-tinged entertainment.