The Great Banker

The Great Banker: Slot Overview

Software provider Push Gaming is back in the banking game, revisiting a 'fan-favourite' and repackaging it for a new audience. The original was Fat Banker, a continuation of the studio's popular 'Fat' series, which started with Fat Rabbit back in the day and featured growing, or fattening, shall we say, symbols during bonus rounds. That has been stripped out of the reboot, The Great Banker, which, as part of the studio's Actions range, focuses more on commonplace features and lower volatility to provide casual enjoyment through things like Coin collection, jackpots, and a hold 'n' win round.

Like its predecessor, The Great Banker begins the session out in the street, where the background visuals are comparable to the previous slot. As in, the grid hovers over an empty piece of road, flanked by bendy buildings. Guess this is the heart of the financial district where the money men and women pull levels to let loose the flow of capital. In The Great Banker, the action remains on the street when the bonus round is active, switching from day to night instead of storming inside the building like Fat Banker did. Never mind, a swanky, finger snapping tune adds a touch of swing to the game, which feels at this stage similar to before, though a rotating prize wheel hints at altered features to come.

Rated 2 out of 5, The Great Banker is a medium volatile slot, producing three RTPs depending on the configuration, with 96.31% as the most preferred. The game lets players stake from $/€0.10 to $/€100 per spin, and this one does not come with feature buys or Push Bets. It is played on a 5x3 grid in the base game, where 20 paylines evaluate wins, though the reels can expand during the free spins round.

Diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades are the lower pays, while cigars, top hats, a doggy, and a lady are the premium symbols. Hit a 5 OAK winning combination and 0.8x to 10x the stake is coming your way. Wilds may land on any reel. They substitute all regular paying symbols and have the same payout value as the lady symbols.

The Great Banker: Slot Features

In this part of the review, we cover the Collect Feature, the Wheel Feature, various prizes, and free spins.

Collect Feature

Coin symbols are bet multipliers worth 0.1x to 90x the stake. Landing a Banker collector symbol on the rightmost reel while there are Coins in view awards their values.

Wheel Feature

When a Coin lands in the base game, it is collected by the Wheel. When this happens, there is a chance the Wheel Feature activates. Prizes awarded from the wheel are:

• The Mini, Minor, Major, or Mega Jackpot.
• Jackpot prizes x2 - Mini, Minor, Major, or Mega Jackpot.
• 3, 4, or 5 scatter free spins.
• The Great Banker Free Spins - Free spins with a guaranteed The Great Banker symbol landing on the unlocked rows.
• Fat Money Free Spins - Free spins where Coin symbols have a minimum value of 5x.

The Mini, Minor, Major, and Mega are worth 10x, 50x, 250x, and 1,000x, respectively. Jackpot Prizes are considered to be bet multipliers.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game triggers free spins played on a 5x3, 5x4, or 5x5 initial grid. 3 free spins start the round, and each time a bet multiplier symbol lands on unlocked rows, the spin count resets to 3. Only Coins, Jackpot, Banker, The Great Banker, Multiplier, The Great Multiplier, Safe symbols or blanks may land.

• Banker - Collects values from existing Coins, Jackpots, and Banker symbols on unlocked rows in a 3x3 area. The Great Banker collects from unlocked rows.
• Multiplier - Multiplies Coins, Jackpots, and Banker symbols on unlocked rows by x2, x3, or x4 in a 3x3 area, before spinning off on the next spin. The Great Multiplier multiplies bet multiplier values on all unlocked rows.
• Safe - Activates when the round ends. Awards a full retrigger of the free spins feature from the initial state.

When Coins or Jackpot symbols land on the unlocked area, they are collected into the Locked row meter, which requires 4 bet multiplier symbol collections per meter. When the meter is filled, rows are unlocked up to 5x7. Symbols on locked rows are inactive till those rows are unlocked.

The Great Banker: Slot Verdict

If capitalism is all about growth, then the banker at the middle of this game might be looking at redundancy soon. The reason is that The Great Banker feels like a step down from Fat Banker in many ways. For gamblers who ascribe to the financial sector's 'bigger is better' ethos, then The Great Banker just ain't going to cut it. Rather than boldly reimagining Fat Banker, The Great Banker chooses not to compete with the alphas on the trading floor, taking a step back to chill with its more mainstream mechanics.

On the other hand, The Great Banker is a Push Gaming Actions release, so the studio is unlikely to have had 'bigger is better' in mind when making the game. Instead, it caters to a different kind of gambler, one who favours the sort of gameplay that medium volatility delivers, and more commonplace, more familiar features. The prize wheel in the base game, for instance, acts as a sort of welcome mat or warning sign depending on tastes. Highlights for those who are keen include winning potential of 10,317x the bet, various bonus rounds (regular, Great Banker, and Fat Spins), as well as the general polish that usually accompanies a Push Gaming piece.

And so, there is an Art Deco glamour here to be savoured by the right player. One not fussed by the crazy new mechanics or terrifying volatility that can be found in some of Push Gaming's bigger hitters. It does what it does well enough, after all. But, The Great Banker wasn't the most exciting game ever put forth, and it's easy to see how players with greater demands than middle-of-the-road mediocrity would be put off by this.