Big Bass Bonanza Megaways
This is the only Big Bass game with a different published return. Pragmatic prints 96.70% here against 96.71% on the original, Bigger and Splash — one hundredth of a point, meaningless in play, but proof the sheets are written per game rather than copied.
Six reels, up to 46,656 ways, and a trigger tier the others do not have: six scatters award 25 free spins. Yet the ceiling is 4,000× — identical to Bigger Bass Bonanza, and lower than Splash’s 5,000× on a plain ten-line board.
- Free Demo
- At a Glance
- How It Plays
- Paytable
- Features
- Compare
- RTP
- Bets & Bankroll
- Tips
- Where to Play
- FAQ
- Verdict
Play Big Bass Bonanza Megaways Free
The demo is the right way to find out whether you actually enjoy this engine. Megaways changes the rhythm completely — reel heights shift every spin, symbols cascade, and the board can be nearly worthless or nearly full. Whether that suits you is a taste question no spec sheet answers. What the demo cannot tell you is which RTP build your casino runs. This demo is part of our collection of free Pragmatic Play demos.
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways at a Glance
How Big Bass Bonanza Megaways Plays
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways puts the series’ fishing feature on the Megaways engine. It is published by Pragmatic Play and developed by Reel Kingdom. The databases place it in late 2021 — SlotCatalog says 8 November, VegasSlotsOnline says 24 October — and Pragmatic publishes no date.
The board is the change. SlotCatalog records the layout as 6-7 with 46,656 ways, which is the standard Megaways maximum, and tags the game with Colossal Reels and a Grid. VegasSlotsOnline calls it “a 6-reel Megaways layout”. Reel heights vary spin to spin, so the number of ways to win changes constantly rather than sitting at a fixed line count.
Six reels buy one genuine mechanical addition. A sixth scatter can now land, and Pragmatic’s page adds a fourth trigger tier the rest of the series does not have: “Landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters awards 10, 15, 20, and 25 free spins, respectively.” Everywhere else in the series the mapping stops at five scatters and twenty spins.
The collect feature is otherwise the one you know, though this sheet words it differently — it says fisherman symbols rather than wilds: “fisherman symbols collect the values of all money symbols when they land together, with every fourth fisherman awarding 10 more free spins and a 2×, 3×, and final 10× win multiplier.” Same role, same ladder, twelve fishermen to reach the top step.
SlotCatalog additionally tags this title — and no other Big Bass game in our catalogue — with Avalanche, Cascading and Symbol Swap. Those are the Megaways engine’s own mechanics. Pragmatic’s page describes none of them, so treat them as the database’s classification.
The Story Behind Big Bass Bonanza Megaways
Having now reviewed the original, the 5×4 sequel and this one, the shape of the series is clear enough to say plainly: Pragmatic has never competed with itself on return.
Three of the four games publish 96.71%. This one publishes 96.70%. That single hundredth of a point is the entire spread across a series spanning three years and four very different boards. It changes nothing in play — but it does tell you the sheets are genuinely per-game rather than a copy-paste, which after the number of copy-paste findings we have made in this archive is worth a sentence.
What is more interesting is what the engine did not buy. This build runs up to 46,656 ways where Bigger Bass Bonanza runs twelve fixed lines. It adds cascades. It is the largest game in the series by file size at 22 MB, against the original’s 13.7 MB. And it publishes exactly the same 4,000× ceiling as Bigger Bass Bonanza.
It is also beaten on ceiling by the game that came next. Big Bass Splash reaches 5,000× on the plain 5×3, ten-line board — a fraction of this engine, a quarter more top end.
So the Megaways version is not the big-money entry in the series that its specification implies. It is a rhythm change: the same feature, the same ceiling, delivered through a board that behaves completely differently spin to spin. Whether that is worth it is a preference, not a calculation — and we would rather say so than dress it up.
