Big Juan’s reels are filled with Mexican clichés like hot sauce, chihuahuas with sombreros, senoritas and the big-smile senor Juan as the top-tier pay symbols. The Wild Switch feature is somewhat innovative, and it basically turns pay symbols wild when you land at least 6 anywhere. The Respins bonus round is the big attraction, and it comes with a few twists that make it stick out a bit from similar games.
The game is split between two phases – a base game and a respin bonus round. The base game is played on a 5-reel, 4-row matrix providing 40 fixed paylines to hit winning combinations across. This shrinks to a smaller area when the bonus triggers, as we'll see. Highly volatile, Big Juan's math model produces a default theoretical return value of 96.7% when playing normally, strangely dropping to 96.53% when buying the bonus for some reason. Bet range is vast, though it could have been more accommodating for players looking to stretch a bankroll, starting at £0.40 per spin, rising to £200 at the upper end.
At least three identical symbols on a payline from the left side of the grid are needed to form a winning combination. This can be done with five low pay 10-A symbols or higher-paying guitars, hot sauce bottles, chihuahuas, señoritas, or Big Juan señors. Values for a five of a kind premium combination are 2.5 to 6.25 times the stake. Look out for the wild chili symbols which are worth double the top high pay symbol and land anywhere to substitute all other paying symbols.
In the base game, whenever at least 6 of the same pay symbols hit on reels 2, 3, or 4, they all transform into chili wild symbols.
Landing 3, 4, or 5 pinata scatter symbols awards 10, 12, or 15 respins respectively. For the respin feature, the game is played on a 3x3 sized grid, with a special 4th reel which has just one position. On the main grid, a sticky bag of coins symbol sits in the middle position, while other positions may land money symbols, extra spins symbols, or one of the four jackpot symbols.
On the 4th reel, if a Win symbol hits, the value of all money symbols in view and the bag of coins symbol is awarded. If any jackpot symbols are in view, they are collected on their respective jackpot meter. Collect enough jackpot symbols, and the prize is awarded. The four jackpots are the Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand, which are worth 12.5x, 50x, 250x, or 2,500x the total bet.
The other symbol that may land on the 4th reel is the Boost symbol. When this one hits, the values of any money symbols in view are added to the bag of coins symbol. This value remains in place until the end of the round.
Players who would like to skip the base game and go straight to respins can do so by buying the feature. The cost is 100x the total bet for 4 or 5 bonus symbols to trigger it.
It didn't take long for Big Juan's initial explosion of sights and sounds to wear off and reveal an average game lurking beneath. To be fair, even the sights weren't up to much from the get-go. Wild Streak has a tendency to create old looking games; whether this is on purpose or not isn't clear. Whatever the case, Big Juan has an instantly dated appearance. What saves Big Juan, for a while at least, is the relentless Mariachi Band, singing away and letting rip with other entertaining miscellaneous sound effects. To be fair, one of the reasons studios possibly pick this theme is that a party atmosphere comes built-in, so half the job's done.
Too bad Wild Streak couldn't capitalise on the party aspect, though and after a while, even the positivity induced by the music evaporated as tedium set in. The Wild Switch feature isn't bad, a similar thing having been used before in Temujin Treasures. It occasionally triggered to build a decent win. In fact, the Wild Streak feature often tended to outdo the Respins Feature when it came to payout levels.
Wild Streak Gaming is certainly a strong proponent of respin features, starring in a big number of their games. If you're into these sorts of things and crave something a bit new, Big Juan might warrant a look. Its alternative set of rules means it performs differently than respin games usually do. Coin wins keep the bonus going while collecting tokens to trigger one a jackpot provides a mission. The jackpots aren't huge, but winning the grand might evoke the desire to fire off a pop gun or two. At full stretch, winning potential in Big Juan is limited to 2,600x the bet, possibly reflecting the high max bet.
The maximum bet for Big Juan is £200.
The minimum bet for Big Juan is £0.40.
Yes, Big Juan is available on any mobile device.
The RTP of Big Juan is set at 96.7%.
The biggest potential win for Big Juan is 2,600x.
With the vast majority of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, these are compatible with the Big Juan slot machine. All of the same features and capabilities are available in the mobile version, which is fluid and optimized for a seamless experience. The game's developers used technologies like HTML5 and JavaScript to assure mobile play, allowing the game to function properly on a variety of mobile operating systems. The game's sound effects and graphics have also been enhanced to sound and look excellent on smaller displays.