Bounty Showdown Review
Bounty Showdown is a 5-reel, 10 payline Wild West-themed slot developed by Fantasma Games in partnership with Relax Gaming. This gunslinging slot features a wonderfully designed free spin feature known as Showdown Free Spins that can see players benefit from some seriously impressive win multipliers that by way of a Gatling Wheel Bonus Game.
Design
Before we get into the nitty-gritty regarding how this game looks and sounds, we first thought we'd talk about its backstory... As it's not too often an online slot comes with one that's so well-written (unless we're talking about Immortal Romance). It felt like it'd be an absolute crime not to share it with you here, so here goes:
Wanted Dead or alive: Mr. Joe Boneson, $50,000. Thus read the sign that sealed the towns people’s doom. Not long after its posting, a mysterious gunslinger showed up at the sheriff’s doorstep and promised to deliver the scoundrel to justice.
The towns people were incredulous at first, but as promised the criminal hanged from the gallows at noon the same day, and by evening they had already tossed his corpse to the desert dogs. But the not so dearly departed was not without friends.
A week later three riders galloped into town; guns blazing and hungry for vengeance. Their violent ransack of the town was so wild that it bordered to madness, and not even the dead could sleep quietly that night.
The first thing that hits you when you load up this slot is the atmospheric soundtrack. An electric guitar blares before slowing down, allowing for a bass guitar to begin playing a more sombre tune, it's here the tension slowly rises.
The music helps add to the feeling of dread, we couldn't shake off the idea that a lot was at stake as the camera panned towards a town where the aforementioned band of vengeance-led outlaws approach on their horses. Once players hit play the music changes to an equally tense, but faster-paced guitar-led soundtrack.
Low paying symbols in Bounty Showdown are your standard stylised J, Q, K and A whilst high paying symbols are the outlaws... These include a lady wielding a knife, a cowboy clutching dynamite, a vicious looking cowgirl lighting a cigarette and the leader of the gang... Mr. Joe Boneson himself.
The game's special symbol is a golden skull coin symbol, which acts as a wild and a scatter.
Gameplay
This might well be a design issue, but we found that all of the screens beyond the main game reels were quite obviously pulled from much older slots, and they didn't match the overall theme of Bounty Showdown... All of the buttons and titles were coloured bright purple and yellow, it was an assault on the senses and disappointing to see.
We'd be complete liars if we admit that it really killed our immersion and ruined the fun for us, which is such a shame because a lot of effort was put into design elsewhere.
If you want to get to these terribly out of place game screens, change your stake or just spin the reels then you'll find all of the relevant buttons to the right of the game reels.
Win Potential
This high volatility slot has a base game RTP of 96.16% (97.12% if you're outside the UK and using the feature buy) and the maximum win players can pick up is 4,761x their stake. We'll be honest, base gameplay isn't all that inspiring... However, the free spins are a LOT of fun and are highly lucrative.
Our Verdict
Base gameplay is fairly weak and we truly hated the fact that some elements are the game were sloppy and seemingly pulled from elsewhere, however, Bounty Showdown's Showdown Free Spins bonus really won us back over.
This is the sort of slot that would lend itself to a Money Cart 2 style makeover, base gameplay wasn't all that, but the bonus feature was VERY enjoyable.
A keen sports bettor, Sam took his first foray into the world of online slots when Bonanza Megaways caught his eye, he’s never looked back since! He joined the team in 2019 and has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of online slots, he isn’t afraid to voice his honest opinion when reviewing new games, even if it does ruffle a few feathers.
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