Fat Banker

Fat Banker: Slot Overview

Like a well-fed bunny, Push Gaming's highly popular 'Fat' range of slots expands even further with an entry titled Fat Banker. There's something fitting about the studio's theme choice this time around. Whether true or not, in the popular imagination, bankers are often portrayed puffed up on steak and beer lunches, lighting Cuban cigars with burning dollar bills, living the sort of high-flying lives those who don't work in finance can only dream of. Like Gordon Gekko said – 'greed is good.' At least it is in Fat Banker, where the growing wild symbol in free spins returns, reviving the thrills found in Fat Rabbit, the classic slot which sparked the whole franchise off.

Banking often gets a bad rap, so for Fat Banker the slot, Push Gaming has decided to represent a more glamorous side of it. To do so, they appear to have rewound the clock to an earlier, dare we say more innocent age, before the GFC, and other modern financial meltdowns occurred. Downtown skyscrapers border a game area in an artistically curved way, while an Art Deco chrome feeling abounds. In terms of looks, Fat Banker delivers plenty of the easy-going charm the 'Fat' series is famous for, yet while it may look harmless, it is a beast when it gets going.

To get it rolling, players pick a stake of 10 p/c to $/€100 and hit spin to drop 36 symbols into a 6x6 sized grid. That's not a typo; Push has added an extra row and reel to the game grid, while wedging in 10 additional paylines. Is this because bankers allegedly want everything to be bigger than their competitors? Maybe. In keeping with tradition, Fat Banker is a highly volatile game and has one of the higher RTPs in the range of 96.43%, which gets even higher when buying one of the three feature buy options.

Regular wins occur when 3 to 6 matching symbols land along with one of the 50 fixed paylines, starting from column number one. Diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades start the paytable off, paying out 1x the bet for a six of a kind hit. From there, we find top hats, cigars, puppies, and the banker's lady (presumably). Landing a six premium symbol win gets you a 10x to 20x the bet. The banker is worth more, at 40x the bet for six of a kind, and is also wild, though he only really comes into pay during free spins. Two other wild symbols appear in Fat Banker and are hugely important. One is a regular Wild Money Bag symbol. The other is a Wild Money Bag symbol with Multiplier, which comes with a value of x2, x3, or x5. In the base game, wilds land on reels 2-6 and can replace any pay symbol.

Fat Banker: Slot Features

Fat Banker is built around a free spins bonus where a growing, roaming wild symbol is the key ingredient. Along with this feature are a large number of new side features which pop up along the way to keep the action flowing. These are things like Bullion symbols, Multiplier symbols, Silver Safe symbols, as well as a Red Car feature, a Gold Car feature, and a Fortune Link feature. Plenty for even a hard to please banker to get stuck into.

Special Symbols

Landing on reels 1-5 in the base game, Bullion symbols have values of 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, or 100x. When a Silver Safe symbol lands on reel 6 at the same time as one or more Bullion symbols, it collects and awards their values. In addition, if a Multiplier symbol lands on reels 1-5 in the base game at the same time, it multiplies the value of any Bullion symbols by x2, x3, x5, x10, or x100 before the Siler Safe collects them.

Red Car Feature

On any base game spin, as long as one of these symbols is in view – Fat Banker, Silver Safe in hot spot, Wild Money Bag, Multiplier Wild Money Bag, or Bullion - the Red Car feature may randomly trigger. When activated, one of the following symbols may be added - Fat Banker, Silver Safe, Wild Money Bag, Multiplier Wild Money Bag, Multiplier Symbol, or Bullion - for a possible new win evaluation or feature trigger.

Gold Car Feature

This feature can trigger randomly during the Fortune Link or free spins bonus rounds. When active in Fortune Links, at least one Bullion Symbol and/or a Multiplier symbol will be added to the grid to reset the spins. If the Gold Car is activated in free spins, a random number of Wild Money Bags and/or Multiplier Wild Money Bags are added to the reels to guarantee the next level is achieved for a retrigger.

