Big Bass Bonanza - Keeping it Reel Slot by Pragmatic Play

Big Bass Bonanza - Keeping it Reel

Released in October 2022, Keeping it Reel was the sixth game in the Big Bass franchise. By this point, Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom had already proven the formula works - Big Bass Bonanza, Bigger Bass Bonanza, and Big Bass Splash were all performing well. So what does this one add?

Honestly, not a lot that's groundbreaking. The 5x3 grid, 10 paylines, and Fisherman Collect mechanic are all here. The max win bumps up to 10,000x though, which was a meaningful jump from the original's 2,100x ceiling at the time.

Multiplier Fishermen

The main twist in Keeping it Reel is the upgraded fisherman system. Standard fishermen collect all visible money symbol values as usual. But upgraded versions carry multipliers that apply to everything they collect. Land a 3x multiplier fisherman next to a cluster of high-value fish symbols and you'll see why people stick with this series.

Money symbols display cash values that the fisherman scoops up during free spins. Nothing revolutionary if you've played other Big Bass titles, but the multiplier fishermen make the bonus rounds more volatile and unpredictable. A single good fisherman landing turns a mediocre round into something real.

Ante Bet and Buy Bonus

The Ante Bet runs at 1.5x your standard wager, giving you better scatter odds. Max win drops to 6,666x in Ante mode, which is the tradeoff. There's one Buy Bonus option at 100x your bet for direct access to Free Spins. No Super Free Spins tier here - later games in the series added that.

Where It Falls Short

The base game is painfully quiet. You're essentially waiting for scatters, and without the Buy Bonus shortcut, dry spells stretch long. This is a common complaint across the whole franchise, but Keeping it Reel doesn't do anything to address it. The series had this problem from day one, and by game six you'd expect some variety in the base game loop.

Its Place in the Big Bass Timeline

Coming after Big Bass Splash (which introduced up to 10 fishermen on screen) and before the Megaways variants, Keeping it Reel feels like a bridge release. It refined the multiplier fisherman concept that later entries would build on, but it didn't push boundaries the way Splash did before it or Amazon Xtreme would after.

For collectors who want every Big Bass game, it's a fine addition. The 10,000x ceiling gives it more punch than the original. But if you're picking just one or two from the series, newer entries like Big Bass Bonanza 1000 or Floats My Boat offer more polish and bigger potential.