Bamboo Ways  (Bigwinboard.com)

Bamboo Ways: Slot Overview

In the ongoing quest to capture player attention and coins, casino game makers have numerous tools at their disposal. One tired and true tactic for getting bums on seats is to give players a repeat serving of something they’ve enjoyed in the past, with one or two adjustments to make it feel fresh. This is the thinking behind Push Gaming‘s slot Bamboo Ways, which delivers much of Razor Ways‘ gameplay wrapped in a Big Bamboo-esque skin with new features on the side. The new bits are, well, how about we hold on to the suspense for now, and discover those on our search through the bamboo.

Actually, there’s not a lot of off-grid bamboo in this game. Where Big Bamboo took place in an actual bamboo forest, murky green in the base game, murky purple in free spins, Bamboo Ways leaves the mundane world behind and is backgrounded by a fancy temple-type building, either on top of a mountain, peeking out of the clouds, or in the clouds. The location, scenery, and character symbols triggered thoughts of the classic Chinese tale ‘Journey to the West’ of Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy. The bonus round music isn’t exactly classic Chinese, though, but it has an Asian cartoon energy which not only fits well but also puts the foot down harder on the adrenaline pedal when the action is running hot. Like the features, the visual effect is a blend of Big Bamboo and Razor Ways, with some new parts dipped in for good measure.

Each spin kicks off on a grid that’s only half awake – 6 reels, 3 rows tall, giving you 729 ways to win. But when the grid fully powers up, all 6 rows come alive, unlocking 46,656 ways to win. Base bets of 10c to $/€100 may be selected, and two Push Bets are on hand. The Scatter Symbols Push Bet costs 1.5x while Scatter Symbols x2 costs 3x the bet, and both increase the chances of landing scatters in the base game. The maximum RTP comes in at 96.3% while the volatility is high.

The game lands diamonds, spades, hearts, clubs, brushes, gourds, and scrolls as its lower paying symbols, with birds, monkeys, boars, and pandas as its highs. A 6 OAK winning combination of the lows pays 0.5x-1x the bet, while a 6 OAK of high pays is worth 2.5x-8x the bet. The wild symbol substitutes for all regular paying symbols. Winning combinations trigger a cascade mechanic that removes the winning symbols and replaces them with a symbol drop.

Bamboo Ways: Slot Features

Other features are Expanding Rows, Expanding Wilds, Converter into Wilds, Mystery symbols, Expanders, the Golden Bamboo Feature, free spins, and feature buys.

Expanding Rows & Expanding Wild Symbol

As mentioned, there are 3 rows at the bottom of the grid and 3 locked rows above them. When a Cascade or Instant Prize win occurs, the grid expands by +1 row, up to 6 high. The reels reset for the start of a new game round. When an Expanding Wild appears in the base game or free spins, it expands to cover all unlocked rows. The Expanding Wild can land or be revealed by Mystery symbols, and may also have a multiplier of x2, x3, or x5 attached.

Converter into Wild Symbol

When this symbol lands or is revealed, it spins through the pay symbols on the unlocked rows. When one of the pay symbols lands, all matching symbols are converted to wilds, including the Converter into Wild symbol. Up to two Converter into Wild symbols may be revealed by Mystery symbols when more than two Mystery symbols land.

Mystery Symbols and Expander Symbols

Mystery symbols can appear in both base game and free spins, revealing pay symbols, wilds, Expanding Wilds, Converter into Wilds, Expanders, or Golden Bamboo. Expander symbols stretch Mystery symbols in a random direction to cover rows or reels, after which all linked Mysteries reveal the same outcome.

Golden Bamboo Symbol

When Golden Bamboo symbols are revealed, they trigger the Golden Bamboo feature, where each Golden Bamboo symbol spins through different prizes:

• Instant Prize – bet multipliers of 1x to 1,000x.
• Multiplier – multiplies the value of all Instant Prizes and Collector symbols by x2 to x10, and is afterwards removed to spin through new prizes.
• Collector – collects all Instant Prizes and Collector values. Instant Prize symbols are removed from the reels. The emptied positions spin again.
• Converter – reveals a pay symbol that is on the unlocked rows, and all instances are converted to Golden Bamboo symbols, including the Converter.
• Scatter symbols.
• Row Unlocker – unlocks a new row before being removed (only in the bonus buy).

Scatters

Landing 3 scatters awards 6 free spins with a 1x multiplier on a 3×6 grid; 4 scatters grant 8 spins with a 2x multiplier on a 4×6 grid and one low symbol removed; 5 scatters give 10 spins with a 3x multiplier on a 5×6 grid and two lows removed; and 6 scatters trigger 10 spins with a 5x multiplier on a full 6×6 grid and three low symbols removed.

Free Spins

During free spins, scatters may appear on the reels or during the Golden Bamboo feature. Each landed scatter is added to the level meter. It takes 4 scatters to get to the next level: Level 1 starts with a 1x multiplier, a 3×6 grid, and all lows in play; Level 2 adds 4 spins, boosts the multiplier to 2x, upgrades to a 4×6 grid, and removes one low; Level 3 adds 3 spins, pushes the multiplier to 3x on a 5×6 grid with two lows removed; Level 4 adds 3 spins, raises the multiplier to 5x on a 6×6 grid with three lows removed; and Level 5 adds 2 spins, powers the multiplier to 10x on a 6×6 grid with four lows removed. Also, the Additional free spins symbol may land during the bonus round to award +1 to +3 free spins.

Feature Buys

Players may buy 8 guaranteed Mystery symbols for 18x the bet, or 18 positions filled with Golden Bamboo symbols for 120x. Alternatively, it is possible to trigger free spins with 3 scatters for 80x or random scatters for 400x.

Bamboo Ways: Slot Verdict

Since Bamboo Ways is so close in function to Razor Ways, if you liked or did not like the previous shark game, the same reaction is most likely going to apply here. There are changes, so players on the fence about Razor Ways might be swayed by Bamboo Ways. Some of the updates are subtle, some, like the Expander symbol, are more obvious. The MVP, unexpectedly, was the Converter into Wild symbol. This thing caused all sorts of destruction, including the biggest hits during the test session, far more than Instant Prizes and multipliers. In fact, there seems to be less focus on Instant Prizes in Bamboo Ways, in part because the top prize value has dropped from the 5,000x coin in Razor Ways to the 1,000x biggest coin in Bamboo Ways.

In its own words, Push Gaming has ‘focused on different combinations of features triggering during the same spin to heighten player anticipation’, which neatly sums the game up. Bamboo Ways has a lot of things going on in all phases, meaning hits and thrills can come from multiple angles. One clear advantage was expanding the gaming area. Unlock three rows, and the number of ways to win dramatically skyrockets. What’s good is that while the bonus round progress feature unlocks rows, so do cascades and Instant Prize wins, which occur in all game phases. Despite the Instant Prize win value drop, Bamboo Ways shares the same 25,000x winning potential as Razor Ways, suggesting there might be less emphasis on hitting a multiplied 5,000x coin, to leave more room for other ways of achieving the full potential.

Given the success of Razor Ways and Big Bamboo, it’s easy to imagine Bamboo Ways getting a glowing reception, as well. Push Gaming has made adjustments and added new bits, but the action-packed flow that shone through in the previous Razor Ways game should be just as effective at keeping keen players engaged, maybe more.