Developer Having found success in the West Coast of the United States, Nolimit City has decided to return there. Buffalo Hunter is, however, hardly a heaven for gun slingers. Now we’re out on the prairie, home of the Native Americans’ most valued animal: the enormous buffalo. Naturalism reigns supreme in Nolimit City, but don’t let your guard down because of the philosophical undertones. The free spin aspects of Buffalo Hunter are where this very unpredictable beast can truly let go.
The 5-reel, 40-payline grid in Nolimit City is located on an open grassland, giving players a bird’s-eye perspective of nature. It’s like if we’re sitting on the ground and staring up through waving grass at some distant, hazy summits. In the background, the squawks of various animals can be heard as swift clouds race over a pastel purple sky. In the background, you can hear the rhythmic beating of pipes and drums, a nod to the local culture. While there are several slot machines with a similar theme, Nolimit City stands out for its fresh take on the genre.
In the introduction, we alluded to extreme volatility, although that may have been a slight understatement. Buffalo Hunter sits in a niche category of slots that Nolimit City has created, and players are warned of this fact as soon as the game loads. The default RTP of 96.01% is a touch more pedestrian, but it’s not terrible; it increases to 96.34% when the bonus purchase option is activated and to 96.41% when the Stampede Super Bonus is activated.
Buffalo Hunter is a slot machine game with ten standard pay symbols (five low and five high) with betting options ranging from 20 pence to $100 (or €100) per spin. Feathered aces and kings pay just 10 to A for five of a kind, or 3.75 times the bet. Animals like pronghorns, wolves, cougars, eagles, and buffalo command hefty prices. If you get a line of five of them, you’ll win anything from 6.25 times to 50 times your initial bet.
Dream catchers aren’t simply pretty to look at; in Buffalo Hunter, they really play a role in the wild. This helpful tile is equal in value to the buffalo and may be used in place of any pay sign.
Details of a Buffalo Hunter
The regular gameplay in Buffalo Hunter is fine, so long as you don’t activate the free spins feature. In addition to the usual free spins, we’ve thrown in some mystery symbols for good measure. Mystery symbols function in a conventional manner. All of them, regardless of where they fall, will change into the same paying sign.
Depending on how many scatters are in view, players can activate either the Buffalo Horde or Prairie Multiplier bonus games, with 8 or 10 free spins, respectively. In contrast, the Stampede Super Bonus, triggered by 5 scatters, is the granddaddy of the free spins.
Some of the buffalo symbols in play during the less risky but still high-variance Buffalo Horde free spins include illuminated borders. The meters adjacent to the high-paying animals fill up when these exact symbols land. Once a meter is full, the bonus game will end and all occurrences of that symbol will be replaced with buffalos. You also get two additional spins at no cost.
Prairie Multiplier free spins follow a same set of principles, with the exception that multipliers are applied to the animal symbols instead of wild substitutions. Multipliers start at x1, and go up to x5 as more animal meters are filled. This choice is riskier, but it also has a greater payoff.
The Stampede Super Bonus is the one you should go for. These two extra activities are combined into one neat package. Consequently, when a meter is full, the animal transforms into a buffalo and gains a multiplier. During any part of the game, stacked symbols are possible. Even better, the Stampede Super Bonus is when you have the most potential to win 10,000x your bet by filling all five reels with buffalo symbols.
Players may or may not have access to the Nolimit Bonus depending on their region. At least three scatters must appear on the following spin for players to win 100 times their wager and select between the Buffalo Horde or Prairie Multiplier bonus rounds. If you’re feeling very courageous, however, you may risk 600 times your wager on the following spin in order to activate the Stampede Super Bonus if you get at least five scatters.
The Case of the Buffalo Hunter
Nolimit City has created another enjoyable slot with Buffalo Hunter. The American wildlife theme has been given a new spin, and the bonus game has the potential to be hilarious. However, the primary game can be boring, and the 40 paylines and 5×4 layout may frustrate some players. It does imply that the session’s success or failure hinges nearly entirely on the bonus game.
The rules for the bonus spins are also not very novel. The graphic makeover to the collection of symbols is reminiscent of Novomatic’s classic Indian Spirit slot machine and is lifted directly from the Pink Elephants playbook. But it’s not a literal replication. The developers at Nolimit City have taken the original concept for a feature and tweaked it to make it their own. Combining symbol multiplication with symbol transformation is priceless as well. That sure amps up the risk in free spins. The size of some of the bonus rounds was huge, while others were disappointingly little. Obviously, the more turns you have, the better, and investing in improvements as soon as possible makes a huge impact.
The Nolimit Bonus provides an alluring alternative to playing the main game. There is some debate over this as well. Some may balk at the greatest feature’s price, which is 600x for 12 spins, just like they did in Deadwood. The game may go completely out of control, and a win of 10,000x on a single spin is nothing to scoff at, so making a selection is difficult. Of course, they can also fizzle out, as was the case on several occasions throughout the testing phase. True nail-biter material.
Buffalo Hunter lacks the character of their flagship games, and there’s a whiff of “been there, done that” to it, but when all the factors are considered, it’s still a fun slot game from Nolimit City with the potential to deliver some extreme thrills, and isn’t that the point?