Bison Battle

Bison Battle

Bison Battle is a pokie brought to you by Push Gaming, where we get the chance to experience the magnificent wildlife of North America. The game is set in a place where wolves, bears, eagles, lynx cats and bison’s rule and humans wouldn’t stand a chance. Bison, also known as buffaloes in the US, are still associated with deep spirituality in indigenous beliefs as well as with freedom and strength. In this bison pokie, the biggest animal of the United States might just turn out to be symbolised with wealth as well since large herds of bison can give you gigantic wins of up to an incredible 50,000x the bet. Players who are up for the challenge can expect amazing sights which are naturally part of the visits to the Ice Park and the Green Valley. Let’s go to this bison filled place and find out what else Kiwis can expect to see during the different features.

How to Play

There will be some exciting battles that need to be disputed so sleeves up as there is a major task waiting for you. The action takes place on 20 paylines and for winning combinations you’ll need 3+ symbols on a line. The only exception to this rule is the eagle, which gives you 2 of a kind combos whilst it is also the best paying symbol, awarding 50x for a 5 of a kind combination. You’ll recognise the wild symbol by the golden bison which is hard to miss whilst it also substitutes for all other symbols apart from the red, blue, and green bison. The blue and green bison are the scatter symbols, which are only found on the 1st and 3rd reels. The red bison only appears on these reels as well, and they all work together to trigger the bonus features which we will go through in-depth.

Symbol Wins

A major bison clash is about to happen in the Bison Battle pokie which is hard to miss if you take a closer look at the symbols. There is a native American touch to it as well as  some of the symbols refer to indegenious objects rather than to the animals. Set in the US, a canyon forms the backdrop. With a rather mystical feel, the audio of the game is up-tempo and sort of similar to what we remember of the 1990 Dances with Wolves movie starring Kevin Costner. Impressively designed with HD graphics, you’ll see low value symbols like hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds. The higher value symbols are made up of animals that live in the same regions including wolves, bears, lynxes, and eagles. Out of the animals, the eagle is the most valuable symbol with 2, 3, 4 or 5 in combination paying 0,5, 2, 10 or even 50x your total bet. The bison is the game’s wild symbol and substitutes all symbols except the other bison which have the colour red, blue and green. Interestingly, it also offers no specific payouts. The blue and green bison can only land on reel 1 whilst the red bison can land on both reels 1 and 5.

Bonus Features

Push Gaming is a provider that is known for their thrilling features and Bison Battle is yet another example of how to do it right when it comes to the special features. We have already mentioned the Green Valley feature and the Ice Park feature a number of times. These free spins features are central to this pokie game. However, it is important to first know what the 4 different bison symbols mean to the player.

3 Different Bison symbols

There are 4 different Bison symbols that can appear on the reels in this pokie and vary in colour: golden, blue, green and red bison.

• The Golden Bison symbol feature comes as a regular wild symbol and thus serves as a substitute for all symbols.
• When a green Bison symbol lands on reel 1 and a red Bison symbol on reel 5, the Green Valley feature is triggered.
• When a blue Bison symbol lands on reel 1 and a red Bison symbol on reel 5, the Ice Park feature is triggered

Red Bison symbols have a number of other characteristics:

• You’ll make wins of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000 or 2,500x your stake when you spin a red Bison symbol on reel 1.
• A red Bison symbol on reel 1 moves one space to the right on each spin, unless a red Bison symbol has also appeared on the same row on reel 5. The red Bison symbol on reel 1 keeps moving to the right every spin until it falls off the reels.
• Red Bison symbols on reel 5 have multipliers giving you either x1, x2, x3, x4, x5 or x10. A red Bison symbol on reel 5 moves one space to the left every spin, unless a red Bison symbol appears on the same row on reel 1.
• By spinning a red Bison symbol on the same row on reels 1 and 5 in the basic game, you activate the Bison Clash feature. The 2 symbols then converge on the reels and pay out the instant cash prize of the red Bison from reel 1, which is multiplied by the multiplier of the red Bison from reel 5.

Bison Battle Free Spins

Bison Battle 2 has different free spins features: the Green Valley feature and the Ice Park feature. Here’s what they do:

• When you activate the Green Valley you’ll get 8 free spins. During this feature, wild symbols can only land on the middle 3 reels. When that happens, they remain fixed in place. Red Bison symbols can land on reels 1 and 5 with a multiplier of minimum x2 and maximum x10 and also pay an extra free spin. A red Bison symbol landing on a row where Sticky wilds are shown will add its multiplier to all Sticky wilds on the row.
• When you activate the Ice Park feature you’ll get 3 respins. During this feature, only coin symbols or empty positions can land on the middle 3 reels. Bison symbols with or without multipliers can now land on reels 1 and 5. Coin symbols that land remain locked in place and cause the number of respins to reset to 3. The same goes for any Bison symbol that lands on the reels. In addition, the multiplier of each Bison symbol landed is applied to all coin symbols on the reels.

Payout Metrics

Bison Battle is played on 5 reels, 4 rows and 20 paylines. Wins are made when 3, 4 or 5 matching symbols appear from left to right across any of the 20 paylines, with the eagle being the exception. From this high value symbol you only need 2 to form a winning combination. If you want to go ahead and make your real money bet you can do so from $ 0.10 to $100 a spin which meets the betting limits of most other Push Gaming pokies.

Bison Battle’s Return to Player (RTP) is set at 96.4% which is about right as it’s above the industry average of 96%. The RTP increases to either 96.58% or 96.69%, depending on which bonus feature you use. Volatile as you’d expect from a game with bison battling, the maximum win is 50,000x the total stake. The chances of winning 50,000x the bet is 1 in 4,830,920 spins. Major wins tend to come in the Ice Park and Green Valley features.

Bonus Feature

The Green Valley feature and Ice Park feature can be purchased via the Bonus Buy feature which gives you instant access to the bonus round. Organically, bonus rounds are activated once every 267 spins.

• 75x your stake gives you access to the Green Valley feature.
  • In the Green Valley feature the RTP increases to 96.58%.
• 95x your stake gives you access to the Ice Park feature.
  • In the Ice Park feature the RTP increases to 96.69%.

Summary

It’s been a long time since we played a pokie as well set up as Bison Battle. Despite the fact that you have the feeling that Bison Battle has many features, it is actually a very clear pokie machine and you won’t lose track whilst playing. There are 4 different Bison symbols, all of which have their own characteristics. In addition, we have 2 different free spins features. However, those different Bison symbols and the 2 free spins feature make sure that something new happens on virtually every spin. That makes this pokie by Push Gaming highly versatile, which is why we found it so much fun to play for a long time. And then we have the huge prizes that can go up to 50,000x the stake with the other good news being that the base game can yield 25,000x the bet. Design wise, we were also very pleased with what we saw as the game’s look and feel changes during the 2 free spins features. We can only give a 10 out of 10 stars rating which we don’t do often and shows how much we enjoyed it. Bison Battle is a great game that we recommend to everyone.