I’m not a fan in particular of animated prehistoric fair - I have my dislike for the Flintstones to back up this statement. So when it came to taking a look at Boulder Bucks Online Video Pokies, I did so with a degree of reluctance and trepidation. Firstly it’s made by Barcrest, a company that hasn’t made that many headlines, but mainly because it’s new and because in today’s competitive climate, there are just so many online casino software providers. In the old days it was easy to make a call - you had Microgaming, Playtech, Cryptologic and Realtime Gaming. Now you’ve got NetEnt, Amaya, NextGen, Quickspin, ELK Studios, SG Gaming, Betsoft, Play’n Go Yggdrasil – and the list just goes on. So what do we even know about Barcrest?
Surprisingly enough, Barcrest is no spring chicken, as I initially suspected. However, I wasn’t wrong in my assumption about their presence in the digital space of online and mobile casinos. When it comes to the land-based industry, Barcrest has a history that spans all the way back to the UK of the 1960s where it cut its teeth and made its mark – starting in 1968. Much later in the late 90s it was acquired by another games manufacturer (IGT) and in 2006 the company started with its penetration of the online casino industry. While the company doesn’t have the online presence of industry vets like Microgaming or Playtech, the games that have been churned out are impressive in terms of graphics and sound quality – which is always an immediate reason to try a game out isn’t it?
Boulder Bucks is a pre-historic themed online casino game that has multi-platform implementations – in other words, it’s good to go for PC players and mobile casino players. Barcrest have kept the reel system of this one quite simple by giving it 5 reels, 3 rows and 10 paylines. The 10 payline releases are a lot rarer these days – they’ve given way too much more paylines like 50 and up although the standard 20 – 30 payline games remain as popular as ever – one could go on to say this is the sweet spot of all video pokies games. Then of course there’s the Ways reel system that offers more than 200 winning combinations. What I’m getting at is that 10 paylines is becoming a novelty with new games and when it does happen, it’s a welcomed treat! Less paylines means less combinations – less combinations mean better odds!
So let’s move on to the features of Boulder Bucks Online Video Pokies which essentially consists of a Pick me Bonus and a Free Spins feature. Doesn’t sound like much right? I agree, however upon closer inspection, the free spin bonus game actually has more than meets the eye. Getting there isn’t exactly a challenge – all you need to do is keep spinning until you get three or more Boulder Bucks symbols to land anywhere on the reels - that’s the beauty of a Scatter symbol – it doesn’t matter where it appears - hence the name I guess. Once you’ve achieved this, you’ll see the real appeal of the free spin bonus game as it unveils a choice of not one or two but three free spins bonus games. Each one is represented by a different creature from that bygone era – a mammoth, a sabre-toothed tiger and a pterodactyl – and each one has a different amount of spins and a different accompanying feature – so choose wisely. But in a nutshell your options are 20 spins with a Wild on the middle reel, 10 free spins with Wilds on the middle three reels and lastly, 6 free spins with a constantly expanding Wild on the middle reel.
Boulder Bucks Online Video Pokies is not bad. Its graphics and sounds are amusing and its slew of bonus features are enough to satisfy most pokies players, myself included. It’s not going to win awards and there are better games out there, but if you haven’t tried this one yet, how much can it hurt?
