Quick verdict: Big Bass Splash is Pragmatic Play's fifth mainline entry in the Big Bass franchise, landing in June 2022 with the same fisherman-and-money-symbol formula as the 2020 original but a higher ceiling and a noticeably punchier feel. The core idea hasn't changed — wilds collect cash-value fish symbols during free spins, with retriggers stacking multipliers — but Big Bass Splash adds pre-feature modifiers that can load the reels with extra wilds, spins, or money symbols before the bonus even starts. At a published 96.71% RTP and a 5,000x max win, it sits well above the original Big Bass Bonanza's 2,100x ceiling, making it one of the more rewarding entries in the series for players who've outgrown the flagship title.
The Story
Big Bass Splash keeps the same angler protagonist that's fronted the franchise since 2020, this time reeling in prizes along a sun-baked desert canyon lake rather than the calm blue water of the original. Pragmatic Play released it on 23 June 2022 as the fifth mainline game in the series, following Big Bass Bonanza, Big Bass Bonanza Megaways, Big Bass Amazon Xtreme and Big Bass Christmas Bonanza. Chief Business Development Officer Yossi Barzely described it at launch as a chance to build "upon one of our standout franchises whilst delivering new features and mechanics" — and the pre-feature modifiers introduced here (extra wilds, spins, fish, dynamite and hooks applied before the bonus round even starts) are exactly that: a genuine mechanical addition rather than just a reskin of the original.
Theme, Gameplay & Symbols
Big Bass Splash runs on the same 5-reel, 3-row grid with 10 fixed paylines as the rest of the mainline series — a classic layout rather than a tumble or Megaways format. Low-value symbols are the playing cards 10 through A, and the mid-tier is built from fishing gear: a reel and rod, a dragonfly, and a tackle box. A red off-road truck, parked at the water's edge with its headlights on, serves as the top-paying regular symbol — a new addition compared to the original game's tackle-only symbol set. The green bass mid-leap on a hook remains the scatter symbol that triggers the bonus round.
Base game play is standard left-to-right payline matching with no tumble or cluster mechanic — the visual novelty here is the underwater camera angle, with the reels appearing to sit just beneath the lake's surface and bubbles drifting past the symbols. As with the rest of the franchise, the interesting part of the game is what happens once the bass scatter lands and the free spins round begins.
Presentation & Sound
The art direction swaps the original's calm lake for a sun-drenched desert canyon, with sandstone cliffs and a cloudless sky framing the water — a slightly more rugged, adventurous backdrop than Big Bass Bonanza's gentler setting, even if it's a stretch to call it a beach scene. It's still the same bright, cartoonish house style Pragmatic Play uses across the franchise, prioritising clear symbol readability over photorealism. The soundtrack follows the same pattern as the rest of the series: a relaxed loop during base game spins that shifts into a more upbeat, triumphant theme once the free spins round kicks in, with a satisfying collection sound every time a wild gathers up fish money symbols.
How to Play Big Bass Splash
- Set your stake. Bets typically range from around £0.10 up to £250 per spin, though the exact ceiling depends on which casino you're playing at — UKGC rules cap real-money stakes at £5 per spin (£2 for 18–24-year-olds), so UK players won't be able to reach anywhere near that top figure.
- Spin the reels. Matching symbols on adjacent reels, left to right, pay out across the 10 fixed paylines.
- Watch for the scatter. Landing 3, 4, or 5 bass scatter symbols anywhere on the grid triggers the free spins bonus, awarding 10, 15, or 20 free spins respectively.
- Check for pre-feature modifiers. Before the bonus round starts, up to five random modifiers can apply — extra fishermen, fish, dynamite, hooks, bazookas, an instant level-two promotion, or two bonus free spins.
- Let the wilds collect. During free spins, wild symbols that land collect the cash value of every fish money symbol currently visible on the grid and add it to your win.
- Watch for retriggers. Landing four wild symbols during the feature retriggers it with 10 additional free spins — the first retrigger applies a 2x multiplier, the second a 3x, and the third and final retrigger a 10x multiplier to the round.
