Bust the Bank Slot – Free Demo

Robbers, police cars and a 50x green cap

Studio Games Global brings gamblers on a robbery with a duo of burglars in the slot Bust the Bank, which is kitted out in a wild, a Safe Bonus, a Piggy Bank Bonus, and free spins. I tested it over 460 spins at a stake of 1.80, starting from a balance of 2,000.00.

Its 5-reel, 3-row playing grid is bound together by 243 ways to win, and gamblers pick stakes of 0.30 to 300 per spin. Wins count for matching symbols on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel. Pressing on with my inspection under the bonnet uncovers a medium volatility maths framework.

Games Global has divided the 8 standard symbols into 4 low, 3 medium, and 1 high pay, all of them robbery-themed. Betsoft's Take The Bank and Inspired Gaming's Cops 'n' Robbers Megaways share the same bank-robbery theme. Beginning on the low pays, which are a dog, a clock, an armoured truck, and a bank, this bunch is valued at up to 5x the bet for five of a kind. At the bottom of that group, the dog and the clock each return 0.17x the bet for three of a kind. The mediums comprise a police car, a police officer, and a robber, and this bunch is valued at up to 33.33x the bet for five of a kind. Within that group, five police officers pay 16.67x the bet and five police cars pay 8.33x.

Finally, the robber in the green cap is the top symbol. It returns 3.33x the bet for three of a kind and 8.33x for four. It is valued at 50x for five of a kind. The Bomb scatter pays anywhere on the reels, at 2x the bet for three, 10x for four and 50x for five. The Bust the Bank logo wild is capable of standing in for every symbol except the Bomb scatter and the Safe and Piggy Bank bonus symbols.

Safes on the outer reels, a pig in the middle

Bust the Bank is constructed around Free Spins, and along the route, gamblers come across a Safe Bonus, a Piggy Bank Bonus, and Larry and Bob. Larry and Bob is the only one of these that arrives at random rather than through a symbol landing on the reels.

The Safe Bonus is activated whenever a Safe lands on reel 1 or 5, and here, the Safe bursts open and spills coins over the symbols beneath it. Safes beneath enter the flow. And the bonus win is doubled for every symbol the coins pour over. Up to 6 Safe Bonus wins are possible on a single spin.

The Piggy Bank Bonus is activated if a Piggy Bank lands on reel 3, and throughout the bonus, the Piggy Bank gets shattered for a Smashing Wild Coin Win. One Piggy Bank on the middle reel is enough to trigger it, and the smashed Piggy Bank then pays out the coin win.

Following on is Free Spins. It came around twice in my session, first on spin 112 and again on spin 298. It is activated when 3 or more Bomb scatters land on the reels, and 3 or more scatters award 8 free spins. The Bombs count anywhere on the reels, so they do not need to line up on adjacent reels. What I hope to spot throughout this bonus round are extra Bomb symbols, and each one adds 1 free spin. There is no limit on the free spins added this way. Reels 1 and 5 are completely wild the entire time. My first round, on spin 112, ran to 9 free spins thanks to one extra Bomb and paid 5.40, or 3x the stake.

Finally, is Larry and Bob, and throughout the base game, the two robbers turn up at random and award bonus wins.

Minty’s Closing Thought: My 460 spins handed back 72.8% against a stated 96.75%, and most of what did come back arrived in one go, when a smashed Piggy Bank paid 80 times the stake on spin 40 and neither Free Spins round got past 35.

One smashed pig on spin 40

There is rather a lot to enjoy about this burglar-driven slot. I wagered 828.00 in total and won back 602.64, a 72.8% session return. Bust the Bank is a game with a lot happening from small-scale wins to base game bonuses to free spins, which helps keep your thoughts off the delay as you trudge towards activating Free Spins. My longest run without a win lasted 13 spins, ending on spin 447. To be frank, throughout testing I had more luck during the Piggy Bank Bonus than in Free Spins. That was owing to a remarkably decent 80x win, and Free Spins returned 35x at most. That 80x hit came on spin 40 and paid 144.00 at the 1.80 stake, lifting the balance to its session peak of 2,109.62.

Get Larry and Bob busting safes, evading police cars, or whatever it is a burglar does. Across both rounds, Free Spins paid 68.40, which was 11% of everything I won in the session. The maths framework, though, might be a less appealing proposition for some. Only 159 of my 460 spins paid anything, and 87 of those paid less than the 1.80 stake.

Bust the Bank provides lots of variety along the route, from Safes to Piggy Banks and free spins. Beyond the two biggest feature wins, my next best results were 32.40 on spin 185 and 21.60 on spin 358.

So the volatility or the 243 ways layout may be off-putting for some. But others will relish the range of features and the robbery-themed character of Bust the Bank.