Big Bamboo

Big Bamboo

7 / 10
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Most will agree that the panda bear is among the most peaceful and adorable animals in the bear family, but Push Gaming went ahead and created a man-slaughtering grizzly sort of panda bear that will luckily bare its teeth when you hit the spin button. Bringing you to a bamboo forest, the 5×6 grid comes with premium cartoonish animal symbols that will make you feel comfortable despite the animal’s fairly big teeth. Stacks of Mystery Bamboos will help you boost your bankroll and if they turn into Golden Bamboo positions you can look forward to a nail-biting reveal of prizes up to 5,000x the bet. These can be boosted by collect and multiplier symbols, so the 50,000x max potential win is as probable as you would hope for.

Big Bamboo Review

Big Bamboo takes us to a zen-like mysterious world that gives players heaps of winning chances. Push Gaming is a provider that is widely known for combining several bonus features within their pokie games, and this launch is really no different. While you would expect something calm and smooth with bamboo and pandas filling the playfield, you could turn out to be wrong. Big Bamboo is actually a highly volatile pokie, offering large prizes, and it’s full of fun features to keep gameplay diverse from the very first spin.

Nice to know

Launched 3 March 2022
RTP 96.13%, 95.11%, 94.08%
Volatility High
Software Push Gaming
Features Additional Free Spins, Additive symbol, Buy Feature, Mystery symbol, Risk/Gamble (Double) game, Scatter Symbols, Wilds, Cash Collector, Free Spins, Multiplier
Theme Panda Bear, Animals
Paylines 50
Grid Layout 5-6
Min. bet/line $0.10
Max win x50.000
Jackpot N/A

Positive points

  • ✅ Decent Base RTP
  • ✅ Many Features
  • ✅ Win Up To 50,000x Bet
  • ✅ Bonus Buy Option

Negative points

  • ❌ Ranging RTP

Big Bamboo

Big Bamboo design can perhaps best be described as a calm and simple pokie. The jungle theme has been included in this online pokie in a special, almost minimalistic way. The pokie’s background is green and a little foggy and because of the green haze you can see bamboo plants everywhere. On the reels there are animals waiting for you that are drawn in a fun cartoon-like way. The simple design of Big Bamboo makes it suitable for mobile play.

How to Play

The grid contains 5 reels and 6 rows and is located among the bamboo stalks, giving you 50 paylines to create winning combinations. To start your session you need to:

  1. Open Big Bamboo at your favourite online casino.
  2. Choose a bet: from $0.10 to $20.
  3. Spin the reels.
  4. Play responsibly.

Symbol Wins

Push Gaming has combined the gentle world of pandas and bamboo with a simple yet very mysterious game design. The background of giant bamboo has a calm feel, while the symbol designs have a zen-like minimalism. Visually, it all merges to create a nature theme fitting of the giant panda. The smooth music that accompanies every spin of the reels fits the theme. The low values are diamonds, spades, hearts and clubs. Making 5 of a kind combinations pays out 0.40x the bet. The premium symbols are animals: blue bird, a green monkey, a wild boar and the panda. If you land 5 of the same symbol type, it awards you between 12x to 150x the bet.

The panda symbol pays already when you land 2 of it and then it pays 0.5x the bet. Big Bamboo’s wild symbol shows the word wild surrounded by gold and the game’s mystery bamboo symbol will show a pair of green bamboos. You can also land the golden bamboo symbols and just as the name suggests, these bamboos come in the golden colour. It is thus certainly a pokie that is filled with many different symbol types, where you also can land instant prize, multiplier and collector symbols. There are two different scatter symbols, with the normal scatter showing a Yin & Yang symbol in silver along with gold, the symbol where the Yin & Yang appears all in gold is the pokie’s gamble scatter symbol.

Symbol Payout for 3 Payout for 4 Payout for 5
Diamond 0.10 0.20 0.40
Spade 0.10 0.20 0.40
Club 0.10 0.20 0.40
Heart 0.10 0.20 0.40
Blue Bird 0.30 1.20 12.00
Green Monkey 0.40 1.60 16.00
Wild Boar 0.50 2.00 20.00
Panda 2: 0.50.

3: 2.00

4: 10.00

5: 150.00

Wild Symbol Substitutes All Other Symbols

Bonus Features

Despite the design of the game being very mimal, the features of Big Bamboo are overwhelming to say the very least. In addition to a free spins round and gamble feature, there are also Mystery Bamboo symbols and a Golden Bamboo feature. Then, there is also a wild symbol that can replace all regular symbols in a winning combination.