Symbols and Paytable
Pragmatic publishes no symbol table for any game in this series. What follows is what the studio and the two databases establish.
| The fisherman — and this sheet calls him that | On the other three games Pragmatic writes “wilds collect”. Here it writes “fisherman symbols collect the values of all money symbols when they land together”. Same role, and worth noticing only because it shows the descriptions are written per game. |
|---|---|
| Money symbols — up to 4,000× | Cash values that pay nothing until a fisherman lands. Pragmatic states 4,000× as the ceiling on one symbol — double the original, and the same figure as Bigger Bass Bonanza. |
| The scatter — with a fourth tier | 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatters award 10, 15, 20 or 25 free spins. The six-scatter tier exists only here, because only here is there a sixth reel for it to land on. Official, and the one thing the bigger board genuinely adds. |
| The shifting reels | SlotCatalog records 6-7 and up to 46,656 ways, and tags Avalanche, Cascading and Symbol Swap on this title alone. Reel heights change every spin, so the ways count is never fixed. Pragmatic’s page describes none of this. |
| What nobody publishes | Symbol pay values, hit frequency, how the cascades interact with the collect, and any official volatility rating. |
As with both sequels, the advertised money-symbol maximum (4,000×) and the stated maximum win (4,000×) are the same number. Only the 2020 original had any published headroom above its top symbol. Either the ceiling really is one money symbol, or the databases adopted the studio’s figure — nobody publishes enough to settle it, and we are not going to guess.
Bonus Features
Up to 46,656 ways, and a sixth reel
SlotCatalog records the layout as 6-7 with 46,656 ways — the standard Megaways maximum — and tags Colossal Reels and a Grid. Reel heights change every spin, so the number of ways to win is never the same twice. This is a genuinely different game to play from the fixed-line builds, whatever the shared theme suggests.
Six scatters award 25 free spins
The only mechanical addition the bigger board buys, and it is official: 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatters award 10, 15, 20 or 25 free spins. Every other game in the series stops at five scatters and twenty spins, because none of them has a sixth reel.
96.70% — the only different RTP in the series
Pragmatic prints 96.70% here and 96.71% on the original, Bigger and Splash. One hundredth of a point, which changes nothing you will ever feel, but it does confirm the studio writes these sheets per game rather than duplicating them.
But the ceiling did not move
4,000× your total bet — identical to Bigger Bass Bonanza, which runs twelve fixed lines and no cascades, and lower than Big Bass Splash’s 5,000× on the original’s small board. The largest engine in the series does not have the largest top end. Three sources agree on the figure, so this is not a data doubt.
Cascades, per the database
SlotCatalog tags Avalanche, Cascading and Symbol Swap on this title and no other Big Bass game in our catalogue. Winning symbols clear and new ones drop in. Pragmatic’s own description does not mention any of it, so we report it as SlotCatalog’s classification rather than a studio claim.
No jackpot — the RTP is the whole product
There is no progressive jackpot on this game, or on any game in the Big Bass series. Pragmatic lists none, VegasSlotsOnline lists none, and SlotCatalog — which does tag “Progressive Jackpot” where a game has one, including on many titles in our library — does not tag it here.
That is a real structural difference from most of the games reviewed on this site. On the Amusnet and EGT Digital catalogue, a share of every real-money stake feeds Jackpot Cards or Bell Link, and the published RTP describes the reels rather than the whole product. Here nothing is skimmed: the 96.70% covers everything the game can pay.
The money-symbol collect looks jackpot-shaped if you have only seen clips — cash values on the reels, a collect, a large total. It is not. Those values are fixed multiples of your own stake, paid by the game and capped at 4,000×. Nothing pools, nothing accumulates across a network, and nothing fires at random.
The Gamble Feature, Properly Explained
No gamble feature and no bonus buy. The SlotsLaunch feed sets the bonus-buy flag to zero and SlotCatalog’s feature list for this title contains no Buy Feature — unlike Big Bass Splash, where it does list one. Pragmatic’s page mentions neither.
That is a standing difference between this series and most of the catalogue on this site. Amusnet and EGT Digital put a red-or-black card double-up in the studio’s own feature list on nearly every title; the Big Bass games have no such thing.
So feature entry is earned on the reels, and wins are banked rather than risked. On a High-volatility Megaways build whose return is already concentrated in one round, not having a doubling ladder attached to it is a mercy rather than a missing feature.
