Apart from the volatility, I was able to set the spin mode to normal, fast, or super fast, and you can always stop the spin yourself rather than wait for the game to decide when to stop. That’s when I noticed the volatility was set to low, and there’s a built-in button where you can change the volatility to your liking, whether low, standard, or high. First, it’s a jackpot pokie, with four jackpots – Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand – and the top prize reaches A$300,000 if you max out at A$100 per wager. The game is Cowboy Spins so packed with features it’s hard to pick a starting point to describe it.
The betting limits are pretty small, ranging from A$0.10 to A$10, and I didn’t think that’s enough to trigger big wins here. At first, it’s an average-looking pokie with 5 reels and 3 rows, 25 win lines, and a maximum RTP of 96%. All bonus symbols in the Hold the Jackpot round have cash values, and if all reels fill out with bonus symbols, you will win a jackpot. Of course, it takes patience to activate this feature, but you can buy it at low, standard, or high volatility, which pays best but also costs the most. This bonus round is like a whole new game, played on 15 reels and awarding respins with every new bonus symbol that appears, plus it includes Mystery jackpot symbols and can unlock random multipliers up to 15x. If you want to take a bigger risk, there’s an extra ‘Gamble’ feature that allows you to gamble any win with the possibility of doubling it, or you can just cash it in and continue.
Stampede Gold is a perfect example of Betsoft’s mastery in developing games that are both a visual treat and capable of landing a major payday. The betting limits range from A$0.10 to A$10 per spin, which is quite low even if you chase big payouts with a maxed-out bet. All the bonus symbols that activate the bonus game stick to the reels with cash prizes, and new ones award respins and unlock one of three remaining 5×3 grids. These big payouts come from the special Cell Multipliers, which double the multipliers in the empty cells after a winning cluster (between 2x and 10x), which seriously boosts payouts. I was about 3-4 spins in the round and triggered a payout of over A$300.
First, the main game is good enough on its own to deliver payouts of 2x or 3x your current bet, but the medium-high volatility makes the win rate a bit slow, usually every 5-8 spins. The payout rate in the base game is medium-low, usually every 6-10 spins, which is not unusual for a high-volatility pokie with just 10 paylines. It’s one of those games you see in every casino, but you just don’t take it seriously…until you start playing and you see those payouts roll in. What really makes TNT Bonanza one of the best pokies out there is that during the free spins, you can land several random multipliers at once for an extra payout boost.