Play Buffalo for Free in Demo Mode by Aristocrat

Buffalo Review

Theme and Story Line

Set out into the wild lands of the American west where the elk and buffalo are hunted by wolves and mountain lions, while above them in the open sky the mighty bald eagle circles.

Or if you’re more of an indoor cat, maybe just play the Buffalo slot game where you can meet those animals on any of its 5 reels.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

Buffalo is an ugly game. The graphics are 2D, dated and badly pixelated. The background is a murky purple colour that is almost impossible to get on board with, and the symbols are that kind of fake oil painting that looks tacky and cheap.

The payouts are even written up in comic sans font.

The audio is on too. Rather than match the sound to the theme the ambient noise is simply a loop of casino noise including the sounds of people winning on other slots.

Some of this can be forgiven because the game is old, and it might even work for those on a nostalgia kick, but on the whole the game is better played with the screen turned off and the audio on mute.

Gameplay

The majority of the gameplay is very simple with no gamble feature, bonus mini-games, or jackpots. Just click and spin.

It does have one innovation though: Buffalo uses the "Reel Power™" system to determine how many ways you can win. Reel Power uses the principle of the "1024-ways" style slot where you win by hitting matching symbols in adjacent slots starting left to right. But it adds to this the ability to reduce the number of reels you play.

You always have the first reel and the third row of each subsequent reel, and scatters (more details below) still count even if they are outside those positions you have coughed up for.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

No bonus rounds but you can win free spins by hitting three or more Scatter symbols on a spin.

There is also a Wild symbol which appears on the middle three reels and switch to being payout multipliers (2x or 3x) during any bonus spins.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

This is a low-variance slot, which will pay out small amounts often. The largest single line payout is a mere 300 coins which if you are playing all 1024-ways is only a 7.5x payout on your bet per spin.

Along with the low variance there is a return to player of just 94.84%, somewhat less than our yardstick of about 96% as average.

Conclusion

This is not a great game. The gameplay is simple, the visuals unpleasant, the audio weird, the payouts terrible.

As well as its technical failings it is also expensive with an RTP of just 94.84%. The low variance means also means you will see the cost of that vig in your coin purse promptly.

All in all this is not a game we can recommend.