Wild Wild Bass

Wild Wild Bass: Slot Overview

Maybe readers out there who happen to be keen anglers can let the rest of us know what is so special about bass fish? After some research, it was hard to work out what, if anything, separates bass from any other type of fish in the sea. In the slot world, they've somehow emerged from the deep on numerous occasions, and Wild Wild Bass from Stakelogic is another contribution to the pile. Like other games with the word bass in the title, Wild Wild Bass has roots in the classic slot Fishin' Frenzy, a quiet, unassuming venture that has spawned countless imitators down through the years. This time, augmenting the action is a bonus round called the Insane Catch which combines money symbol collections with multipliers.

One game that fuelled the Fishin' Frenzy revival was Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom's hit Big Bass Bonanza, which in turn spawned its own list of follow-ups. We're mentioning Big Bass Bonanza because Wild Wild Bass quite strongly resembles it from a visual standpoint. In keeping with tradition, the gaming takes place offshore, where an active grid drifts beneath the ocean's surface, down amongst the weeds, rocks, and fish. There's not a whole lot to say about Wild Wild Bass graphically. It's set where these games tend to be, so it ticks all the right boxes for armchair anglers to feel like they're out on the briny water, though an active imagination might help.

Played on a 6-reel, 3-3-4-4-4-4 arranged game panel, Wild Wild Bass is a highly volatile slot offering up to 5,625 ways to win – much more than the original's 10 paylines for sure. Winning symbols can land in any row, as long as three matching icons land on adjacent reels from the leftmost reel. This system leads to an overall return to player value of 96.01%, and while the max win figure wasn't available at the time of writing, the number of ways and use of multipliers would suggest potential is sizeable for this sort of game. If the lure of hauling in money-bearing fish again is seductive, Wild Wild Bass can be played on any device, where base stakes of 10 p/c to $/€10 may be set. Or, you can click the Super Stake button, which increases the bet by 40% to get more wilds in the base game, thereby increasing the chance of triggering the Big Catch or Insane Catch features.

Time to launch into the paytable, where eleven normal pay symbols are listed. On the low side, we find 9-A card symbols with life rings around them, paying 10 to 20 times the base stake for winning lines of 6 of a kind. Next are more fishing related symbology as the high pays, such as tackle boxes, life rings, floats, seagulls, and fishing rods, worth 25 to 150 times the stake for six of a kind win. Wilds land on reels 1 or 2 to substitute for any normal pay symbol and are needed to trigger certain features, as you will see.

Wild Wild Bass: Slot Features

When two wild symbols land on the first two reels, the Big Catch feature triggers. When the Big Catch feature is active, should an Insane Catch symbol hit, the Insane Catch feature is awarded.

Big Catch

One other type of symbol in Wild Wild Bass is the bass fish symbol. These are tiles displaying cash values. When 2 wilds land on reels 1 and 2, an extra position is added to reels 3 to 6, and the values of any bass symbols in view is collected. When reels are fully extended, 5,625 ways to win become available.

Insane Catch

Insane Catch symbols are fish symbols which land only on reel 6, displaying free spin values. If an Insane Catch symbol lands when there are 2 wilds on reels 1 and 2, the Insane Catch feature triggers, awarding 2, 3, or 4 Insane Spins. During Insane Spins, reels 1 and 2 transform into a single multiplier reel, showing values of x1 to x5 on each spin. On reels 3, 4, 5, or 6, empty spaces or bass symbols may land. Any bass symbols in view are multiplied by the current multiplier. It is also possible to land more Insane Catch symbols, which add additional free spins.

Wild Wild Bass: Slot Verdict

Just when you think nothing more could be done with the fishing-themed money collection model, along comes yet another interpretation of the immensely popular format. Stakelogic's catch phrase might be 'Think Bigger', but does firing off another fishing game with a twist qualify as bigger? 'Think Medium' might not have the same ring to it, yet Wild Wild Bass is pretty middle of the road, all things considered. Another Fishin' Frenzy rehash is hardly going to set the world alight or make too many players think, damn, this studio's thinking bigger.

To sum up Wild Wild Bass, it's like a fishy-smelling medley of Fishin' Frenzy, Big Bass Bonanza, and Pragmatic Play's Wild Wild Riches. Like the latter, Wild Wild Bass runs on the similar idea of landing two wilds on the first two reels in conjunction with money symbol collections and multipliers. This time, we get fish instead of leprechauns showing the way. If that cocktail of slots sounds neat, then Wild Wild Bass will blow your socks right off. A couple of observations arose, though. The main one is managing to get multipliers larger than x1 during the Insane Catch was like gold dust. An x5 hit once, but it landed on its lonesome, meaning there were no money symbols on the other 4 reels to make use of it. The whole bonus round did feel kind of rigged after a while, especially since the multiplier reel gives the impression there should be an equal chance of landing any of the multiplier values.

At the end of the day, though, Stakelogic shows their mastery at taking elements of other games, reshuffling them, giving them a different name, and repackaging the whole mash-up. Obviously, Wild Wild Bass isn't especially original, but it has the goods to titillate players looking for a slot with a new Fishin' Frenzy slant - just brace for features which can be as demandingly frustrating as the real thing.