Beef Up the Bonus

Beef Up the Bonus: Slot Overview

In the words of software provider High Limit Studio, their game Beef Up the Bonus is its 'meatiest slot ever'. The good news for vegetarians and animal lovers is that Beef Up the Bonus is not a study in modern-day meat production, which sees hundreds of millions of cattle slaughtered each year. No, no, it's more a celebration of mighty bulls roaming the range, looking intimidating, snortin' and stampin' their hooves. It also has features like a prize wheel, a hold 'n win round, and free spins that are pretty standard on the surface, but there are one or two tweaks that may cause flutters of intrigue.

Powered by Games Global, Beef Up the Bonus' visuals, referred to by the studio as part of an Art 2.0 concept, manage to be both minimal and brightly eye-catching at the same time. One eye-catcher is the seriously expressioned bull on the side of the screen, looking like one of those big black bull billboards dotted around Spain, while the hot desert background conjured memories of the untitled yellow Mark Rothko painting with the white line through the middle. That or a Wile E. Coyote chasing Road Runner through the desert scenario. As mentioned, Beef Up the Bonus looks a bit basic, but it is cleanly presented, so it is eye-pleasing in its way.

Taking up a chunk of the screen is a 5-reel, 3-row gaming grid with 20 paylines for line win calculations. Running the game is a medium volatile math model, with a default RTP of 96.01%, though lower values are available in certain markets. Players pick stakes of 20 c to $/€40 per spin, and on the highest RTP model, hits occur at a rate of 26.95%.

For low pays, Beef Up the Bonus has J-A card ranks designed in a Western style, paying 2.5x the bet when hitting a line of 5 of them; then, as highs, there are cacti, boots, hats, pistols, and vultures worth 3.75 to 12.5 times the bet for a 5 OAK result. Hitting on all reels expect the leftmost one is Beef Up the Bonus' wild symbol, substituting any regular pay symbol.

Beef Up the Bonus: Slot Features

Beefing up the game are a Link&Win feature, a Link&Win Upgrade Trail, free spins, and a wheel feature.

Link&Win Upgrade Trail

Link&Win symbols land in two forms – regular Coin symbols on all reels or Coin Wild symbols, which only appear in free spins. Beef Up symbols may land randomly on regular pay symbols in the base game. Beef Up symbols are collected when they do show up by the Link&Win Upgrade Trail, which has 3 levels.

Link&Win

Play begins at level 1. Landing at least 6 Link&Win symbols triggers the Link&Win feature – this feature can also be triggered from the wheel feature, where it begins with 6-14 randomly generated Link&Win symbols. A total of 3 respins start the round, and all Link&Win symbols are held. Newly landed Link&Win symbols are also held, and the respins count is reset to 3. Each Link&Win symbol displays a cash prize of up to 50x the bet, all awarded when the round ends.

Collecting 20 Beef Up symbols in the base game upgrades the Link&Win Upgrade Trail to level 2. The rules of Level 1 remain; however, Level 2 adds multipliers to all initially blank positions. One of these is a 50x, 60x, or 70x multiplier held on one of the random blank positions. Others are 2x, 3x, and 5x, multipliers held on all other initially blank positions. All multipliers are applied to their respective cash prizes at the end of the feature.

Collecting 40 Beef Up symbols in the base game upgrades the Link&Win Upgrade Trail to level 3. All rules from level 2 apply, plus landing Link&Win symbols increases the multipliers on positions without Link&Win symbols. A 50x, 60x, or 70x multiplier is active on a random blank position and can increase to 1,030x. Other 2x, 3x, or 5x multipliers are active on all other initially blank positions and can increase to 145x.

Free Spins

Horseshoe scatters are present on all reels. Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters pays 2x, 15x, or 100x the bet, while also awarded 10 free spins. Hitting 3 or more scatters in the free spins round grants an additional +3 free spins. Coin wilds are stacked in free spins, appearing on one reel at a time, and move from the leftmost reel to the rightmost reel, then from the rightmost to the leftmost reel, from free spin to free spin. Coin wild symbols substitute for all symbols except scatters. The Link&Win feature can be won during free spins at the same Upgrade Trail level as in the base game.

Wheel Feature

Wheel symbols appear on reels 1, 3, and 5 in the base game. Hitting 3 of them triggers the Wheel feature, where a wheel spins to award free spins, the Link&Win round, or the Mini, Maxi, Minor, Major, or Mega prize worth 5x, 10x, 50x, 500x, or 5,000x the bet, respectively.

Beef Up the Bonus: Slot Verdict

Phew, that was quite a meaty set of features to chow through. A lot, if not most, are fairly standard extras one might find in any number of Games Global studio slots (as well as from other designers), but High Limit Studio has made a few adjustments to make Beef Up the Bonus relatively more entertaining than it might have been. What's interesting is that according to the documentation, some of what's ended up in the game has come about from feedback over High Limit Game's first year or so of developing slots. Therefore, in certain circles, Beef Up the Bonus should be quite warmly received if these were the sorts of tweaks commentators were hoping for.

For one thing, the Link&Win feature can receive quite a beefing up. This comes in the form of position multipliers, which can theoretically be quite large – up to x70 at level 2 or up to x1,030 at level 3. It's a nifty idea, works with the beefing up concept, and one good thing is that progress doesn't go back to level 1. However, the Link&Win round is a bit of a one-trick pony, with no special symbols or anything similar in the mix. Simply land Link&Win symbols, hopefully with the biggest multipliers as possible, then cash in when the round ends. Some may like the simplicity. Others may be bored. Helping flesh Beef Up the Bonus are its free spins round and bonus wheel. The wheel is where the game's 5,000x the bet max win may be instantly won, while free spins have the coin stack thing.

If your idea of an enjoyable hold 'n win slot is something brutal, with a massive max win and an intricate web of special symbols, then Beef Up the Bonus is unlikely to be beefy enough. In fact, it might come across as a plant-based meat substitute. On the other side of the coin, though, Beef Up the Bonus is pretty flowey, keeping the action going with fairly frequent Link&Win triggers, and has a prize wheel and free spins on the side, meaning it should be a match for gamblers who go in for this Games Global Link&Win style of play.