Big City 5 S

Big City 5 S Slot Review

Tall skyscrapers stand in dark red silhouette on either side of the reels, window grids glowing against a night sky, the title picked out in green and gold script over an arched backdrop. Strip away the skyline, though, and Big City 5 S is doing something bolder than the classic-city look suggests: every losing spin still counts, because nearly every win on the paytable feeds a pot that grows until somebody collects it.

It runs on a 5×3 grid with 20 fixed paylines, and the biggest single line pay is 2,500x the total bet for five Jackpot or BAR symbols, with the Bonus Pots system pushing the ceiling beyond what the paytable alone suggests. Players after IGT‘s more familiar ground will find it in Cleopatra and Da Vinci Diamonds, with Cash Eruption the closest thing to this one’s persistence mechanic. The bright lights here have something backing them up.

Base Game, Symbols and Payouts

Wins pay left to right on consecutive reels, beginning with the far-left one, and line wins are multiplied by the coin value on the winning line. Only the highest winner is paid on each payline, including bonus pot pays, while coinciding wins on different paylines are added together. Betting is fixed at those 20 lines, so every spin covers the full grid.

The Wild appears on all five reels and substitutes for every symbol except the 5 and the Bonus scatter. A paytable built mostly from card suits and royals sits underneath it, with values as multiples of the total bet, shown for three, four and five of a kind:

• Jackpot / BAR – 50x / 750x / 2,500x
• Black clubs cluster – 25x / 250x / 1,000x
• Hearts pair – 15x / 200x / 500x
• Red diamonds – 12.5x / 150x / 350x
• Black spade – 10x / 125x / 250x
• Ace – 7.5x / 87.5x / 150x
• King – 5x / 62.5x / 100x
• Queen – 3.5x / 37.5x / 75x
• Jack – 2.5x / 25x / 50x
• Any hearts/diamonds or any clubs/spades mix – 2.5x / 10x / 35x

Two symbols don’t pay as line wins at all: the Bonus scatter, which exists to trigger free spins, and the Wild, which only ever helps other combinations. The mixed red and mixed black suit pays sit at the bottom of the ladder, so most base game wins are small multiples of the stake. The bigger money arrives through the pots.

Bonus Pots

Every symbol except the Bonus scatter and the Wild has a bonus pot attached to it, and the pot is where this game’s long game lives. Each pot starts at the associated 5-of-a-Kind prize plus an initial contribution, then grows as you play. When a pot is awarded, it resets back to that 5-of-a-Kind prize and starts building again.

Feeding the pots works like this:

• Any 3-of-a-Kind or 4-of-a-Kind win increments the corresponding pot, with or without a Wild in the combination
• A 5-of-a-Kind win that includes a Wild increments the corresponding pot
• In the base game, a 5-of-a-Kind win without a Wild pays out the corresponding pot in full
• In the Free Spins Bonus, any 5-of-a-Kind win, Wild or not, awards the corresponding pot
• A 5-of-a-Kind made entirely of Wilds during free spins awards the Jackpot pot

A win either feeds a pot or collects one, never both, because no 5-of-a-Kind increments the pot it pays out. Mixed red and mixed black wins don’t touch any pot at all, so the lowest rungs of the paytable stay outside the system entirely.

Pot values are multiplied by the coin value, and the increment a win adds varies with that coin value too, so pots scale with the stake you’re playing rather than sitting at flat amounts. Contributions are kept separate across bet levels, so a pot built at one stake doesn’t follow you to another. Pots do persist across play sessions, which is the persistence hook: the longer you stay on the game, the more the pots you’re chasing have grown.

Free Spins Bonus

Landing three or more Bonus scatter symbols on consecutive reels from reel 1 onwards starts the Free Spins Bonus, and the scatter count sets the spin count:

• 3 Bonus symbols – 15 free spins
• 4 Bonus symbols – 20 free spins
• 5 Bonus symbols – 25 free spins

The reels used in the bonus are different from the base game reels and richer with them, and the round is where the pot system pays at its fastest: every 5-of-a-Kind collects a pot regardless of Wilds, and the all-Wild line takes the Jackpot pot. Free spins run at the same coin value and payline count as the triggering spin.

Retriggers use the same scatter condition from reel 1, awarding another 15, 20 or 25 spins for three, four or five symbols. There’s no endless ladder here, though: the bonus caps at 200 free spins per activation, however many retriggers land along the way.

Wins in the bonus are independent of line wins and added to the total paid, so a pot collection and a line win on the same spin both count. Where a jurisdiction applies an award cap to a single transaction, reaching that cap ends the bonus immediately, even with free spins remaining.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.7/10

Playing Big City 5 S is a slow burn under neon: a lot of small suit-and-royal wins, most of them feeding a pot rather than paying you, and the sense that the game is keeping score of something you can’t collect yet. That’s exactly why somebody would choose it. Very few slots make a losing spin feel like progress.

Its best trick is the free spins round, where the pot rules loosen and richer reels mean five-of-a-kind lines arrive more readily, so everything you’ve been building has a fair chance of paying in one sitting. Its worst is the flip side: the base game on its own is thin, and a session that never triggers the bonus can end with nothing but fed pots to show for it.

This suits the patient kind of player, the one happy to graft at the same stake across sessions and let the pots swell before taking a swing. Anyone chasing quick hits and big base game pays will find the city lights dimmer than they look. For the builders, though, the skyline pays off.

Big City 5 S FAQs

• How does the Bonus Pots feature work in Big City 5 S?

  Every symbol except the Bonus scatter and the Wild has a bonus pot attached to it. Wins of 3 or 4 of a Kind, and 5-of-a-Kind wins that include a Wild, feed the corresponding pot. In the base game, a 5-of-a-Kind win without a Wild pays the pot out; during free spins, any 5-of-a-Kind collects it. Pots persist across sessions and are tracked separately at each bet level.
• How do you trigger the Free Spins Bonus in Big City 5 S?

  You need Bonus scatter symbols on consecutive reels starting from the leftmost reel. Three of them award 15 free spins, four award 20 and five award 25.
• Can the free spins retrigger in Big City 5 S?

  Yes. Bonus scatters landing from reel 1 during the round add another 15, 20 or 25 spins depending on how many appear, and the round can retrigger multiple times up to a cap of 200 free spins per bonus.
• What is the highest paying symbol in Big City 5 S?

  The Jackpot and BAR symbols share the top of the paytable, paying 2,500x the total bet for a five-symbol line, 750x for four and 50x for three.
• Are bonus pot contributions shared across bet levels in Big City 5 S?

  No. Bonus pot contributions are tracked separately at each bet level, so a pot you build at one stake doesn’t carry over to another. Pots do persist across play sessions at the same bet level.
• What does an all-Wild line pay during the Big City 5 S free spins?

  A 5-of-a-Kind win made entirely of Wild symbols during the Free Spins Bonus awards the Jackpot pot.
• When is Big City 5 S released?

  Big City 5 S’s release date is 8 July 2022.
• Who makes Big City 5 S?

  Big City 5 S is made by IGT.