Big Bang Buckaroo

There aren't that many online slots that use steampunk themes, and that's something that's always surprised us. There are a few, and Big Bang Buckaroo, a game available at Rival Gaming casinos, is one of those. You'll see a robot sort of cowboy at the top of the reels as a part of the logo, and he's an important symbol in this game. It's a virtual shootout for winnings on the reels, the pay table is set up to give you a pretty reasonable hit-rate.

Slot Format

The format of this game is pretty usual as far as classic slots go. You'll find three reels and three rows along with five paylines. The paylines only pay from left-to-right, but that's not such a big deal since almost all of the available wins require a symbol on each reel anyway. Betting starts at $0.01 per coin, and with three coins per payline, that's a $0.15 minimum bet per spin. You can wager up to $15 as well.

In terms of having three coins on each payline, you'll notice that the pay table lists the wins for one or two coins instead. This is a sub-optimal pay table because of the scaling of the top jackpot, which becomes 1,500x for three instead of 800x for two or 400x for one. In short, you'll hurt your RTP significantly if you play for fewer than three. Since the minimum bet size is still $0.15 with all three coins activated, we don't really see any reason why you would want to play with fewer in the first place.

Sheriff's Badge Symbol

First and foremost, we want to point out the sheriff's badge symbol. It's the only symbol that can pay for fewer than three of a kind. Two of it, from left to right on a payline, will grant you a 6x payout, assuming you have three coins in play on each line. You can kick that up a notch to 60x for three of a kind. These two symbols are a little out of place on the pay table, so we want to point them out since their wins don't fall in line with the others listed beside of the reels.

Bar Symbols

Three bar symbols are on this slot, much like many other classic titles. The triple red bar gets 45x for three of a kind. You can also pick up 30x or 15x for three of the double or single bar. Those are green or blue, respectively. These bars come in the form of sets of bullets, and that ties together the steampunk cowboy theme with the overall fact that players are enjoying a three-reel title since those symbols are so common in them. You can also pick up 3x for three mixed bar symbols.

Lucky Seven Symbols

Three of a kind of the yellow lucky seven is worth 150x, and the purple gives you 120x for three. Three of the green seven pays 90x as well. These symbols match the colors of the overall theme, and you can also win 9x for any three seven symbols that do not match in color. This helps with the volatility by increasing the hit-rate on the bottom end of the pay table.

Wild Cowboy Robot Symbols

If you look over on the logo in the top-right corner of the game, you'll see a robot head wearing a cowboy hat with green eyes and a red bandana. This same symbol is the wild in this slot, and it appears on all reels. When you're able to line up three of them on the same payline, you're awarded the top win in the game of 1,500x. Again, this is assuming three coins are being wagered on each payline.

In Summary

It's really hard for a classic slot to get that much attention in the modern era of online games. There simply isn't enough screen real estate for them to be able to compete with the flexibility of their five-reel cousins. With that having been said, this game does about as good of a job as any, and it's clear to see that the gameplay of the Big Bang Buckaroo slot by Rival Gaming isn't bad at all based on the three-reel standard.

In fact, there aren't really any weaknesses of this game that can't be attributed to its limiting format. Having mixed payouts means the bottom end of the pay table gets more attention than it does in many titles, and when paired up with a top 1,500x jackpot, that's a pretty good spread of prizes for this type of game.