Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza

Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza Review

Once again, Pragmatic Play is inviting you to ditch the busy city life for a high-spirited trip to the countryside, this time in a slot game called Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza. It follows relatively closely in the footsteps of the predecessor, Bigger Barn House Bonanza, which again was the sequel to the original Brick House Bonanza. While the core DNA of the game hasn’t changed all that much, you get exactly what the title promises in this follow-up release.

Before we get to all that, let’s get the basics out of the way. Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza plays out on a 5x3 grid with 243 ways to win. At least this is the default grid size, as there are ways to expand the grid with up to 3 additional rows, yielding 7,776 win ways. Anyway, you win by landing matching symbols from the leftmost reel towards the right, and at least 3 adjacent reels with matching symbols anywhere equal a win. You can play with bet levels ranging from €0.20 to €240 per spin, which should work for most types of players.

Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza Slot - Reels Screen

The premium symbols consist of roosters, chickens, and hatchlings, as well as corn and a wheelbarrow filled with produce. These pay between 0.2x and 1.25x your stake for 5 of a kind, while the lower-value card suit royals all pay 0.15x your stake for the same. The fox Wild symbols can land on the 3 middle reels, substituting for any pay symbol to help complete wins. Egg scatters are collected to randomly trigger the free spins bonus round, which can also be triggered when enough scatters land.

The free spins bonus is all about upgrading position frames across 3 levels, and these reveal prizes of up to 5,000x your stake as the feature ends. There are 3 different wheel bonus features in Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza, each offering increasingly ‘bigger and better’ free spins bonus rounds as well as jackpot prizes up to the 35,000x max win. Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza is a medium volatility game, scoring 3 out of 5 on the in-game scale, and it offers an RTP of 96.5% (RTP ranges), a hit rate of 27.47%, and a free spins bonus hit rate of 1 in 59.10 spins.

Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza Features

Take a deep breath, as we are about to explain all the features of this game in more detail, and there is plenty to cover. You can, of course, also check the features yourself via the Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza free play demo located at the top of this review page. Let’s go!

Free Spins Bonus

The egg scatter symbols appear on any reel and are collected in the nest atop the reels if you land fewer than 6 in view on the same spin. This can trigger a random feature that adds enough additional scatters to the reels to trigger the bonus round, which requires 6+ scatter symbols in view. The triggering positions are framed with straw as the feature starts, and scatters landing during the feature either add straw frames to the position or upgrade the straw frame position to a wood frame and then a brick frame.

As the bonus round ends, all framed positions turn into a house made of the material of the frame (straw, wood, or brick), and each house awards a prize corresponding to its level:

• Straw House - awards a prize between 0.4x and 1x your stake.
• Wood House - awards a prize between 1.2x and 5x your stake.
• Brick House - awards a prize between 6x and 150x your stake.

The wood house may also award a Mini, 2x Mini, or Minor jackpot prize, worth 8x, 16x, or 40x your stake, respectively. The brick house may award the Mini, 2x Mini, Minor, 2x Minor, Major, or Grand jackpot prizes, worth 8x, 16x, 40x, 80x, 500x, or 5,000x your stake, respectively. If you land at least 3 scatters in view on the same free spin, an additional free spin is awarded.

Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza Slot - Free Spins

Wheel Bonus

You need at least 3 Wheel Bonus symbols in view on the same spin to trigger the Wheel Bonus, and the Bigger Wheel Bonus and Better Wheel Bonus symbols can appear only on the rightmost reel. Landing 2+ regular Wheel Bonus symbols together with a Bigger Wheel Bonus or Better Wheel Bonus symbol triggers an upgraded version of the feature. Landing fewer than 3 Wheel Bonus symbols may trigger the feature randomly as the symbols are collected by the windmill above the reels.

The regular Wheel Bonus awards one of the following prizes:

• Mega Egg Feature - awards the free spins bonus with a 2x2 to 5x5-sized scatter or two 2x2-sized scatters.
• Windmill Feature - the triggering Windmill Bonus symbols add random frames to positions, which triggers the free spins bonus.
• Barn House Feature - the triggering Windmill Bonus symbols add brick frames to positions, which triggers the free spins bonus. All new scatters that land add brick frames to their positions.
• Random Jackpot - awards the Mini, Minor, Major, or Grand Jackpot.
• Bigger Wheel - upgrades you to the Bigger Wheel bonus.

