If you’ve played slots for any length of time, you’ve probably tried your hand at Quickspin’s Big Bad Wolf. After its first release in 2013, Big Bad Wolf quickly became one of Quickspin’s most successful slot machines, earning many accolades in the process. Since then, gamers have gotten both a Christmas Special and a Megaways edition to enjoy (or struggle with, respectively). Much of what made the original so popular has been preserved by Quickspin, but the game has been expanded significantly.
Visually, too, advancements have been made, with a more polished depiction of rural life now available. The initial tiny piggy’s straw hut serves as the starting point for the game’s many subsequent places. The original’s 5×3 grid has been expanded to include 6 reels and a horizontal bonus reel in this version. Big Bad Wolf Megaways retains a strong link to the original thanks to the presence of all of the original characters and the use of recognizable symbols, but the addition of high definition visual enhancements makes the experience all the more exquisite.
The game’s outward shell has been reworked, but the statistics and mathematics have been reworked much more. The initial default RTP was rather high, therefore it has decreased; nevertheless, at 96.05%, it is still within reasonable limits. Check the paytable to see if there are any lesser variations before you spin the reels. Both volatility and potential have grown significantly, the latter by a factor of 30,540x.
When you hit the spin button, the primary reels will spin and 2-7 symbols will land, with an additional 4 on the upper reel, for a total of 117,649 possible combinations. The pay symbols have also been updated by Quickspin. The three pigs, a trowel, an axe, and a pitchfork make up the low-paying symbols, while the wolf is now the highest-paying symbol (replacing the scatter), with the red pig being the most profitable (paying out 6 times the bet for a full line). Still valued between 0.10x and 0.50x for a full house are the J-A card symbols from the weatherboard set. The standard wild features toolboxes and appears on reels 2, 3, and 4 to substitute for other symbols. Piggy Wilds, which will be discussed after this one, also exist.
Features of the Big Bad Wolf Megaways Slot Machine
Quickspin fine-tuned the original elements of Big Bad Wolf to make the most of what Megaways offers, so the slot feels quite familiar. The Blowing Down the House Bonus Game now includes a progressive multiplier and a feature purchase, both of which were previously unavailable.
Tumbles, formerly known as Swooping Reels, are the first step and cause winning combinations to be blown off the reels. Because of this, the remaining symbols can fall into the empty spaces, perhaps resulting in many wins from a single spin before the game is over.
The feature originally known as Pigs Turn Wild is now called Piggy Wild, and it is fueled in part by tumbles. Each time a pig sign tumbles twice in a row, it becomes a wild symbol. These Piggy Wilds appear exclusively on reels 2–4, much as standard wilds. Payouts for Piggy Wilds return to normal on subsequent spins.
The Blowing Down the House Bonus Game is activated by getting three Moon Bonus Scatters anywhere in the main game, and it awards eleven free spins. A win multiplier is applied to the game during this bonus, starting at x1 and increasing by +1 after each win.
In addition, the multiplier will rise in the following ways whenever you collect Moon Bonus Scatters:
Three scatters trigger an additional three free games and a five-times multiplier.
When you collect six scatters, your spins and multiplier both increase by +3.
Last but not least, collecting 6+ scatters results in 1 extra spin each scatter.
The additional purchase incentive is a nice touch. Players may gain access to the Blow the House Down Bonus Game by wagering 90 times their initial stake. The purchase of the bonus raises the RTP by 0.39%.
Slot Evaluation of Big Bad Wolf Megaways
It may seem that every ‘iconic’ slot has been updated to include Megaways or is about to, but some of these transformations are more logical than others. Big Bad Wolf makes the transition to Megaways as easily as you like; it’s not nearly a revolution. The fact that the original game also had a tumble mechanism made it easy to transition to the Megaways size. Similarly to Gonzo’s Quest, Big Bad Wolf was basically made for this purpose. The updates to Big Bad Wolf may appear little at first, but Quickspin has greatly improved the game in every manner.
One could argue that this is merely Big Bad Wolf scaled up, and although there is some truth to it, each increment is far larger. What made the first one so enjoyable is back in full force today, from the cinematic cut sequences to the energetic wolf blowing down homes. The Piggy Wild Upgrade is not only a great method to link the odd large win across the grid, but it also improves the main game by adding new reels, rows, and ways. The win multiplier that activates during free spins only amplifies this effect. Adding a progressive win multiplier for free spins isn’t quite the pinnacle of Megaways’s ingenuity, but it works wonderfully with the Wild Upgrades and Moon Bonus Scatter bonus to create a magical gaming experience.
Newer gamblers may have considered the original Big Bad Wolf to be a touch antiquated, but seasoned gamblers with a heart place for the game will have been drawn back for old time sakes. It retains its charisma, but its limited potential means it can’t hold its own against more recent releases. The Megaways version, with gates opened by Quickspin that allow for winnings of up to 30,000 times the stake, is invulnerable to this accusation.
Although Big Bad Wolf Megaways doesn’t represent a revolutionary step forward, it does show how well an established franchise can be adapted to the Megaways format. Quickspin has done an excellent job expanding the original’s enchantment to a grander scale, making it feel like it always belonged there.