Big Benji Bonanza

Big Benji Bonanza: Slot Overview

Some say the three things you should avoid talking about at family get-togethers or with people you've just met are politics, religion, and money. The first two topics are barely mentioned in the online gambling space, while money is intimately associated with online slot entertainment. One slot closely linked to cash is Big Benji Bonanza from Yggdrasil partner Jelly. Let's get this out of the way from the start; Big Benji Bonanza is not only close to cash money, it's also very close to Nolimit City's rap sensation East Coast Vs West Coast. Not so much in gameplay, but there is a clear connection between the two when it comes to attitude and looks. Does one slot manage to out hipppity hop the other?

Visually, the first round goes to ECVsWC, yet Big Benji Bonanza puts up a fight. The game has a definite attitude that is so nakedly obsessed with banknotes you have to respect its openness. Big Benji Bonanza is located on Wall Street, which was once an actual wall built by the Dutch back in 1653, and is now one of global finance's key hubs. To the right of the grid is the famous Charging Bull statue and what looks like the New York Stock Exchange lurking in the background. It's pretty clear from the get-go that Jelly probably had East Coast Vs West Coast on heavy rotation when they came up with Big Benji Bonanza. It's nowhere near as banging, yet its irreverent outlook on finance and humorous use of ex-presidents in hoodies can be fun.

Available on any device, Big Benji Bonanza gives players the chance to select stakes of 20 p/c on the low side, up to $/€20 per spin at the most. It's not as volatile as its direct competitor but is more explosive than some that use similar collect features, getting an official medium-high rating. Hits occur at a frequency of 29.01%, leading to an overall return value of 95.5%.

Big Benji Bonanza is played on a board made up of 5-reels, 3-rows, and 243 ways to win. Pay symbols are an odd mix of presidents and classic slot icons. Starting at the bottom of the paytable and moving up, we find 10-A royals, worth 1-1.5x the bet for five of a kind, then cherries, bells, diamonds, 7s, and any combination of president symbols, paying 2.5 to 5 times the stake for five of a kind. Lastly, wilds appear on reels 2, 3, or 4 and substitute for all symbols except Money, Cash Machine, or scatter symbols.

Big Benji Bonanza: Slot Features

Attempting to get your hands on some dollars in Big Benji Bonanza gets a potential boost from features such as Super Staxx (trademarked), a Money Symbol collect system and a free spins bonus round.

Super Staxx

Super Staxx has commonalities with ELK's Nitro Reels which are found in Nitropolis 3, as well as the other entries in the series, and is only active during free spins. Symbols can land with a frame around them displaying a number from 2 to 10. This indicates 2-10 instances of the selected symbol type, thereby increasing the number of win ways. Up to 2 Super Staxx symbols can land on any reel, and they could be normal pays, wilds, or Money symbols.

Money Symbols

Money symbols land on any reel displaying a set value - these are Georgie, Jeff, Abs, Hamilton, Jacko, Grant, or Benji, possessing bet multipliers of 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, 20x, 50x, or 100x, respectively. If a Cash Machine symbol happens to land on the last reel in the base or bonus game, all Money symbol values in view are awarded.

Free Spins

On to the bonus round, where landing at least 3 scatter symbols awards 10 free spins. Before free spins start, a wheel spins to select one of the Money symbols. The selected Money symbol will be the only one that lands on the reels during free spins. If the bonus is triggered by 4 scatters, the lowest Money symbol is removed from the wheel, or if 5 scatters trigger it, the 2 lowest Money symbols are removed. During the bonus round, if 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols land in view, the Money symbol is upgraded to the next one up the list, plus 3, 5, 10, or 20 free spins are added, respectively.

Bonus Buy

Where possible, players can make use of the feature buy button and pay 100x the bet to trigger the free spins bonus round from the next game round.

Big Benji Bonanza: Slot Verdict

If East Coast Vs West Coast was a hip-hop track produced by a group of ex-cons rapping about life, Big Benji Bonanza is like a manufactured group which met at a singing contest. BBB is not as genuinely 'street', but it's catchy enough a tune to hum along to in private. To answer the question from the opening paragraph, yes, there is a clear winner in the battle between Big Benji Bonanza and East Coast Vs West Coast, and this time, Nolimit City performs the proverbial mike drop. ECVsWC simply has more attitude, innovation, more striking audio-visuals, and is more likely to get backsides a-twerking. Hey, some are trailblazers while others are followers, and there is no second-guessing which one Big Benji Bonanza is.

Now we've got that off our chest, let's big BBB up a bit. As many will have deduced, other slot inspirations have worked their way into Big Benji Bonanza as well. The most obvious is the Fishin' Frenzy/Big Bass Bonanza style feature, represented by hip hopped ex-presidents rather than fish Money Symbols. Having one Money symbol active in free spins at a time could be considered a novelty, a minor one, with its own set of ups and downs. It could be a little lame if you're stuck with, say, Georgie, Jeff, or Abs and can't get a retrigger; not so bad when Grants or Benjis are the only Money symbols on the reels. Doing things this way might not be a major innovation, but Money symbols and Staxx can combine to build better values, so that's something for symbol collect fans to possibly toy with. Potential is quite impressive for this kind of game, too, with Jelly tagging on a max win figure of 12,000x the bet.

If Jelly had invented all of the concepts in Big Benji Bonanza, the game could have been a clever meditation on money's status in modern-day society. However, since the studio has clearly borrowed so many elements from other slots, Big Benji Bonanza struggles to throw off its cheeky imitation status. It can still be fun, especially for players thrilled by Money symbol collect games, but it wouldn't last long in a rap battle with the heavyweight champs of the genre.