Fortune Link

On reel 6, you will notice some positions have blue frames around them - these are called Hot Spots. If a Silver Safe lands in a hot spot and there are Bullion symbols in view, the Fortune Link round is triggered. The bonus starts with 2 free spins and is played on a grid that only lands Bullion Symbols, Multipliers, or blanks. When a non-blank symbol hits, spins are reset back to 2. Bullion Symbol values are added to the total prize amount displayed above the reels, while Multipliers multiply this total value when they hit. When positions are filled or spins run out, players are awarded the total accumulated prize.

Fat Banker Free Spins

When a Banker symbol lands on reel 1 with at least one Wild symbol in view on any reel, 5 Fat Banker Free Spins are awarded. The Fat Banker is wild and stays on the reels for the duration of the bonus round. Whenever a Wild Money Bag lands, the Fat Banker moves over and collects it. When certain numbers of Wild Money Bags have been collected, the Fat Banker grows, and free spins are triggered.

• When the Fat Banker is 1x1 in size – collecting 5 Money Bags increases his size, plus 3 free spins are awarded.
• When the Fat Banker is 2x2 in size – collecting 4 Money Bags increases his size, plus 3 free spins are awarded.
• When the Fat Banker is 3x3 in size – collecting 4 Money Bags increases his size, plus 2 free spins are awarded.
• When the Fat Banker is 4x4 in size – collecting 3 Money Bags increases his size, plus 2 free spins are awarded.
• When the Fat Banker is 5x5 in size – collecting 3 Money Bags increases his size, plus 1 free spin is awarded.
• When the Fat Banker is 6x6 in size, he has achieved his final transformation.

Wild Money Bags with multipliers can also land. When these are collected, the Fat Banker accumulates the multiplier values as well.

Bonus Buy

Pressing the Bonus Buy button gives players the chance to buy three different features.

• Option one is Fat Banker Free Spins, triggered by up to 5 Wild Bag Symbols. This costs 150x the bet and has an RTP of 96.65%.
• Or, for 600x the bet, you can trigger Fat Banker Free Spins with up to five Wild Money Bag symbols, with a minimum of 1 of them being a Multiplier Wild (RTP 96.64%).
• Lastly, for 30x the bet, players can buy the Fortune Link Feature where the RTP is 96.63%.

Fat Banker: Slot Verdict

There is a sense that Fat Banker has pulled the franchise back on track after Fat Drac's deviation. What we mean is that while it was a fine game, the way the actual Fat Drac symbol was a growing mystery symbol rather than a wild one didn't feel completely right. It could still produce crazy moments, but there was something off about it as well. Whatever compelled Push Gaming, they've reverted back to the way things used to be, and fans should be chuffed with the fact the growing Fat Banker symbol is wild again.

Not only is the growing wild back, but it's also back with a few tricks cunningly hidden up its sleeve. One of the biggest alterations is the enlarged grid size. Having an extra row, reel, and more paylines onboard means the Fat Banker can now reach 6x6 in size, compared to the fabled 5x5 found in previous games. Should anyone manage to engorge the banker to these dimensions, single spins are worth up to 2,000x each - or potentially more if/when a multiplier is involved. Interestingly, even with these enhancements, potential in Fat Banker is half what it was in Fat Drac, where the max win comes in at 25,000x the bet. It makes you wonder how heavily Fat Drac relied on its Bubble Prize reel to provide the bulk of its thrills.

Fat Banker's side features aren't bad either, yet they do play second fiddle to free spins. Fortune Links can feel a bit limited since they only reset to 2, but sizeable wins are technically possible when the right Bullion and Multiplier symbols hit. Lest we not forget, Push Gaming slots are famous for dropping outrageous coin/token wins seemingly out of nowhere for fortunate players. Another thing to note is that all features, including free spins, triggered at a surprisingly high rate during the review. As you might suspect, most didn't go overly far. However, the game's highly volatile nature means that every so often, they were solid, and the sheer number of feature triggers provided ample opportunities for something special to happen.

To sum up, we got the impression Fat Banker will appeal to hardcore fans of the series more than Fat Drac did. Its new side features freshen the experience, but its central growing wild collection feature is back with a vengeance and can turn into a veritable end of year banker's bonus when all cylinders are firing.