Big Bass Splash Slot Review

If you've played the original Big Bass Bonanza, you already know the drill. Released in mid-2022 by Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom, Big Bass Splash takes the classic formula of the original Big Bass Bonanza and bolts on a few fun new modifiers. It's a very familiar game, but the tweaks make it a clear step up.

The real action is in the free spins. You can trigger them naturally by landing scatters, or you can just buy the feature for 100x your bet. Before the spins actually start, a random reveal can hand you up to five upgrades, things like extra wilds, more free spins, or a head start on the multiplier trail. I actually bought a bonus round and got super lucky with five scatters (giving me 20 starting spins), but then totally blanked on the upgrades. That's just the nature of the game!

Once you're in, it's all about the Fisherman wild symbol. When he lands, he reels in the cash values attached to any fish on the screen. If you happen to land two Fishermen at once, they both collect everything, so the fish pay twice on that spin.

Every Fisherman that lands is also collected in a meter above the reels. Every fourth one gives you 10 more spins and bumps up your fish-collection multiplier (to 2x, 3x, and eventually 10x). Just keep in mind this multiplier only applies to the fish you catch, not your regular line wins.

Pragmatic also threw in three random features to help out on "dead" spins. If you get a Fisherman but no fish, a dynamite or bazooka animation might trigger to add fish or change the symbols. If you get fish but no Fisherman, a hook might pull one up. They only fire at random, so don't count on them. In my session, I had a couple of perfect setups for these features to trigger, but they stayed quiet.

The rules rate the game medium volatility, but my bonus round was a lumpy one. It leaned heavily on one or two big catches rather than a steady stream of smaller wins. In my bonus buy, I made it to the first multiplier upgrade and walked away with about 70% of my buy-in back, and a third of that came from just one lucky catch right at the end.

As the fifth game in the series, Splash is basically a direct upgrade to the original Big Bass Bonanza. They share the same layout, the same solid 96.71% RTP, and the exact same core mechanics.

The big difference is the potential: the original capped out at 2,100x your bet, while Splash pushes it to 5,000x, adds the bonus buy, and includes those pre-round modifiers. (Though the studio has since released games like Big Bass Amazon Xtreme with a 10,000x max win.)

Other studios have fishing games that play close to this one. Thunderkick's Bass Hunter is the nearest, and Booming Games' Fish Tales Jingle Bass, due in December 2026, works the same idea. Fish Tales Jingle Bass will let its wild collect fish cash in the base game too, which is the one thing I wish Splash did.

In Big Bass Splash, you'll see fish with juicy cash values landing all through the base game, but you can't actually collect them because the Fisherman is locked in the bonus round. It's the ultimate tease, and it's definitely what tempts you to just buy the feature. But if you're a fan of the collection mechanic and want a slightly beefed-up version of the original, it's a genuinely fun, fair slot to spin.