Bushido Gold

Bushido Gold: Slot Overview

Jason Voorhees, the slasher villain from the Friday the 13th franchise, has been drowned, killed, blown apart, dissolved in toxic waste, and even launched into space, yet he somehow always finds his way back to terrorise another sequel. This brings us to software provider ELK Studios' release, Bushido Gold. Remember how Valhall Gold was meant to be the end of the studio's long-standing, and generally top quality, Gold series, then Kane came back for an unexpected encore in Elysian Gold? Well, he ain't done. Kane is back, again, this time in Japan for the online slot Bushido Gold. The question is whether this will be a triumphant return to form, or a sad sifting over of past glories which would have been best left alone to age gracefully.

The first impressions were more positive than negative as two pillars hold a gaming grid together in a scene of moody weather. Behind the reels, visible as symbols drop in, is a sort of fortress on a hill, overlooking a grassy plain about to be ravaged by battle. Trigger free spins, and players miss the actual fighting, but discarded weapons and flames mean that might have been a good thing. The visuals are decent, yet Bushido Gold is no better looking than previous Gold slots have been. The audio is somewhat subdued, too, even during countups, which was slightly odd for an ELK Studios piece. So far, so okay, could've been better, could have been worse.

Bushido Gold is played on a 6-reel grid that can expand from 4 rows high up to 8. Symbols can be split, as well, so the number of ways to win varies from 4,096 at baseline to calculator-busting figures, we're talking millions, depending on grid size and slicing. As for the math model, it is highly volatile and has a max RTP of 96% whether betting $/€0.20 to $/€100 or using the X-iter buys.

The regular pay symbols in Bushido Gold are J-A card ranks, four animal symbols, and four mask/character type symbols, topped by Kane, who looks like Keanu Reeves in 47 Ronin. Hitting 6 matching symbols in a win pays 0.3x to 5x the stake.

Bushido Gold: Slot Features

Here we go over the avalanche feature, big symbols, wild explosions, the Ninja symbol, Cannons, Slices, Ninja Drops, and feature buys.

Features

• Avalanches - After win evaluations, winning symbols explode from the reels and another row is added to the grid, up to 8 rows high. New symbols drop down to fill the gaps, and if a new win occurs, then the avalanching repeats.
• Big Symbols - All pay symbols except wilds may land as 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 sized symbols. Big symbols count as the number of 1x1 positions they cover. If empty spaces appear below big symbols, they are filled with the same type as the big symbol.
• Wild Explosion - The wild substitutes for all paying symbols. If wilds contribute to a win, or at the end of the spin, they explode, affecting adjacent symbols - removing pay symbols and activating feature symbols. After the explosion, a new row is added to the next redrop up to 8. Big symbols are not affected by wild explosions. A wild-only win has the same value as the top pay symbol.
• The Ninja - The Ninja symbol is a blocker that can activate the Ninja feature. There can not be more than one Ninja in view at the same time. The Ninja symbol is affected by a slice, a shooting Cannon, or by an exploding wild, triggering the Ninja feature after any pending refill and before the win evaluation. From 2 to 10 stars are thrown at the grid, converting hit pay symbols into wilds or activating hit feature symbols. Stars do not hit wilds or already activated feature symbols.
• Cannon Symbols - Cannon symbols are blockers that trigger the Cannon feature when hit by the Slice feature, another Cannon, an exploding wild or a throwing star. After any pending refill but before the win evaluation, an activated Cannon shoots a column of wilds upwards, expanding the grid by 1 row (if it is less than 8), then converting into a wild. The golden Cannon acts in the same way, but it always generates a column of wilds so that the grid expands up to 8 rows high if it isn't already. The big Cannon acts like a regular Cannon except it is a 2x2 symbol, which creates a 2-symbol-wide column of wilds.
• Slice Feature - When two matching symbols land in the leftmost and rightmost column on the same row, they trigger the Slice feature, doubling pay symbols, scatters or wilds on the row, or activating Ninja and Cannon symbols on the row. Sliced symbols cannot be sliced again. Affected big symbols convert to 1x1 symbols before the slice. If the leftmost and rightmost matching symbols are of different sizes, only rows with the matching symbols are sliced.

Ninja Drops

Hitting 3 scatters awards 6 free Ninja Drops plus 2 free Ninja Drops for each extra triggering scatter. The bonus round has a Safety level which advances one row for each new Ninja Drop that produces a win. Each new Ninja Drop starts at the current Safety level. The Ninja symbol appears on every Ninja Drop.

X-iter

The X-iter bonus buy menu has five options. The Bonus Hunt costs 2.5x the bet and gives each spin more than 3 times the chance of triggering a bonus, while the Mega Hunt costs 5x to give more than 6 times the chance. Max Rows and Slice is a spin with 8 rows and a Slice feature on the first drop for 25x. The bonus round can be bought for 100x, or the super bonus with 8 rows on each Ninja Drop costs 500x the stake.

Bushido Gold: Slot Verdict

Bushido Gold is mechanically quite impressive but emotionally somewhat lacking. On paper, it has plenty going on and the usual layered chaos ELK Studios tends to supply. Yet somehow, despite all the moving parts, Bushido Gold didn't quite hit the same way as earlier Gold entries. Not saying it can't pop by any means, and the 25,000x win cap is a substantial one, but would it have been best to leave the series alone, move onto new things, dare we say, bigger and better things? ELK Studios has done some cool stuff since Kane was meant to retire, Nitropolis 5, Pirots 4, Cathedral 9, for example - even games without a number in the title have entertained as well, so it's not like the developer is running out of ideas. However, for whatever reason, nostalgia, cash, a desire to flex some new mechanics, Kane's been wheeled out of the rest home to perform again.

It did take a little while to see the potential in Bushido Gold. However, once the slicing and dicing kicked in and Cannons began firing columns of wilds about the place, not to mention the ludicrous number of ways to win the game can rattle off, things started to click. Bushido Gold began to make more sense, and the enjoyment levels rose. Not so much that it eclipsed the past, yet players impressed by where the Gold series has gone before should be able to extract some fun out of this. Maybe going into the session with as few expectations as possible might help, as will not judging Bushido Gold too harshly by comparing it with previous titles.

Then again, this is online slots, not psychoanalysis. Not every gambler is going to want to examine their inner world before taking Bushido Gold for a whirl. In which case, okay, it's a game that delivers some recognisable and potentially exciting things, without doing anything glaringly wrong. However, while ticking a number of the right Gold boxes, Bushido Gold struggles to justify Kane's return, again, since it doesn't significantly lift or reinvent the series.