Day 38 - Big Bamboo - Slot Review

On day 38, I took on Big Bamboo by Push Gaming. It’s a 5x6 slot with 50 win lines, 96.13% RTP and a max win of 50,000x, released back in 2022.

It was a hit when it came out, so today was about putting the game to a time test, to see if it holds up after all these years.

Big Bamboo is a panda-themed slot, set in a bamboo forest. The Wild and the panda are the top symbols, and both pay 150x for 5 of a kind. The boar, the monkey and the blue bird follow, and four card-suit symbols made of lanterns, potions, lotus buds and locks fill out the low end. Wins pay from left to right, starting on the leftmost reel, and the Wild substitutes for all other paying symbols.

The star of the show is the Golden Bamboo Feature, and it can happen in the base game, which is where the huge wins can come from. It starts with the Mystery Bamboo, a symbol that can land anywhere on the reels, in both the base game and the free games, and reveals a symbol when it lands. If it reveals the Golden Bamboo, the feature is triggered. Every position holding a Golden Bamboo spins through different prizes, and these can land:

Instant Prizes, which are bet multipliers: 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x, 500x, 1,000x, 2,500x and 5,000x. Multiplier symbols (2x, 3x, 5x and 10x), which multiply the value of every Instant Prize and Collector on the reels. The Multiplier is then removed and its position spins through the prizes again. Collector symbols, which collect the value of all the Instant Prizes and other Collectors on the reels. The Instant Prizes are removed once collected, and the Collector stays on the reels for the rest of the feature. Scatters and Gamble Scatters, which can land on any position during this feature.

The Scatter only lands on reels 2, 3 and 4 in the base game and the free games. When there are scatters on reels 2 and 3, a Gamble Scatter can land on reel 4. It spins through every possible free spins prize, and then you get to choose between two options: collect the prize you landed, or gamble for a better one on a wheel that also has no-prize segments. The prizes start at 4 free spins and go up to 10. The prizes with dots also turn low symbols into Mystery Bamboo (for example, 7 to 9 free spins with 2 dots turns 2 low symbols into Mystery Bamboo), which makes the Golden Bamboo Feature more likely.

Plan for winning: you want the Mystery Bamboo to reveal the Golden Bamboo, then big Instant Prizes to land, a Multiplier to boost them, and a Collector to come along and scoop them all up.

My session was a loss. I saw the Golden Bamboo Feature on the grid a few times, but it never paid anything decent, because I didn’t get the right combinations of Instant Prizes, Multipliers and Collectors.

The biggest win of the day was $7.50 in the base game. I triggered the free spins only once in 1,000 spins, and the 7 free spins I got paid $1. The hit rate of the bonus is super low so be prepared and look for decent wins in the base game which is what this game can deliver.

It was one of the biggest losing sessions of the project, yet the game showed me its core features within 1,000 spins, which is what this project is all about: telling you guys if it’s worth the grind. Is it 1000 Spins APPROVED? YES!