Fish Tales: Monster Bass 10,000 Slot Review
So you know how fishermen will go on and on about the one that got away or embellish on the sardine they actually managed to catch?
Well, a dude named George Perry pulled a 22 lb largemouth bass 🐟 out of Montgomery Lake in 1932, and no one even knew about it.
He didn't photograph 📸 it, didn't mount the fish… He just fried it up and fed it to his family. Bass fishing's greatest achievement is a tale where the evidence got eaten. That's the thing about fish tales: the bigger the claim, the less proof you need.
Booming Games is making a big claim of their own with Fish Tales: Monster Bass 10,000 slot, a game that looks at Pragmatic Play's Big Bass franchise and says, "I can do that too." I'm gonna see if they can prove it or if they fried the evidence.
Gameplay
One thing is clear, and that is that Booming Games hasn't exactly broken the mould or done anything interesting with the aesthetics. You get a grid perched upon a dock and some water and some clouds. Joy.
The 5x3 grid has 20 paylines, the RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. is 95.9%, volatility is medium/high, and the max multiplier is 10,000x. The max win is $200,000, with bets ranging from $0.20 to $20.
The A symbol pays 5x for 5-of-a-kind, and so do the K, Q, J, and 10. A grinning worm who doesn't know he's bait pays 10x for 5-of-a-kind. The fishing rod pays 25x.
The life buoy pays 25x, the tackle box pays 50x, and the top-paying symbol is a red boat at 100x for 5-of-a-kind.
The Wild is a fisherman dude holding a fish (sound familiar, Big Bass fans?). He replaces all paying symbols except the Scatter and Cash symbols.
The Wild also collects all Cash symbols on screen when he lands. If you've played Big Bass Bonanza, you've seen this mechanic before. Pragmatic Play made it famous, and Booming Games has borrowed it without blinking.
The Scatter is a red Bonus bobber thing. I don't speak fishing, so don't shoot me if I got that wrong. Cash symbols are gold coins with fish inside them. They come in 3 types: normal, gold, and Monster Bass. Cash values range from 0.25x to 1,000x total bet.
Features
The base game has 3 modifiers that can fire on any spin, and they all revolve around the Cash Collection mechanic.
In Big Bass slots, the fisherman collects money symbols during Free Spins only. Fish Tales: Monster Bass 10,000 slot lets that happen in the base game, too.
BIG NET:
This modifier collects all Cash symbols on screen without needing a Wild to land. When it fires, every Cash symbol on the reels gets scooped up and added to your win.
CASH ADD:
This modifier adds extra Cash symbols on spins where a Wild has already landed. So the Wild collects Cash symbols, and Cash Add throws more Cash symbols onto the reels for the Wild to grab.
BARREL BOOST:
Each Scatter that lands during the base game gets collected in a barrel above the reels. The barrel can activate on any spin, dumping extra Scatters onto the reels to trigger Free Spins.
The accumulation of Scatters in the barrel has no effect on the chances of triggering Free Spins through regular Scatter landings, by the way.
FREE SPINS:
Three, 4, or 5 Scatters trigger 10, 15, or 20 Free Spins, respectively. During the round, Cash Collection and Monster Bass features are both active.
The Wild fisherman still collects all Cash symbols when he lands, same as the base game. But now there's a progress bar: every 4 Wilds collected awards 5 extra spins.
The bar has 3 tiers (4, 8, and 12 Wilds), so you can earn up to 15 additional Free Spins on top of your starting amount. Big Bass Splash has a similar re-trigger system through its fisherman upgrades, but this game's version is simpler.
Monster Bass:
This is the headline act and the thing that separates Fish Tales: Monster Bass 10,000 slot from the Big Bass crowd. The Monster Bass is a stacked cash symbol that takes up 3 positions on a reel.
It can land part-way or in full, and it holds values of 50x, 100x, 250x, 500x, or 5,000x.
The Monster Bass only shows up during Free Spins. The Wild collects it when it's in full view on the reel. If it's not collected, it nudges down 1 position every spin (sliding off the bottom of the reel).
But every time a Wild lands, the Monster Bass nudges up 1 position instead. So you're in a tug-of-war: you need Wilds to keep the Monster Bass on screen and collect it before it disappears.
If 2 or more Wilds land together with a Monster Bass, the value gets collected once (not per Wild).
Big Bass Bonanza's fisherman collects money bags with fixed multipliers. Fish Tales: Monster Bass 10,000 slot's Monster Bass can hold up to 5,000x in a single symbol, which can blow past anything in the Big Bass series if the Wild shows up in time.
The nudge mechanic also adds a tension that Big Bass doesn't have.
BUY BONUS AND ANTE BET:
Two Buy Bonus options are available. The regular Bonus costs 75x your bet and awards 10, 15, or 20 Free Spins. The Monster Bonus costs 100x your bet and gives you 10, 15, or 20 Free Spins with a Monster Bass guaranteed to appear.
That 25x premium for a guaranteed Monster Bass is the key decision this game asks you to make.
The Ante BetAn Ante Bet is an option that costs a percentage of your bet but increases your chances of landing triggering symbols that initiate a feature. (Boost+) increases your bet by 1.5x and improves the chances of triggering all features.
Performance
I didn't have any problems playing this game on my desktop or mobile devices.
Maximum Win
At the top bet of $20, you can scoop the max win of $200,000 through the max multiplier of 10,000x. Bets start at $0.20.
Conclusion
Booming Games has looked at Pragmatic Play's Big Bass franchise, taken notes, and built something that borrows the skeleton but bolts on a few new parts. The fisherman-collects-cash mechanic is lifted wholesale.
But the Monster Bass is a genuine addition that gives this game a different ceiling and a different kind of tension during Free Spins.
Big Bass Bonanza slot's max multiplier is 2,100x, Big Bass Splash slot goes up to 5,000x, and Fish Tales: Monster Bass 10,000 slot pushes to 10,000x with that Monster Bass symbol doing the heavy lifting.
The trade-off is a lower RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. (95.9% compared to Big Bass Bonanza slot’s 96.71%) and flatter base game payouts, so you're grinding harder between features.
Without a guaranteed Monster Bass, your Free Spins round is a standard collect-the-cash affair with smaller high-paying symbol payouts than Big Bass.
With the Monster Bass on the reels, a single 5,000x collection can blow past anything the Big Bass series produces on a regular Tuesday. High-risk players should skip the 75x option and go straight for the Monster Bonus.
Is Fish Tales: Monster Bass 10,000 slot a Big Bass killer? No. Pragmatic Play's series has brand recognition and more entries than a phone book. But this is the first clone I've played that has a mechanic (the nudging Monster Bass) worth caring about.
If you're bored of the Big Bass formula but still want a fisherman collecting coins on a 5x3 grid, this game gives you the same vibe with a higher ceiling and a different kind of sweat during Free Spins.
Slot Details
Game Provider: Booming Games
Game Type: Video Slots
PaylinesPaylines are preset lines that run across the reels, and when you land matching symbols on them, that will result in a payout. The more paylines, the more ways you can win, but also the higher your bet per spin.: 20
RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate.: 95.9%
Volatility RateSlot games can have low, medium, high, or extremely high volatility rates (or a combination thereof).
The less volatile the game, the more often it should pay out, but the lower the amount, the less the payout, as this is in keeping with the risk you’re taking. Volatility rate should be considered in conjunction with a game’s RTP.: Medium/High
Bonus Round: No
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Free Spins
Max Multiplier: 10,000x
Max Win: $200,000
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