PRAGMATIC PLAY
Emerging from the Pragmatic Play workshop like freshly minted bills is the video slot Cash Bonanza. With a twist of both banknotes and fruit adorning its dynamic reels, this game blends two seemingly disparate themes into an uneasy marriage. While the core Increasing Ways Respin feature performs adequately, the overall experience feels rushed and lacks cohesion.
The backdrop sets the stage with a bounty of cash strewn across the floor from a vault's gaping maw, juxtaposed with a game grid featuring an unconventional 6x4 layout offering 4,096 ways to win. This grid expands with each winning combination, adding to the game's dynamic appeal. However, the soundtrack, while not inherently unpleasant, feels somewhat out of place, adding to the overall discord of the cash and fruit motif.
Cash Bonanza boasts solid statistics, starting with a respectable default RTP of 96.5%. Pragmatic Play assigns it a volatility rating of five out of five, indicating significant fluctuations in wins, adding to the game's unpredictable nature. To trigger the respin feature and secure a win, players need a minimum of three matching symbols aligned from left to right on any row starting from the leftmost reel. The game is compatible with all devices, offering betting options ranging from 25 p/c to $/€175 per spin.
The paytable showcases familiar slot symbols, including watermelons, oranges, plums, cherries, grapes, four-leaf clovers, bells, stars, and sevens. Aligning six of the non-fruit symbols yields payouts ranging from 2 to 10 times the stake. Additionally, the game features a bank vault door scatter symbol and a wild symbol. Wilds can appear on reels 2 to 6, substituting for any symbol except the scatter. During respins, wilds remain fixed in place on the reels, enhancing winning potential.
Cash Bonanza's primary feature is the Increasing Ways Respin feature, available both in the base game and during free spins. In this feature, any symbols forming a winning combination lock in place and trigger a respin. Each locked symbol adds positions to its respective reel, with a maximum of 8 rows high per reel. If all reels reach this maximum height, there are 262,144 ways to win. Respins continue until no new winning symbols land, or the grid is filled with winning symbols, leading to a payout. New winning symbol types may appear during respins. At the start of each paid spin, the grid returns to its default size.
Scatter symbols also lock during respins, and if three or more are present at the end of a sequence, the free spins round is activated. Players receive 8 free spins, with an additional 4 spins awarded for each extra scatter beyond three. The Increasing Ways feature persists during free spins, with the number of positions on each reel retained until the end of the round. Moreover, during the free spins bonus, a win multiplier increases by +1 with each respin. The total win at the end of the respin sequence is multiplied by this multiplier. Additionally, landing 2 or more scatter symbols during free spins grants +4 free spins, with an extra 4 spins awarded for each additional scatter beyond two.
Game | Provider | RTP | Max Win | Volatility | Unique Features |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cash Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | 96.52% | 5,000x | High (5/5) | - Increasing Ways Respin feature - Up to 262,144 ways to win - Fruit and money theme |
Sweet Bonanza | Pragmatic Play | 96.48% | 21,175x | High (5/5) | - Tumbling reels - Free spins with multipliers - Candy-themed |
Bonanza | Big Time Gaming | 96.00% | 10,000x | High (5/5) | - Megaways mechanic - Cascading symbols - Mining theme |
Fruit Bonanza | Play’n GO | 96.00% | 5,000x | Medium (3/5) | - Progressive jackpot - Classic fruit symbols - Colorful design |
As you load Cash Bonanza, the first thing that catches your eye is the setting – an open vault overflowing with coins and stacks of dollar bills. The theme revolves around wealth, and the game designers have nailed the atmosphere. Imagine stepping into a secure vault, surrounded by riches, ready to spin the reels and chase your fortune.
Cash Bonanza features a 6x4 grid, offering a whopping 4,096 paylines. The layout is reminiscent of classic fruit machines, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. The reels are brimming with luscious fruits – melons, lemons, and cherries – each symbol contributing to the game’s vibrant aesthetic.
The gameplay is straightforward yet engaging. Spin the reels and watch as the symbols align. But here’s the twist: when you land a winning combination, those symbols lock in place, and the reels spin again. It’s like getting a second chance at a big win! The anticipation builds as you hope for more matching symbols to appear.
You might expect a name like Cash Bonanza to spark more excitement, but it fell short of expectations. Instead of evoking visions of overflowing wealth, it came across as rather generic. Perhaps it's because the overall feel of Cash Bonanza is quite clinical. Technically, its features work decently; the Jack Hammer-style pay system with expanding reels is a clever concept and can get thrilling when multiple winning symbols stack up during consecutive respins. Occasionally, you'll score a decent payout from it, but other times, it's oddly less than anticipated.
The issue isn't with how the features operate, but rather with how disjointed everything feels and how lacking in personality the game is overall. Maybe if more thought had been put into choosing a more unique theme or toning down the generic presentation, the game wouldn't feel so neglected. Cash Bonanza performs adequately on a technical level, but you can't shake the feeling that the developers were either short on time or simply didn't bother to flesh it out further, so they threw in some fruit and cash and called it a day. It's like Cinderella before her fairy godmother gave her a makeover with glass shoes and a boost of self-confidence. Sorry for the flight of fancy, but there wasn't much about Cash Bonanza to inspire otherwise.
Speaking of technical aspects, Cash Bonanza does have some positives. The stats are solid as usual from Pragmatic Play, with a decent default RTP and variable potential of up to 5,000 times the bet, so it's not a complete write-off. It's like a reliable town car that'll get you where you need to go, but why settle for a town car when there's a DeLorean parked nearby? Once again, our attention drifted, much like it did during the Cash Bonanza test run. While it functions fine, Cash Bonanza ultimately lacks anything truly compelling to make players eager to give it a spin.