- Up to 46,656 ways on six reels — a genuinely different rhythm from the fixed-line builds
- A six-scatter tier awarding 25 free spins, which exists nowhere else in the series
- The 4,000× ceiling is confirmed three separate ways, unlike Bigger Bass Bonanza’s
- No progressive skimming the return, so 96.70% describes the entire game
- The RTP is configurable: 96.70% published, 95.66% recorded live by SlotCatalog, and the casino chooses
- The biggest engine in the series carries the same ceiling as Bigger Bass Bonanza and less than Big Bass Splash
- The cascades come from a database’s tags — Pragmatic’s own page does not describe them
- 22 MB and a shifting 6-reel board make it the heaviest and busiest game in the series on a phone
How Big Bass Bonanza Megaways Compares
The series is the only fair comparison. Grids and ways are from the databases; money-symbol caps and RTP figures are from Pragmatic’s own pages.
| Game | Year | Grid | Lines / ways | Money symbol | Max win | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Bass Bonanza | 2020 | 5 × 3 | 10 | 2,000× | 2,100× | 96.71% |
| Bigger Bass Bonanza | 2021 | 5 × 4 | 12 | 4,000× | 4,000× | 96.71% |
| Big Bass Bonanza Megaways | 2021 | 6 reels | up to 46,656 | 4,000× | 4,000× | 96.70% |
| Big Bass Splash | 2022 | 5 × 3 | 10 | 5,000× | 5,000× | 96.71% |
Read the last two columns together and the point of this review appears. This game has by far the largest engine in the series — 46,656 ways against twelve fixed lines — and the same ceiling as the game above it. The game below it, released a year later on the original’s small 5×3 board with ten lines, reaches a quarter higher at 5,000×.
The RTP column tells the other half. Three of the four are identical at 96.71%, and this one is a hundredth lower. Pragmatic has never used return as the difference between these games, which means the choice between them is entirely about board, ceiling and rhythm.
If you want the biggest number in the series, it is not here. If you want the board that behaves differently every spin, it is only here.
RTP, Volatility and Win Potential
The RTP of Big Bass Bonanza Megaways is 96.70%, printed under “Basic Game Info” on Pragmatic Play’s official game page. VegasSlotsOnline rounds it to 96.7%.
That single hundredth makes this the only game in the series with a different published return. The 2020 original, Bigger Bass Bonanza and Big Bass Splash all print 96.71%. It is a difference you will never feel — one hundredth of a point is about a penny per hundred pounds staked — but it is a real published figure, and it means these sheets are written per game rather than duplicated across the range.
SlotCatalog states 95.66%, and flags the title with an RTP Ranges warning. Note that it too is a hundredth below the 95.67% it records for the other three, which is a small consistency check on both sets of numbers.
The warning itself is the same one that applies to every game in this series, and it matters far more than the hundredth. Pragmatic certifies more than one return configuration and the operator chooses which one to deploy. The studio advertises the top build; a database sampling live casinos found one a full point lower. There is no indicator in the game, nothing in the paytable, and a demo will not tell you either — it runs whatever build that operator serves.
For scale: the 44 official Amusnet spec sheets we have read for this site span 95.32% to 96.94%, a range of 1.62 points from worst game to best. The gap between this game’s two published figures is 1.04 points.
Volatility is High on both databases, with no official rating from Pragmatic on any Big Bass page. On a Megaways board that label carries more weight than usual: with reel heights changing every spin, the spread of outcomes is naturally wider than on a fixed twelve-line board, before the collect feature concentrates the return any further.
Bets, Bankroll and Session Planning
SlotCatalog gives a bet range of 0.20 to 100, and the SlotsLaunch feed independently records the same minimum and maximum — the only game in the series where those two agree exactly. VegasSlotsOnline’s spec box reads zero for both and is broken. Pragmatic publishes no range.
Note the minimum is double the original’s 0.10. Megaways games typically carry a higher floor because there is more board to fund on every spin, and the maximum is correspondingly lower at 100 against 250.
What needs planning here is the round, not the stake. Everything worth having is in the free spins, and the round is worth whatever the fisherman timing makes it worth — money symbols pay nothing sitting on the reels. Two things make that swingier than on the fixed-line builds: reel heights vary, so some spins simply have less board for money symbols to land on, and the cascades SlotCatalog reports mean a single spin can resolve several times. Expect a wider spread of round outcomes than the twelve-line version gives you.