Mystery Bamboo Symbols

The name of this feature actually says it all, these are mystery symbols as you might know from other online pokies. The Mystery Bamboo symbols can appear at any time in the game and then turn into paying symbols. They can also turn into wilds or Golden Bamboo symbols. If the latter happens, the Golden Bamboo feature will be triggered.

Golden Bamboo feature

If a Mystery Bamboo symbol reveals a Golden Bamboo symbol, it will spin itself. This can also be the case with multiple symbols, in this case they all spin separately. The Golden Bamboo symbols that spin can reveal the following:

  • Instant Prize: gives you a prize of between 1 and 5000x your stake.
  • Collector: collects the values ​​of all Instant Prize symbols or Collector symbols on the playing field. The Collector symbol then remains on the grid for the entire Golden Bamboo feature.
  • Multiplier: multipliers between x2 and x10 increase the values ​​of Instant Prize and Collector symbols.
  • Scatters and Gamble scatters: these special symbols can be revealed by the Golden Bamboo feature but also simply land on the playing field. If there are regular scatters on the second and third reels, a Gamble Scatter can spin on the fourth reel which gives you the following outcomes:
    • An empty space where nothing happens.
    • Awards a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 9 free spins.
    • Awards between 7 and 9 free spins with 2 low symbols turning into Mystery Bamboo symbols.
    • Awards between 8 and 10 free spins where 4 low symbols turn into Mystery Bamboo symbols.

Gamble Feature

When one of the two lowest outcomes from a Gamble Scatter follows no free spins or between 4 and 9 spins without extra Mystery Bamboo symbols, you can potentially boost the outcome by making use of the Gamble feature. But remember: if you fail, you will lose all the free spins. There are two options for the Gamble Feature:

  • Normal Free Spins: gives you 4 to 9 free spins.
  • Free Spins with 2 Dots: gives you 7 to 9 free spins, where 2 lower paying symbols have been converted into the Mystery Bamboo Symbol.

Big Bamboo Free Spins

The free spins feature of Big Bamboo can be triggered as described above. When it’s time for this bonus round, you can expect a lot more thrills. When scatters land on the playing field, they are collected and added to one of the metres next to the grid. By collecting the right low symbols, these will turn into Mystery Bamboo symbols. Each time you manage to convert symbols, they will award multiplier values that are added to the total win multiplier which are then applied to the total win from the Golden Bamboo feature. You get the following amount of free spins for the converted symbols:

  • 1st converted symbol: gives you 4 extra free spins.
  • 2nd converted symbol: gives you 3 extra free spins.
  • 3rd converted symbol: gives you 3 extra free spins.
  • 4th converted symbol: gives you 2 extra free spins.

Bonus Buy

You can also buy your way to the free spins round of Big Bamboo by making use of the Bonus Buy feature. This comes with the following options:

  • 99x your stake: you will receive 7-9 free spins with no low symbols converting into Mystery Bamboo symbols.
  • 179x your stake: you will receive 7-9 free spins with 2 low symbols converting into Mystery Bamboo symbols.
  • 608x your stake: you will receive 8-10 free spins with 4 low symbols converting into Mystery Bamboo symbols.
  • 300x your stake: you will receive a random number of free spins with any number of low symbols converting into Mystery Bamboo symbols.

Payout Metrics

Big Bamboo comes with an RTP of 96,13%, which is just above the average industry range. This Push Gaming pokie is highly volatile and comes with a max payout of 50,000x your bet. Don’t expect the free spins to always give you major wins, and the scatter game may just turn out to give you zero spins so be prepared for mixed results. Stacks of Mystery Bamboos will help you along the way and if these turn into the Golden Bamboo positions, you can look forward to thrilling cash prize reveals of up to 5,000x, which can be boosted with collect and/or multiply symbols. You will get even more Mystery symbols in the bonus round thanks to the low symbol conversion system. The max win probability is 1 in 21 million which sounds low, but is actually pretty decent.

Summary

The designers of Push Gaming have given themselves the flexibility to find their inspiration in some of their own recent releases and Big Bamboo is yet another example of how it’s done right if you decide to take it the easy way. You will however come across heaps of dead spins in the base game, and what you really want to prepare for is the Fat Drac-inspired instant prize Golden Bamboo feature. A 5000x prize combined with a top-tier x10 multiplier leads to the 50,000x max potential, but you shouldn’t expect major payouts most of the time. We did love the thrills of the Gamble scatter spins, but we would only wish the bonus round multipliers would also be applied to standard wins. This feature is very much ‘all or nothing’, which happens with heaps of Push Gaming titles. All together, we don’t think a game theme like this will make a long lasting impression. Still a great effort though.