Big Bad Wolf Slot Review
Anyone who plays online slot games regularly will likely have come across Big Bad Wolf. With its cartoon visual style and accessible gameplay, this is a title that has become one of the most popular slots on the marketplace. So popular that it has even given rise to some variations on the theme: Big Bad Wolf Megaways enhances the gameplay, while Big Bad Wolf Christmas Edition gives the whole game a festive makeover. But as widespread as it may be, there are still plenty of people who have yet to give Big Bad Wolf a spin. With that in mind, allow us to set aside the later revisions and take along, hard look at the original game with our Big Bad Wolf slot review. What sorts of symbols does it use? Does it have any novel twists on the slot game format? How does it function in terms of volatility and payouts, and is it one of the best RTP slots you can play? Once you have read our review, all of your questions shall be answered.
Big Bad Wolf Theme
As its name suggests, Big Bad Wolf is themed around the classic fairy tale of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. The narrative of this story will be played out by the animated characters as the game progresses. Rather than “spinning” in the manner of a conventional fruit machine, the game’s graphics show the Big Bad Wolf blowing away the symbols that comprise the wall to a piggy’s house; if you score well enough, the piggy will be forced to flee and the action will move to another house. The game passes through the three houses of straw, wood and brick. If you succeed in blowing away all three houses, then the story will reach the rather macabre conclusion of the wolf walking away with the three little pigs in a sack, while the game will continue in the now-abandoned ruins of the brick house.
The game’s graphics are well-done and suit the cartoonish theme: the wolf is animated well, and each of the three little pigs has its personality. The backgrounds and music also fit the mood of a cartoon fairy tale. While the standard symbols are themed around playing cards (A for the ace, K for king and so forth) these are drawn as wooden crates that look right at home in the piggy houses. The other symbols depict the four main characters, plus objects relevant to the theme (a full moon, a beehive, a stuffed toy piggy). All in all, this is a slot game that will take players back to a childhood spent watching Looney Tunes.
Play Big Bad Wolf at the Best Casinos
How to play Big Bad Wolf
Big Bad Wolf is a game with five reels and three rows (if you are seeing a larger grid then you are playing Big Bad Wolf Megaways, not the original game) plus thirteen pay lines. The cartoon set may appear over-complicated at first, but as you play, the main areas of the screen should become clear to you. Here is what can be seen across the layout:
- Numbered paylines
- Current balance
- Current bet lines
- Total bet
- Updates panel
- Wild symbol checklist
- Full moon symbol checklist
- Automatic spins feature
If you choose to activate the automatic spin function, you will be able to choose how many spins the game should run through before returning manual control.
Symbols and Bonus features
Next, our Big Bad Wolf slot review shall discuss the symbols that you can expect to be spinning throughout the game. The title includes twelve symbols in all, each tying in with the fairy tale theme of the same and — in most cases — each having its score.
Playing card symbols
The most basic symbols are the wooden crates marked 10, J, Q, K and A. These are low value, and if you score five on a payline you will be given either 3x or 4x that payline’s sum.
Pig symbols
As well as the Three Little Pigs themselves, the game features a toy pig symbol, bringing the total number of pig symbols to four. These are the higher-scoring symbols: the toy pug is worth 8x for five on a payline, the brick-house and wooden-house pigs are each worth 10x, and (rather oddly, given that he is the first to be overcome in the story) the straw-house pig is the highest-scoring, earning you 12x if you are lucky enough to get five of him on a payline.
Wild symbol
The best slots casino games would hardly be complete without a wild symbol to make things more interesting. in Big Bad Wolf, the wild symbol is a beehive. As well as serving the usual wild function of filling in for other symbols, this will get you a score of 40x if you wind up with five on a payline.
Scatter symbol
The scatter symbol bears the face of the wolf character. Although scoring it will not add to your payment directly, getting three scatter symbols will trigger the game’s free spins feature. This will earn you 10 free spins; and if you manage to score three more scatter symbols, that number will be bumped up to 20.
Full moon symbol
Our Big Bad Wolf slot review would not be complete without mentioning the full moon symbol, which is the game’s unique addition to the standard slot formula. During a session, you stand a chance of rolling a total of six full moons, which are charted on a scoreboard at the top of the screen. The full moons push forward the game’s narrative: when you score three, the wooden house will be blown down (the straw house being destroyed in the game’s intro sequence) and when you get the full six, the brick house will be blown down. More than just cosmetic, the moons will get you bonuses. The first three will earn you two free spins; the second three will not only get you another two free spins but add a 2x multiplier to all wins for the remainder of the game.
Odds and Payouts
While the game has no progressive jackpot, our Big Bad Wolf slot review can confirm that the game has a large potential payout. If you are playing the high RTP version, the maximum possible win is 1,225 times your chosen stake; in the low RTP version, meanwhile, this is boosted to 2,105 times your stake. This is a reminder that the best RTP slots do not always amount to the highest-paying slots.
RTP and Volatility
As mentioned above, Big Bad Wolf comes in different versions with different RTPs. The standard version has an RTP of 97.29%, which is extremely high. However, you may find yourself instead of playing the version that has a much lower RTP score of 90.01%. These versions have different variances in terms of volatility, as well. According to the volatility scale used by Quickspin slots, the higher RTP version has a volatility of 4.35 out of 5, while the lower-RTP variant has a volatility score of 4. Either way, the volatility is quite high.
Who Made the Game?
Big Bad Wolf is the work of Quickspin, a prolific and well-regarded provider. The company’s website declares that “we create the world’s most awesome video slots” and while this is somewhat hyperbolic, many online gaming enthusiasts will agree that Quickspin at least exists in the upper tiers of the slot-gaming scene. Big Bad Wolf is one of its flagship titles, but the developer has many other games on offer.
Some of the better-known Quickspin slots include…
- Sakura Fortune
- Wild Harlequin
- Book of Duat
- Midas Coin
- Hall of the Mountain King
- Sticky Bandits
Can Big Bad Wolf be Played on Mobile?
The best slots casino games are the ones that translate to mobile devices, and we can report that Big Bad Wolf fits the bill. The chunky graphics are easy to read on a small screen, and although some detail in the animation will be lost, this is hardly a major failing.
Big Bad Wolf Slot Review : Our Take
To conclude our Big Bad Wolf slot review, we can confirm that this is a game that caught on for good reason. The gameplay is easy to grasp: it does not depart drastically from the standard mechanics of a slot game, but it does add some novel twists (particularly the full moon feature). The animated characters are a delight and the presence of a narrative as the wolf blows down each of the three houses, in turn, adds a little more entertainment value to your play-through. The game also works fine on a mobile device, making it a good slot title to choose when you are on the go. The presence of multiple versions with different RTP levels will also be appealing to many. While the later Big Bad Wolf Megaways and Big Bad Wolf Christmas Edition add new features and graphical enhancements, the original Big Bad Wolf still has plenty to offer. IF you are one of the slot gamers who have yet to try out this much-loved title, perhaps now would be a good time to give it a spin and see if you are lucky enough to help the wolf blow down all three houses.