Big Bucks Buffalo Gigablox

The Gigablox mechanic was developed by Yggdrasil, although this isn’t the first time that ReelPlay has made use of it. Back in May 2022, they released Mega Pearl Gigablox, which we thought looked great but was a little lacking in features. Naturally, we were keen to see how Big Bucks Buffalo Gigablox measures up!

Design

The graphic artists at ReelPlay have chosen sepia tones to depict Monument Valley, with a selection of playing card suits and wild animals taking their places on the reels.

There’s nothing outstanding about the artwork, but it conveys the desired atmosphere, with pan pipes adding a pleasing musical touch.

Gameplay

Every base game spin is guaranteed to land at least one Gigablox 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 symbol, increasing your winning opportunities. The Wild symbols and Coins can also appear supersized, which is a nice extra touch.

Land 6 or more Coins with a single spin to activate the Respins Bonus. Coins are held in place, with 3 respins in which to try and increase their multiplier values. Landing a new coin resets the Respin counter back to 3, and collecting groups of Coins results in them merging to create Mega Coins.

Mega Coins come in the same sizes as Gigablox symbols, and whenever a new Mega Coin is created, all coin values within that Mega Coin are awarded a 2x Multiplier.

Win Potential

Playing card suits will pay a little over your bet for six-of-a-kind across a payline, but it’s the themed symbols that you’ll hope to see lining up in winning combinations. The moose and coyote pay up to 2.5x, the eagle up to 4.5x and the buffalo up to 5x the cost of a spin. The Wild tops the paytable with a maximum payline win worth 7.5x the bet.

The Coin Respins bonus round is where the big wins are likely to be found, thanks to those multipliers. Every new Mega Coin created causes contributing coin multipliers to double in value, for some huge potential payouts.

Although it’s not something that’s available in the UK, some regions permit players to buy the bonus round. It costs 80x your current wager to guarantee at least 6 Coins on the following spin, but wins aren’t guaranteed to cover the cost of buying the bonus.

Our Verdict

It turns out that there is hardly any difference at all between Big Bucks Buffalo Gigablox and Mega Pearl Gigablox, which is disappointing. Essentially this is exactly the same game with a new theme and graphics, but everything else is pretty much identical – aside from the volatility, which is much higher for this game.

There’s nothing wrong with Big Bucks Buffalo Gigablox – it just hasn’t got anything new to offer, particularly when compared to the Oriental version, which just wins out in terms of the overall design. If you love animal-themed games, you’ll definitely want to give this game a try, but we can’t see this slot topping the list of player favourites anytime soon.