Buffalo slots are among the most popular real money games on the casino floor. Following the success of the original video slot, makers Aristocrat has come up with several variations of this Buffalo slot machine. These include the giant screen of Buffalo Grand – as well as the progressive free spins bonus game of Buffalo Gold, which is covered on this page.
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A lot of the game-play, graphics and sound effects will be familiar to you if you have enjoyed buffalo slot games before. You will also find a lot of enhancements in the animations. I am not sure that the ‘cute’ way the wolf now howls when it is involved in a win is really in keeping with the concept, though! The biggest change comes in the free spins round. Here, you collect golden buffalo symbols, which turn symbols into the jackpot symbol for the duration of the free games round. More Buffalo symbols spinning then increases your chance of winning the highest jackpot payouts off a single spin.
Unlike the new Buffalo Grand, the ‘Gold’ variation uses the standard 4 rows and 5 reels setup. These land based casino slot games have always used an all-ways system. This pays for consecutive symbols from the left-hand side, regardless of their position. You can bet in increments of 60c, covering all the possible winning combinations. The Buffalo Gold max bet is subsequently set by each land based casino, although a real money high limit of around $3 or so seems to be the norm.
Symbols are stacked, though not overly so. This means you will often trigger multiple win lines at the same time. With the help of wild symbols (which show the iconic sunrise over a mountain), you will find the bigger wins come from these multiple hits.
Buffalo are the best paying symbol. These have a new animation when you win with them. The beasts appear to charge at you, complete with debris flying from their feet. If you hit several 5 of a kind buffalo, you can expect to see the well-known Aristocrat coin fountain effect, and to hear the circus type ‘big win’ tune.
Other wildlife that make up the next tier of wins include eagles, mountain lions, wolves and elks. Playing card symbols, in their bold primary colors, make up the smaller wins. Most symbols require 3+ from the left to trigger a win, though there are some smaller 2 of a kind wins.
The final symbols are gold coins and have 2 main roles. First, they are scatter symbols, and will pay a multiple of your total spin amount for 3+ . Second, they trigger the free games; 3 gets you 8 free spins, 4 triggers 12 free spins and the maximum 20 free spins comes with 5 coins.
You’ll hear a ringing bell when the free spins bonus game start, and a song will kick in through the speakers. You will then see an area set up to count the number of golden buffalo symbols you select. Once you get 4+ of these, the eagle symbols will all turn into buffalo. Another 8 turns the lions into buffalo, with the wolves and elks following on.
The golden buffalo symbols are large, looking like elaborate masks. Once you collect them, the symbol turns into a regular buffalo – which can be used to trigger wins as usual. You really need retriggers to get to the point where you collect enough masks to win big. These happen when you hit 2 or more gold coins; 2 coins gets you 5 extra spins, with 8, 12 and 20 for 3, 4 or 5.
Like on the original Buffalo slot game, the wild symbols are given multipliers during the machine bonus game. Each time one or more is involved in a win, it gets 2x or 3x wild multipliers (together with an eagle screech sound effect). This can make a big difference to your prizes. The ideal situation is to have multiple buffalo symbols, together with 2 or more different wild multipliers.
Everything about this real money slot machine will seem familiar to anyone that has played the other Buffalo games. However, there have been some marked ‘improvements’ in its bonus videos. The debris from the buffalo, for instance, is very effective in its slot videos. The gold masks are impressive, too, along with other animations as they move up the screen and into the counter area.
The max bet will be decided by each casino, with a max bet of between $3 to $3.60c the usual top range. For those wanting to try out this first, a free slots version is also available, complete with all the wild multipliers, free games, machine bonus videos and jackpots of its real money counterpart.
Overall I like the addition of the progressive gold bonus game. When only the eagles turn into buffalo, the increase in these symbols is not particularly obvious. If you manage to get more symbols swapped (via retriggers), then your chances of a multiple buffalo big win go up significantly.