Buzz Thrill

Buzz Thrill: Slot Overview

As if we didn't have enough software outfits slinging slots at the masses already, here comes another new kid on the block going by the name of DreamSpin. However, this game studio has been put together by the creators of slot streaming channels Fruity Slots and Hideous Slots, so it comes with a level of expectation, not to mention hope that the debut slot doesn't live up to the latter channel's name. Fortunately, spoiler alert, it doesn't, as the game in question, Buzz Thrill, is a clever bee-filled amalgamation of quirky themes and intelligent features.

On the theme side, Buzz Thrill isn't your regular bee collects pollen and brings it back to the hive affair. The bees in this game have shifted their pollen collection off-world, giving Buzz Thrill a sci-fi vibe that, for whatever reason, brought Play'n GO's Sparky and Shortz to mind. After squinting at the screen for a while, there didn't seem to be many flowers in the alien landscape, so not sure why the bees picked this place to buzz about. Maybe they got lost, maybe they escaped a human colonising effort? However they got here, Buzz Thrill's story makes for a creative break from the usual pots of honey in nature setup.

More creativity has been poured into Buzz Thrill's gaming grid. By default, its 6 reels land symbols in a 2-3-4-4-3-2 pattern, where 576 ways to win are available. However, reels can expand and do quite often, as we'll see in the features section. The RTP maxes out at 95.58% when betting 20 c to $/€20 per spin, and the volatility is high, as expressed by a 5 chillies rating.

Another important piece of information to note is that Buzz Thrill pays left to right from the leftmost reel and right to left from the rightmost reel. However, 6 OAK wins pay only one way. The regular pay symbols consist of honey-dunked 10-A card ranks, as well as bee characters Cleetus the Larvae, Andy H the Scientist, Allie the Bodybuilder, Shadow the Slob, and Honey the Bee Queen. Landing six matching royals gets you 1.5-3x the bet or 4-10x the bet for the bees.

Buzz Thrill: Slot Features

There might not be a lot of flowers on this rock of a planet, but it has features in abundance. These are Respins, Mystery Door symbols, Wilds, Coin symbols, free spins, an Expand and Replace Coin symbol feature, a Symbol Expansion feature, and a bonus buy.

Respins

Every time a winning way occurs, a free respin is awarded after wins have been calculated. For the respin, an extra position is added to each reel that held a winning position on the previous spin or respin. Reels can expand up to a maximum of 6 high, and if all are at this level, then 46,656 ways to win are active. Respins continue to be awarded when reels have reached their maximum height, but they do not get an extra position. Respins continue until no new win appears. In the base game, reels reset at the end of the spin.

Mystery Doors, Wilds & Coin Symbols

Mystery Door symbols hit on reels 2 to 5. When Mystery Doors have landed, they open to reveal either wild symbols or Coin symbols. The wilds substitute for anything except scatters, Mystery Doors, or Coin symbols. You can only get wild symbols via the Mystery Door feature. Should winning combinations occur from Mystery Doors revealing wild symbols, they will award a respin. Coin symbols, meanwhile, are instant prize symbols that display multipliers of the bet from 1 to 500. Winning from Coin symbols only does not trigger a respin.

Free Spins

Scatters land anywhere, and hitting 3 scatter symbols triggers 6 free spins. During the free spins phase, the heights of reels do not reset until the round ends. If Mystery Doors reveal Coins during free spins, the leftmost and rightmost reel are closed. Any Coins expand and replace all positions on the reels they landed on. If there is more than one Coin on a reel, they are added together first, then the new value expands and replaces all positions on the reel.

Symbol Expansion

A bee may randomly appear after wins have been calculated, closing the leftmost and rightmost reel. A symbol may be chosen on reels 2 to 5 to randomly expand. The chosen symbol expands to cover all positions on reels 2 to 5 and pay anywhere. Values for symbols in the free spins Symbol Expansion feature are 0.3x to 0.5x for 4 OAK royals or 0.6x to 2x for 4 high pays. Expand and Replace Coins Symbols and the Symbol Expansion feature on their own do not trigger a respin.

Bonus Buy

Buzz Thrill's bonus round can be bought for 100 times the stake. Its RTP is 95.31%.

Buzz Thrill: Slot Verdict

For a debut slot from a brand new outfit, Buzz Thrill could have been a lot worse. You sometimes go into these things with a sense of trepidation, especially when the names behind the project are known, really hoping it's not going to suck. And the good news is that Buzz Thrill was actually quite fun. For one thing, its makers have managed to ram in a large amount of features without going completely overboard. At all stages, the game holds something to look forward to and keeps the pace buzzing along. There's the base game with its respin and expand feature as the bedrock mechanic - pay both ways fits nicely here. It did feel a tad PopWins-ish, but that's no bad thing. A bit of competition for AvatarUX might help them step up their game further. From there, Buzz Thrill branches off into all sorts of busy avenues.

Coin wins are hot; they're here, as is a pay-anywhere symbol faux-Ra effect, and both are linked to an expansion element. It's hard to think of what else DreamSpin might have shoved into Buzz Thrill without making it too bloated. As it is, the mix of old and new keeps the game humming and players busy. One possible gripe, maybe not a gripe per se, but the 5,000x max win didn't seem like it did Buzz Thrill justice. No complaints about what is a totally fine figure, but a larger amount might have given the game as a whole extra weight and possibly contributed to Buzz Thrill making an even bigger splash when it hit the scene.

Again, this is just an observation rather than a criticism of a debut that was hard to force out anything in the way of scathing critique. Maybe the show is a little too much for purists who prefer the whole 3x3 fruit and joker thing, but a wide range of gamblers who like to dip their fingers in innovative slots should be happy when plunging them into Buzz Thrill's honeyed off-world experience.