Bison Valley

Bison Valley Review

It’s an interesting irony that unsustainable hunting reduced the bison population to only a few thousand animals in North America by the 1890s. This was the work of commercial hunters, as well as the US government. Nevertheless, the Bison theme has remained popular in for a long time, and another one has been added to the pile with Bison Valley.

It’s a straight up remake though, but the visuals have been somewhat modernized. You’ll benefit from wild symbols on the 3 middle reels, and everything revolves around triggering the Bonus Wheel. This is your only entry into the free spins round, which comes with multiplier wilds, and the wheel can also award jackpots up to 1,000x your stake. You can win up to 5,998x your stake, however, but this mediocrity will probably soon be as forgotten as the original game.

Bison Valley Slot Features

The premium symbols pay between 7.5 and 15 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins, and the Wild symbol can appear on reels 2, 3, and 4 only. Wilds step in for pay symbols to help complete and/or improve wins, but they hold no value of their own in this game. Only one wild can land per reel.

You can turn the Double Up ante bet on between base game spins, and keeping it on almost doubles your bonus round chances while costing you twice as much per spin. It also doubles the size of bonus wheel scatters, and these can land fully or partially in view while counting as 1 symbol either way. The free spins round hit rate increases.

The Bonus Wheel Feature triggers when you land 3, 4, or 5 bonus wheel scatters in view, and this gives you 1, 2, or 3 spins on the Bonus Wheel, respectively. Each bonus wheel spin can land you either 8, 10, 12, or 15 free spins, or the Mini, Major, or Grand jackpots worth 50x, 100x, or 1,000x your stake, respectively.

The Free Spins Bonus Round can only be triggered via the Bonus Wheel, and the top-tier golden Bison symbol can land stacked during the feature. Wilds can land with multipliers of x2 or x3, and the values are multiplied together if more than one wild partakes in the same win. This means that a multiplier boost up to x27 is possible, and you can also win 5, 8, 15, or 20 extra spins from 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatters in view, respectively.

Review Summary

The soundtrack is decent at least, but we have seen better visuals in the North American animal and Bison genre for sure. We have seen far better games overall as well, and this is a tough genre to compete in given how popular and crowded it is. Bison Valley comes across as somewhat of a half-hearted attempt at a remake, although the visuals do look a bit more modern than in the original.

The features and the math model are the same, however, and to be honest, the retro charm of the first game fits the theme better than what you get here. The Double Up ante bet seems like a good idea, if you can afford it, as it brings multiple benefits. The bonus wheel jackpots aren’t all that exciting, and it’s a bit lame that you can only trigger the bonus round via the wheel. The hit rate is decent though, not least with the ante bet turned on, and the 5,998x potential is decent as well. Still, a mediocre remake of an even more mediocre original release.