The Bigger Wheel Bonus awards one of the following prizes:

• Bigger Mega Eggs Feature - adds 3 rows to the grid, and you get at least two 2x2 to 5x5-sized scatters.
• Bigger Windmill Feature - expands the grid to 5x6, otherwise the same as the regular Feature.
• Bigger Barn House Feature - expands the grid to 5x6, otherwise similar to the regular feature.
• Random Jackpot - removes the lower-value jackpots and awards either the Major, Grand, or Super Jackpot (the latter is worth 25,000x your stake).
• Better Wheel - upgrades you to the Better Wheel Bonus.

The Better Wheel Bonus awards the Bigger Mega Egg Feature, Bigger Windmill, Bigger Barn House, or one of the following prizes:

• Better Golden Egg Feature - a free spins bonus featuring an expanded 5x6 grid and scatters that upgrade the positions by 2 levels. Special Arrow scatters upgrade the positions by 3 levels, and a special Golden frame awards prizes of 15x-150x, Mini, 2x Mini, Minor, 2x Minor, Major, or Grand Jackpot.
• Golden Goose Feature - similar to the Better Golden Egg Feature, but with golden frames from the triggering symbols. All scatters that land also add golden frames to their position.
• Better Barn House Feature - awards the free spins bonus on an expanded 5x6 grid, adding at least two 2x2-5x3-sized brick house frames as the feature starts. Golden frames are available in this bonus round as well.
• Random Jackpot - awards either the Super Jackpot (25,000x your stake) or the Best Jackpot (35,000x your stake).

Bonus Buy (not UK)

The bonus buy menu is available in certain regions, and it contains the following options in the Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza slot:

• Pay 50x your stake to get the regular Wheel Bonus.
• Pay 150x your stake to get the Bigger Wheel Bonus.
• Pay 200x your stake to get the Better Wheel Bonus.

Theme & Graphics

Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza plays out in a bustling barnyard, with leaves gently falling from the trees under the pinkish autumn sky. The reels are framed by a white fence-like construction, filled with roosters, chickens, and their newly hatched offspring. Perched at the center position atop the grid is the nest full of eggs, and on either side you can see the big wheel and golden wheel spinning in the background. In tandem with the charming countryside soundtrack, this game offers a relaxing rural excursion.

Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza Free Play

Reading about the features of this game can be a mouthful to say the least, especially the bonus wheel part. We know, which is why we recommend that you test the free Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza demo, located at the top of this page. This will help clarify how the features play out in practice and probably make it feel less complicated. You can take full advantage of the bonus buy feature in that regard, and don’t hesitate to tell us what you think of the game after your Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza free play session is over.

Pros and Cons of Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza

Our Verdict

We have been on plenty of pleasant (and some less pleasant) countryside trips facilitated by Pragmatic Play over the years, and it’s fair to say that Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza at least lives up to its title. A release like this is bound to split the community, though, as not everyone will be equally impressed by a game that places so much weight on bonus wheels to do the heavy lifting. However, fans of the series will probably be pleased, as Pragmatic has taken the concept to the next level with this third installment.

The visuals are a bit of a mess, though, to be brutally honest, and in my view, the predecessors offer a cleaner and more enjoyable presentation. Not that either of these games are masterpieces in that department, but there was something about the two wheels in the backdrop that just didn’t do it for me. I’m not a huge fan of poultry-themed slots overall, at least not when there is chicken noise involved. Luckily, the latter has been kept to a minimum in Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza.

On the plus side, you get the free spins bonus around every 59 spins on average, which is hard to complain about. It’s a step up from the previous games, but the feature itself hasn’t evolved all that much since the original Brick House Bonanza, at least not its regular version. It’s still fun to upgrade the position frames and see what prizes they reveal, though, but the sharply dressed fox is kind of just standing there looking equally hungry and sly, not really doing anything to rob the henhouses he’s drooling over.

The 3 different wheel bonus features offer alternative and increasingly more valuable ways into the free spins bonus, which is where things can get truly interesting. The golden frames offer better base prizes in addition to jackpot prizes, and the main jackpot is worth a whopping 35,000x your stake this time (compared to 25,000x in Bigger Barn House Bonanza). While the visuals may not be the best, Bigger, Better Barn House Bonanza delivers plenty of high-potential feature action with shorter base game bursts between the highlights.