Bee Keeper: Slot Overview
When it comes to investing, ‘past performance is not indicative of future results’ is a common disclaimer. Just because something happened before doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again. The same doesn’t always apply to online gambling. For example, when a new slot comes along from Pragmatic Play partner Reel Kingdom, the suspicion is that it’s going to be related to the studio’s juggernaut Big Bass freight train, and this is often the case. As such, a sense of wonder (a small sense) accompanied the reception of Reel Kingdom’s Bee Keeper, before the obvious similarities between it and a certain bass slot became apparent, and a sense of heavy, dragging fish fatigue took over… Come check it out.
Bee Keeper starts the ball rolling in high spirits, despite or maybe because of a clash between audio and visuals taking place. The scene is one of pastoral peace, of rolling green meadows, sunflowers and the symbiotic, some might say parasitic, relationship between bees and beekeeper. The music is like a dance track at a rogue AI disco. Jarring, in some ways, in others, the package as a whole succeeds in evoking positive emotions. Whether the emotions remain positive as the game unfolds depends almost entirely on whether gamblers are in the mood for another Big Bass Bonanza rendition.
A honeycomb-like 5×3 gaming area is where the action takes place, and regular winning combinations are evaluated by 10 paylines stretching across the grid. Players can stake 5c to $/€125 per spin, or for a higher chance of triggering the feature, activating the ante bet doubles the stake. Low potential but highly volatile, Bee Keeper’s preferred RTP is a 96.53% value.
Golden honey 10-A royals are Bee Keeper’s low pays, awarding players 10 times their bet when hitting a 5 OAK winning combination. Following them are pots of honey (the money symbol), flowers, strawberries, more honey, and a beehive. Land 5 premiums in a winning combination to collect 20 to 200 times the bet. Wilds only appear during free spins, where, amongst other things, they substitute for any regular paying symbol.
Bee Keeper: Slot Features
Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game triggers 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During free spins, each landed wild collects the total amount displayed on each money symbol. Individual money symbol values range from 2x to 2,000x the bet.
A honeypot sits below the leftmost, middle, and rightmost reels. When a wild lands, it highlights a position on these reels. Every fourth landed wild activates a honeypot from left to right, awarding extra free spins and a money symbol collection multiplier. The first honeypot grants 10 free spins with an x2 multiplier; the second honeypot grants 10 more free spins with an x3 multiplier, while the third honeypot grants 20 more free spins with an x20 multiplier. After the third retrigger, no more retriggers are possible. Randomly, when there are wild symbols in view but no money symbols, at the end of a free spin, money symbols may appear in random positions.
Feature Buy
The free spins round can be bought from the base game for 100x the bet. When bought, 3, 4, or 5 scatters randomly land to activate the feature.
Bee Keeper: Slot Verdict
It sounds bad to admit, but the response to reading Bee Keeper’s paytable was ‘You gotta be kidding me.’ At first, Bee Keeper triggered a certain amount of curiosity. Oh, Reel Kingdom’s done something with bees rather than bass, and what’s up with this honeycombed gaming area? Two seconds later, oh, it’s basically Big Bass all over again, but with a different creature in the primary role. Perhaps the bushy-bearded beekeeper should have been a clue, yet the thrill of reviewing a Reel Kingdom slot that wasn’t bobbing about at sea caused this detail to be overlooked. Oh well, experienced gamblers are no doubt used to this by now, and really, how many people who hit paydirt could refrain from hitting the same spot again and again?
Reel Kingdom does keep hitting the same spot a lot, though, meaning Bee Keeper’s gameplay is about as stale as it gets. However, the slot sure is upbeat, and not everyone has played 15 versions of Big Bass yet, so Bee Keeper might appeal to some money symbol collection fanatics. Also, the final free spins level has an x20 multiplier rather than the x10 found in the original – 20 free spins are awarded, too, that’s something. Too bad then that even with double the biggest multiplier, Bee Keeper’s winning potential is exactly the same as Big Bass Bonanza‘s 2,100x the bet. On a positive note, the max win hit frequency is much more favourable in Bee Keeper.
To sum up, Bee Keeper is a pleasant game that operates a bunch of tried, tried, yet again tried and tested features. Players tired of all things Big Bass are unlikely to be won over, despite the upbeat bee charm, but gamblers partial to a bit of money symbol collecting and aren’t overly fussy or demanding might find Bee Keeper pretty sweet.
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