Big Bass Cluster Catch

Big Bass Cluster Catch: Slot Overview

Pragmatic Play and partner Reel Kingdom's Big Bass range continues to rattle along with a new entry that may actually give players pause. The clue is in the title, Big Bass Cluster Catch, which, in a surprise move, is a cluster pays version of the popular fishing series. It's a move so logical you wonder why the studios haven't done it before, but to be fair, they have tinkered quite extensively over the years in the various and numerous releases. However, much of the tinkering often involves minor mechanical tweaks or just reskinning older games, so a complete pay system overhaul is quite an intriguing switch. Keyboard anglers can rest easy, though, Big Bass Cluster Catch remains, at its heart, a fish money symbol collecting game. 

A sunny day by the water greets players as they enter the world of Big Bass Cluster Catch. It could be a lake or a river, hard to say, not that it matters, it looks like a prime spot to cast off and see what bites, either way. The Big Bass fisherman guy doesn't look like he's here for a relaxing day of catching nothing, though. Plonked in front of him is a barrel of dynamite, presumably for a spot of largely illegal blast fishing where underwater explosions cause shock waves that rupture fish swim bladders, ruining buoyancy control, sending them floating to the surface for an easy collect. Big Bass Cluster Catch the game might not be as easy to collect as that, but even though it has transitioned to a cluster pays game, collecting fish money values remains the key objective.

A 6x5 grid is where Big Bass Cluster Catch does its angling, and as mentioned, it uses a cluster pays system to award winning combinations. While this is happening, a medium volatile math model drives the action, available with a maximum RTP of 96.52%. The bet range varies from $/€0.10 to $/€250.

Pay symbols landing on the grid are Q-A royals, fish, boxes, dragonflies, reels, and floats. Clusters that are 5 OAK in size pay 0.1x to 5x the bet, and the largest clusters are 12+ OAK in size, worth 10x to 500x the bet. Fisherman wilds appear, but only during free spins, where they substitute all paying symbols. 

Big Bass Cluster Catch: Slot Features 

The pay system might have changed, but most of the features are recognisable, though the TNT Barrel and Fish Basket are somewhat new. Aside from them are tumbles, money symbols, free spins with an increasing multiplier, random free spins features, an ante bet, and feature buys.

Tumbles 

When a winning cluster forms, a payout is made. The winning symbols, and all other instances of winning symbols, except scatters or money symbols, vanish. Instances of symbols that vanished but were not part of the winning combinations may randomly transform into a money symbol. Symbols then tumble down to refill the grid for another chance to win.

TNT Barrel 

When a 2x2 to 5x5 winning cluster is removed, a Dynamite moves to the TNT Barrel. The TNT Barrel can only be triggered during free spins.

Money Symbols 

Fish symbols are money symbols which each have a value of 2x to 1,000x the bet. Money values are awarded by the fisherman wild symbol in the free spins feature. During free spins, money symbols also pay as paying symbols when part of winning clusters.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatter symbols triggers 10, 15, 20 or 30 free spins, respectively. Whenever 1 or 2 scatters hit, they are collected in the fish basket. Randomly, a hook may appear to pull 2, 3, 4 or 5 scatters onto the reels to trigger free spins. During free spins, each fisherman wild symbol collects all the values from money symbols on the grid. After collecting the values, the fish symbols vanish. The fisherman wild symbol does not vanish during tumbles.

All fisherman wild symbols that land during the feature are collected until the end of the round. Every 4th collected fisherman wild retriggers the feature, awarding +10 free spins, and the multiplier for money symbol collection increases to x2 for the first retrigger, x3 for the second retrigger and x10 for the third. After the third retrigger, the round cannot be retriggered anymore.

During free spins, the following random features can happen. At random, when there are fisherman wild symbols on the grid but no money symbols, a dynamite can appear to change random symbols (not fisherman wild symbols) to money symbols. Also at random, when there are fisherman wild symbols in view but no money symbols, a bazooka can appear to change random symbols on the screen (not fisherman wilds) to something else, including money symbols. Lastly, the TNT barrel can randomly explode during free spins to add money symbols to random positions on the grid. The chance for it to explode depends on how many dynamites were collected in the base game.

Ante Bet & Feature Buys 

Activating the ante bet doubles the stake to double the chance of triggering free spins. Paying 120x the bet triggers the free spins feature with 3-6 scatters. Or paying 500x triggers super free spins with 3-6 scatters, and in this round only 3 fisherman wild symbols are needed to retrigger the feature. There is also a higher chance of hitting 1,000x money symbols. 

Big Bass Cluster Catch: Slot Verdict 

There have been so many Big Bass games now that it takes something special to cause an eyebrow to rise in surprise. Big Bass Cluster Catch initially managed to achieve this, as it throws off previous winning combination generator methods in favour of a cluster pays one. It's a logical shift that isn't new for slots, generally speaking, by any means, but it is new for Big Bass, and not only does it provide a different way of playing the game for gamblers, but it also opens the door for the studios to potentially deploy other alternative methods in the future, such as scatter pays, adding even more longevity to a series that shambles along like a mindless automaton, physically unable to lie down and give up.

However, beyond the cluster pays change, Big Bass Cluster Catch is more or less business as usual. The winning mechanics swap certainly doesn't mean the game has abandoned its roots. Fish money symbols, fisherman wilds, free spins and increasing collection multipliers remain central to the experience.  The base game might provide a different type of entertainment, but without any sort of multiplier injection, clusters can only do so much. Having said that, some of the upper values can be quite high. Still, it's the free spins round you want, as fish symbols have values of up to 1,000x and can only be collected in that phase. Then it's a race to collect fisherman wilds in order to bring the collection multiplier into play, in order to attempt cracking the 10,000x the bet max win.

Utilising cluster pays gives Big Bass Cluster Catch a different flow than its predecessors, and while the clustering part of the game is a bit basic, randomly dropping money symbols into non-winning matching symbol positions is appreciated. The focus remains on collecting fish money values, an activity the Big Bass range does well, and Big Bass Cluster Catch manages to refresh the formula to an extent, without losing the personality that made the series popular.