Playing Big Bass Bonanza Megaways on Mobile
SlotCatalog records the game as JS/HTML5 at 22 MB — the largest in the series, against 13.7 MB for the original and 15.1 MB for Bigger Bass Bonanza. It still runs in a phone browser with no download, but it is the heaviest first load of the four.
It is also the busiest board. Six reels of variable height, cash values printed on the fish, and cascading resolutions is a lot to follow on a small screen. Of the four Big Bass games we have reviewed, this is the one we would most want to play on a larger display — and the 2020 original, at 5×3 with ten fixed lines, is the one that reads best on a phone.
Five Things to Know Before You Spin
- Ask which RTP build your casino runs. Pragmatic publishes 96.70%; SlotCatalog records 95.66% live. That gap is a full point and it dwarfs every other number on this page.
- Six scatters is a real tier, not a rounding. 3/4/5/6 scatters award 10/15/20/25 free spins — the 25-spin tier exists only on this game in the whole series.
- Do not expect Megaways to mean a bigger ceiling. It is 4,000×, the same as Bigger Bass Bonanza and less than Big Bass Splash’s 5,000×. The engine changes the rhythm, not the top end.
- The 10× step still needs twelve fishermen. Four per retrigger, three retriggers — unchanged from every other game in the series.
- If the shifting board is not for you, the rest of the series is fixed-line. Same feature, same studio, same return, calmer rhythm.
Where to Play Big Bass Bonanza Megaways for Real Money
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways is carried wherever Pragmatic Play content appears, so the question is which return you are getting rather than where to find it. This game ships in more than one certified RTP configuration and the operator chooses, so ask before you deposit. The casinos below are the ones we have checked for licence, terms and payout speed.
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Compare all 27 operators on our casinos page. 18+, terms apply — read the review before you deposit anywhere.
Who Big Bass Bonanza Megaways Is For
Play it if the Megaways rhythm is what you actually enjoy — reel heights shifting every spin, cascades resolving, a board that can be nearly empty or nearly full. That experience is genuinely different from the fixed-line Big Bass games, and it is the only reason to choose this one. The six-scatter tier and its 25 free spins are a nice touch you will not find elsewhere in the series.
Skip it if you are choosing on numbers. The ceiling is 4,000×, the same as Bigger Bass Bonanza on a far simpler board, and a quarter below Big Bass Splash. The RTP is a hundredth lower than the rest of the series and, more importantly, configurable by your casino. And if you mostly play on a phone, this is the heaviest and busiest of the four.
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways FAQ
What is the RTP of Big Bass Bonanza Megaways?
How many ways to win does it have?
How do the free spins work?
Does the Megaways version pay more than the others?
Does it have cascading reels?
Is there a jackpot or a bonus buy?
When was it released?
Which Big Bass game should I play?
Our Verdict
The biggest engine in the series, and not the biggest ceiling
Big Bass Bonanza Megaways does the thing the name promises: six reels, up to 46,656 ways, shifting reel heights, and cascades that SlotCatalog reports on this title and no other in the series. It also adds the one genuinely new mechanic in four games — a sixth scatter tier awarding 25 free spins, which only exists because only this build has a sixth reel to land it on.
It is also the only Big Bass game with a different published RTP: 96.70% against 96.71% everywhere else. A hundredth of a point is nothing you will feel, but it does confirm the studio writes these sheets per game.
What the engine did not buy is a bigger top end. The ceiling is 4,000× your total bet — the same as Bigger Bass Bonanza, which is a twelve-line game with no cascades, and a quarter less than Big Bass Splash, which reaches 5,000× on the original’s small 5×3 board. Three sources agree on the figure, so this is not a data doubt; it is a design choice.
We rate it 8.3, the lowest of the three Big Bass games we have reviewed so far, and that is not a criticism of the game so much as of where it sits. The Megaways rhythm is a real thing to want and this delivers it competently. But if you are choosing on numbers, the ceiling is beaten inside its own series, the RTP is a hundredth lower, and — as with every game here — which return you actually get is your casino’s decision, not the studio’s. At 22 MB on a six-reel shifting board, it is also the one we would least want to play on a phone.
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