Our rating:
Developer: ELK Studios
Release date: 22nd Feb 2024
Buggin Slot - Screenshot
Grid Slot
RTP: 94.00%
Max Payout: 10,000x stake
Volatility: Medium
Min Bet: 0.20
Max Bet: 100.00
Reels: N/A
Paylines: N/A
Category: Grid slots
Themes: Animal, Luxury
Jackpot: No

Buggin

Paul Clare
Reviewed by Paul Clare Last updated:

Time for a breath of fresh air today as we venture out of the office and into the perfectly manicured world of Buggin. This 7x7 grid slot will drive you to the brink of despair and back again - all in the same spin. 10,000x is up for grabs for those who can hold on to their sanity long enough. But watch out for an insane amount of feature action including free spins, multipliers and everything else you could possibly dream of.

Full review continued below ↓

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Our Rating

“Insanity or genius? There’s a fine line.”

4.0 out of 5

Features
8/10
Design
8/10
Gameplay
8/10
Win potential
8/10

Buggin Screenshots

  • Buggin Slot - Screenshot 1
  • Buggin Slot - Screenshot 2
  • Buggin Slot - Screenshot 3
  • Buggin Slot - Screenshot 4

Buggin Features

I'm not going to lie, the features in this game brought me to the brink of despair! However, after several read-throughs of the instructions and a few hundred spins, it started to make sense.

It all begins on the 7x7 grid which is populated upon each spin with a number of regular paying symbols and the occasional Wild. Every so often, these symbols will appear as large symbols which should give you a better chance of forming a winning cluster. Speaking of which, you'll need five in a cluster to activate a win and at this point, winning symbols are removed. Much larger clusters are available! 

If the win occurs without a Wild in the cluster, a Wild symbol will appear as the new symbols turn up and this will have an x1 multiplier. Multipliers that are involved in subsequent winning clusters are added together to create even bigger multipliers that could be applied to future wins.

Unleashing Feature Wilds

Your wins will contribute to the meter at the top of the screen and this will affect the Wild Inventory that sits just above it. Each time you reach the end of the meter, a Feature Wild is added to the Inventory, When you reach a locked position, the Feature Wilds jump onto the grid as the winning tumble finishes - Wild Redrop.

Feature Wilds add multipliers, big symbols, extra Wilds, low-paying symbols might be removed and other symbols can be upgraded

Triggering the Free Spins Bonus requires 3 scatter symbols and for this, you get 7 free spins. The game continues in much the same vein but Wild symbols will stay on the grid until they are used and the progress meter won't reset between spins.

If one of your Bonus Scatter symbols is a Super symbol, you can expect everything that the regular free spins bring to the table and the added benefit of the Wild Inventory being pre-stocked with Feature Wilds. 

In the base game, the first locked feature could be way over to the end of the Inventory and might take a while to trigger. But having the inventory pre-stocked during the Super Bonus game means that completing the progress bar just once will release the power of a Wild Redrop.

So, that's as clear as mud, then? Excellent!

Buggin - Feature Wilds

Feature Wilds

Fill the meter by landing winning combos and you’ll build up special modifiers! Big symbols, added multipliers, extra Wilds, low-payer removal and symbol upgrades can all join the fray.

Buggin - Wild Redrop

Wild Redrop

Meet the target on the Wild Inventory and you’ll get a respin with the Feature Wild symbols now making their way onto the grid. You can enhance the Redrop by collecting additional Feature Wilds.

Buggin - Free Spins

Free Spins

3 Bonus symbols get you 7 free spins and if 1 of them is a Super symbol, you’ll be upgraded. Wild symbols stay sticky between your drops and the meter stays intact during free spins. The Super version means that the Wild Inventory is prefilled with Feature Wilds ready to be activated.

Buggin Review

Remember when you were a kid in maths class and the teacher was trying to explain trigonometry? Buggin took me right back to those dark moments, unfortunately. It’s a bit like the Gargantoon feature in Reactoonz - you'll hate it initially but once you get the hang of it, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief.

Design

As expected, Buggin takes us to the great outdoors where all of these comical critters are busy working away - possibly planning world domination, but that's a story for another time. The grid’s set just above a quaint little pond and the manicured lawns and bushes roll off into the distance. It's all very idyllic. The music is an odd choice but I can't knock it. Why wouldn't you want a soft 80s hip-hop backing track keeping your company while you peruse these herbaceous borders?

Gameplay

It's definitely not boring! In fact, it's so far away from boring that it's almost too much to deal with in one game. I'm all for an exciting base game and ELK rarely fails to provide the goods in this sense, but there is a balance! You genuinely feel like you are getting your money's worth with all of the action that takes place, but the main problem is how this ties into the win potential - most of the symbols require such large numbers to create a decent win. When you’ve spent 5 minutes watching one winning tumble take place, you'd hope for a superb return - not always the case in Buggin. Unfortunately, the time spent might not always be reflected in your balance. Don’t forget that ELK always offers a range of feature buy-in options for players outside the UK to enjoy.

Win Potential

10,000x is the max win available in this game and for me, this is part of the problem. I think a game like this requires much larger financial backing to improve the value of winning clusters and make the investment of your time worthwhile. Nevertheless, big payouts are possible if you hit the spin button at the right time - this is a slot machine after all. The RTP is a fairly standard ELK 94% and the volatility sits around the medium mark

My Verdict

Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing and with so many features and modifiers flying around in Buggin, this is a distinct possibility. I imagine it was a developer's worst nightmare trying to fit all of this together in a cohesive manner and I take my hat off to ELK for giving it a go. Some of you are going to adore this creation while others will consider it a bit of a swing and a miss.

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