- Cash out when the spins run out. The round ends once all free spins are used, and your total collected win is paid out.
Features & Mechanics
The heart of the game is unchanged from the rest of the franchise: fish money symbols land on the grid during free spins but only pay out when a wild symbol lands on the same spin and collects every visible fish value at once. What's new in Big Bass Splash is the layer of random modifiers applied before the feature begins — Pragmatic Play's own material lists up to five possible additions, including extra money symbols, extra wild symbols, extra starting spins, and effects that add fishermen, dynamite or hooks to the reels to help load the grid before the first spin of the bonus round.
Free spins are awarded in the same tiers as the rest of the series: 3 scatters for 10 spins, 4 for 15 spins, and 5 for 20 spins. Once inside the feature, every fourth wild that lands retriggers the round with 10 more free spins, with an escalating multiplier applied on each of the three possible retriggers — 2x on the first, 3x on the second, and 10x on the third. Combined with the pre-feature modifiers, a well-loaded bonus round can snowball considerably further than the base game alone would suggest.
Big Bass Splash also has a feature-buy option, and it's a genuinely useful one to know the exact cost of: on a $2.00 test stake, the in-game "Buy Free Spins" button showed a $200 price — confirming the advertised 100x-your-stake cost directly. That option is switched off for UK players, however. Bonus-buy features of this kind were effectively prohibited for UK-licensed online slots by the Gambling Commission's 2019/2020 rule changes, so if you're playing at a UKGC-licensed casino, you won't see a working buy-feature button here regardless of what the game displays in other markets — a restriction that applies across the whole Big Bass franchise, not just this title.
Volatility & Win Potential
Big Bass Splash is published at a 96.71% RTP as the top/reference configuration; as with most Pragmatic Play titles, lower-RTP configurations are also available for operators to run, so it's worth checking the in-game info screen at whichever casino you play at to confirm which variant is live. Pragmatic Play and third-party trackers class the game as high volatility — a step up from Big Bass Bonanza's medium-high rating — which fits the higher 5,000x max win on offer here versus the original's 2,100x ceiling, putting it closer to the higher-variance end of the fishing genre alongside Blueprint Gaming's Fishin' Frenzy. Stakes generally run from around £0.10 up to £250 per spin, though this varies by operator — note that UKGC rules cap online slot stakes at £5 per spin (£2 for 18–24-year-olds), so UK players can't stake anywhere near the top of that range. Pragmatic Play doesn't publish official hit-frequency or bonus-trigger-probability figures for this title, so we haven't repeated the unverified numbers some third-party sites quote for those.
Pros & Cons
- Pro: a 5,000x max win more than doubles the original Big Bass Bonanza's ceiling, while keeping the same easy-to-follow fisherman-wild mechanic.
- Pro: pre-feature modifiers add a genuine layer of variance and excitement to triggering the bonus round that the 2020 original doesn't have.
- Pro: the confirmed 100x feature-buy cost (from our own test spin) is transparent, even though the option itself isn't available to UK players.
- Con: high volatility means bigger swings than the medium-rated original, so it demands a larger bankroll to comfortably reach the bonus round.
- Con: the 5x3, 10-payline base game is functionally identical to every other Big Bass title — this is an incremental upgrade, not a reinvention.
- Con: published RTP is a top/reference figure rather than a guarantee — the exact percentage depends on which configuration your casino runs.
Final Verdict
Big Bass Splash takes the formula that made Big Bass Bonanza a modern classic and pushes it further: a higher max win, genuinely new pre-feature modifiers, and the same collect-the-fish mechanic that's easy to understand within one spin of seeing it. It's a step up in volatility from the original, so it won't suit players who preferred the flagship's gentler swings, and the base game itself doesn't do anything the rest of the franchise hasn't already done. But as a bigger, punchier sequel for players who've already spent time with the original and want a higher ceiling without learning a new mechanic from scratch, Big Bass Splash delivers exactly what it promises.
