The brains at NextGen Gaming are always on the lookout for a slot that offers something a little different to the rest and to be fair to them they seem to have hit the hammer right on the head with 
their latest release. Or perhaps that should be the Buster Hammer, given that this is the name of the eponymous strongman hero of this circus themed slot, who wields a mighty hammer on his test of strength machine, which also doubles up as a nifty in game feature.
It’s fair to say that the halcyon days of the Big Top have now passed and there are increasingly fewer entertainers earning a living from traveling around in their caravans and performing in the big tent at venues across the country. However Buster Hammer harks back to a different era, when a whole host of performers including animals, would form the basis of the show. It is all rather old-fashioned but to be fair, NextGen have captured the mood, sounds and atmosphere of the circus quite beautifully in the slot.
So what does Buster Hammer have in store for the eager slot fan? Well first off, you can play the game at Bet365 Vegas right now from as little as Ā£0.25 per spin, or if you are a higher roller then you can increase the size of that wager up to a massive Ā£625.00 per spin. The other thing to note on this 5-reel slot is that NextGen have done away with paylines and instead what you have are a total of 243-ways to win on each spin, which gives players the maximum flexibility when it comes to making a winning payline.
Key Information
We’ve already detailed the reels and the number of ways to win on the Buster Hammer slot. We’ve also seen that it has a very good range of coins to play for, but one thing which does hold it back slightly is that the biggest standard single line jackpot on the slot is a somewhat paltry 160 coins. This can be increased considerably by use of some of the features on the slot however, but even so this is a relatively small sized jackpot for a modern slot, most of which are usually above the 1,000 coin mark.
The reels are set against the backdrop of a circus ring, complete with enthusiastic crowd in attendance. Circus music and sound effects play as you spin the reels and you can see Buster Hammer stood at the bottom left hand corner of the slot next to his Test Your Strength machine holding his hammer. The reels consist of the usual playing card low symbols, from nine through to the ace, and alongside them are a number of circus symbol features of a Lion, an Elephant, A Seal and Buster Hammer’s smiling face with a rather grand moustache. Buster himself offers the jackpot of 160 coins for five on a payline.
Other symbols on the reel include the Hammer symbol, which is the in game Wild and this can be used to substitute for all other symbols on the reels outlined above. When you land a Wild Hammer on the reels and trigger a win as a result then you trigger Buster to hit the Test Your Strength machine. You then discover that this is actually a Wild Multiplier machine and the higher the number Buster can hit with his hammer, the greater the size of your multiplier applied to the win will be. If you land more than one Wild Hammer during the triggering spin, then Buster will strike the machine that number of times, with the size of the multiplier growing as each of the results are added together.
The other symbol to note on the reels is the Buster Hammer Logo, which acts as the in game scatter symbol and landing three or more of these across the reels will earn you a 5x your stake win, plus triggers the Free Spins bonus round. During this bonus round you get to select which of the three available games you want to play:
- 8 Free Spins with a 2x multiplier on Wild Hammer wins
- 6 Free Spins with a 3x multiplier on Wild Hammer wins
- 4 Free Spins with a 5x multiplier on Wild Hammer wins
However, one nice touch during free spins is that if you land the Wild Hammer symbol on the reels to complete a win, then Buster will once again hit the Wild Multiplier machine and you will get the additional multiplier added to the multiplier triggered during the free spins round. Get lucky enough and this could even be as much as 75x the standard win, which drastically ramps up the potential size of the wins available on the slot.
The final bonus to note is the Super Seal feature, which can be triggered at random on any spin in the base game. When this occurs, a seal will appear at the bottom of the screen and will balance a selection of balls on its nose. The player then simply selects them to reveal a cash prize, which can be increased up to 75x the stated amount if you get lucky with the Wild Hammer multipliers.
How to win on the Buster Hammer slot
The first thing to note on the Buster Hammer slot is that the top jackpot win is very small indeed, 160 coins, so in order to win big, you are going to need those big value multipliers (and they go up to 75x the standard win) in order to convert a rather small win, into a much larger one. That means of course triggering plenty of the features, particularly the Wild Hammer features, but also the Free Spins feature.
Indeed, it is the Free Spins feature, in conjunction with the Wild Hammer feature which offers you the best opportunity of a bigger value win. However that 4 free spins with a 5x multiplier is a risk as you can have four free spins that pay little to nothing, whereas the payouts with the 6 and 8 free spins options tend to be more consistent, but potentially considerably smaller too.
The Super Seal feature is a nice way to earn some additional cash in the bonus game and this is a game which rewards patience, so picking the right amount to wager so you can enjoy a lengthy spell at the reels to give yourself the maximum chance of triggering multiple bonus features several times is the best strategy for success here.
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