Play Big Bass Surf’s Up – Big Bass Jackpot Bonanza

Big Bass has packed the fishing gear and headed for the beach again. Big Bass Surf's Up: Big Bass Jackpot Bonanza from Pragmatic Play keeps the familiar fish collecting formula, then mixes in Mystery symbols, retriggering free spins and jackpot mechanics. Our fisherman becomes particularly useful once the bonus begins, collecting Money symbol values while further Wilds improve later batches of spins. Surfboards aren't doing much of the heavy lifting here. The fish remain firmly employed. 

The camper van may be the loudest symbol on the reels, but the beach does most of the visual work. Blue water and a pink evening sky sit behind a reel set filled with beach balls, fishing rods, tackle boxes and piles of freshly caught fish. Our fisherman appears as the Wild during free spins, looking remarkably relaxed for someone whose working day involves collecting several screens of seafood. 

We find the same bright cartoon style that has followed the Big Bass series through plenty of online slots. The seaside change gives the familiar characters a slightly different backdrop without hiding where the game came from. Splashes, fish animations and bonus symbols add most of the movement, while the lighter beach soundtrack keeps proceedings away from anything too dramatic. We are fishing, after all, not launching a naval operation. 

The card ranks sit at the lower end of the regular paytable before fishing equipment, beach items and the camper van move us towards the stronger potential payouts. The van takes the top regular position, while fish symbols also gain another job during free spins as Money symbols. 

• The Fisherman Wild appears during free spins and substitutes for regular symbols. We don't use the Wild in place of Scatter, Mystery or Money symbols. 
• Fish act as Money symbols during free spins. Each fish receives a random potential value from 2x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x, 200x, 500x, 1666x, 2500x or 5000x the total stake. 
• The Scatter can appear on every reel. Three, four or five Scatters trigger 10, 15 or 20 free spins respectively. 
• Mystery symbols can appear during regular play. When one lands, every Mystery symbol currently visible changes into the same randomly selected paying symbol. 

Free Spins 

Three Scatters start us with 10 free spins, four increase the round to 15 and five provide 20. The Fisherman Wild becomes the main character once the bonus starts because each Wild collects the potential values attached to every Money symbol visible on that spin. 

A random extra Scatter can also appear after the initial result, so a near trigger doesn't always stay a near trigger. 

Money Symbol Collection 

Fish paying symbols double as Money symbols during free spins. Each one receives a random potential value before the spin, and every Fisherman Wild on screen collects the full set of visible Money values. 

The interaction can also receive a little help. When one or two Wilds are already present, random Money symbols may appear at the end of a free spin. When Money symbols appear without a Wild, one or two Fisherman Wilds can instead be added to random positions. 

Wild Retriggers 

Every fourth collected Wild awards another 10 free spins. We don't play those retriggered spins immediately, as each new batch waits until the previous set has finished. 

The first retrigger raises the Money collection multiplier to x2, the second raises the value to x3 and the third raises the value to x10. Once we complete the third retrigger, no further batches can be added. 

Mystery Symbols 

Mystery symbols aren't limited to cosmetic suspense. When one appears, all Mystery symbols currently on the reels convert into the same randomly selected paying symbol. A useful conversion can therefore create several matching symbols at once rather than resolving each Mystery position separately. 

Jackpot Bonanza 

The Jackpot Bonanza element adds another target alongside the Fisherman collection round. Jackpot related symbols can build progress towards the additional jackpot feature, where the supplied game information describes potential Mini, Minor, Major and Grand prizes. The mechanic sits beside the familiar Big Bass collection system rather than replacing the free spins structure.

Our base game uses five reels and three rows, with potential line wins reading from left to right across adjacent reels. The regular reels keep things fairly conventional, which leaves most of the mechanical changes for free spins. 

Once the bonus starts, fish take on Money values and the Fisherman Wild becomes a collector. Wild accumulation then controls retriggers and raises the collection multiplier across later batches. Mystery symbols introduce another route to potential combinations by changing several positions into one matching paying symbol. 

Across online casinos, the Big Bass structure has become rather recognisable. Here, the extra Scatter chance, Mystery conversion and jackpot component give us a few additions around that familiar five reel framework. 

A few recent online slot games sit fairly close to this one, particularly where Money symbols, collecting characters or the wider Big Bass family are concerned. 

• Roaring Lions Big Bass Jackpot Bonanza: We stay within the Big Bass Jackpot Bonanza branch, although the fisherman gives way to a hunter and the beach disappears in favour of the savannah. 
• Golden Retriever: We get another Reel Kingdom style Money collection setup where a character collects potential cash values during free spins and retriggers improve later stages. 
• Finger Lick'n Free Spins: The fishing gear disappears completely, but another simple base game leads into a much busier free spins feature built around Wilds and added symbols. 

Big Bass Surf's Up: Big Bass Jackpot Bonanza doesn't exactly hide the family recipe, and we doubt anyone expected a radical identity crisis this far into the series. The fisherman still collects Money symbols, Wilds still drive retriggers and the best mechanical changes arrive during free spins. 

We think the Mystery symbol is a useful addition because the base game otherwise has very little to distract us while we wait for the main feature. The random assistance between Money symbols and Wilds during free spins also prevents the collector mechanic from feeling completely static. 

Our reservation is simply familiarity. Anyone who's spent much time around Big Bass will recognise most of the machinery immediately. Still, the beach presentation works, the retrigger multipliers give later batches more purpose and the jackpot element adds another reason to watch the fish pile up.