Experience the Power of the Stampede in Buffalo Rising: Megaways

Buffalo Rising: Megaways was created by Blueprint Gaming, which has been one of the most prominent followers of the Megaways trend for a long time now. Let’s make no mistake here, too; it definitely is a craze at this point. With over 150 games already available that have the suffix of ‘Megaways’ in their title and countless more undoubtedly in development, it doesn’t seem as if it is due to calm down any time soon either.

Buffalo Rising: Megaways Overview

Suppose you aren’t familiar with the Megaways concept by now (where have you been?). In that case, I’d suggest having a quick read of our earlier review of Vikings Unleashed: Megaways and then coming back to read the rest of this review before continuing. It seems pointless to write all the same things here again!

So, does Blueprint’s Buffalo Rising: Megaways add anything new to the formula we haven’t seen already? In short, not a lot. Blueprint has been pumping out these games with little more than a fresh set of graphics and sounds for some time now, so it must be a formula that’s working out well for them.

The only fundamental difference I can see between this and many other Blueprint Megaways slots is how the free spins feature works in this game. If you’re already familiar with many other Megaways slots, I’d recommend heading straight for the bonus buy button if you want to see what’s new in this one.

Spinning the Reels for the First Time

Whenever a slot machine is popular with gamblers, you end up with numerous copycats – the Megaways story is more than enough testament to that fact. But with Buffalo Rising, there is something else – the whole look and feel of the game are eerily similar to the Buffalo Gold games by Aristocrat, too.

Everything from the design of the royal symbols, the sunset style mystery picture, and even the “Buffalo!” sound effect are all the same, yet just that little different. I don’t think that Blueprint and Aristocrat are part of the same company, and I don’t think there is any licensing agreement between the two either.

Instead, I believe there are just certain concepts you can’t copyright – like the Buffalo – and, for whatever reason, these companies aren’t shy about ripping off the presentation of each other’s products.

Aristocrat doesn’t seem overly interested in the online slots market right now, as the most popular variations of the Buffalo Gold games are still reserved exclusively to the floors of Las Vegas. I’d imagine this is the only reason Blueprint can get away with being so blatant in their ‘homage’ to Aristocrat’s games.

Buffalo Rising: Megaways Special Features

Hit four or more scatters, and you’ll find yourself at the Free Spins introduction screen. This screen is the single unique feature of Buffalo Rising compared to other existing Megaways slots. You can choose from three pre-determined combinations of multiplier and number of spins, or opt for a mystery choice instead.

Because this is the only unique part of the game, simply purchasing the free spins is the quickest way to determine if this slot will interest you more than your current favorite Megaways title.

Bonus Buy Slots Feature

Purchasing the free spins in Buffalo Rising costs a chunky 100x your current stake, putting it near the top end of the scale in cost terms. Using the bonus buy feature always gives you these four options:

• 15 Free Spins, Multiplier starts at 1x
• 10 Free Spins, Multiplier starts at 5x
• 5 Free Spins, Multiplier starts at 10x

Mystery Choice

The mystery choice option can award any combination of the previous possibilities. That means you could end up with just five free spins with the multiplier beginning at 1x, or get super-lucky and receive 15 free spins with the multiplier starting at 10x.

Every time you hit a winning combination, the multiplier increases by one anyway, so I don’t see trading away two thirds of my free spins just to start out at 10x as a worthwhile trade. If there were no ascending multiplier, I would definitely feel differently about this.

As it stands, I would choose 15 free spins every time, although the mystery choice has the highest RTP because of the possibility of starting with the 10x multiplier AND your 15 free spins.

Buffalo Rising: Megaways – Our Verdict

It would be somewhat unfair not to give Blueprint, and indeed this game, a little praise somewhere. It’s a lot of fun, and you can win really, really big from the free spins. Finally, whether a rip-off or not, it looks and sounds great too. That’s many pluses – so why aren’t I more excited about Buffalo Rising?

As great as the Megaways idea originally was, I don’t think this endless stream of copycats and clones is a good thing for the slots market as a whole. If we continue choosing to play these games rather than demanding original new titles, then brand-new slots and ideas will become increasingly rare in the future.

I recommend this slot on the whole, but I think we can now all agree we have more than enough games to choose from that utilise this same pay table and play mechanics.

Game Stats