Buffalo Expansion. There are three ways the Buffalos randomly affect the reels: The stampede running up the reels; Buffalo running towards you; Buffalo stampeding across the reels. Stampede Up the Reels. Randomly triggered, one or more Buffalo stampede up the reels, stretching the reels one or two rows. Each expanded symbols will add win lines.

That’s right. The first step is admitting you have a problem. We all do, when it comes to the Buffalo slot. Why is that? As much as we may like other slot machines, the Buffalo calls to us, almost like that slot machine in the old Twilight Zone episode that calls out the hapless hero’s name (and at one point, follows him up to his hotel room). Très creepy.

The Buffalo slot machine (in all its manifestations) has none of that creepiness. The sound effects are benign, even friendly. Buffalo seems like such a good-natured machine. And it’s generous, too. So what if the wins tend to be less than huge?

Ask anyone who’s shoveled a hundred bucks or more into a “cold” slot machine, and they’ll tell you that small-but-frequent wins are easily preferable to huge-but-rare wins. Well, they’re both nice, but in our heart of hearts, we slot players know that the pay tables eventually favor the house.

Somehow, the Buffalo slot manages to convince us we’re ahead of the game (or drawing closer to it), even when we’re clearly not. How does Aristocrat achieve this?

It’s a clever and skillful combination of those frequent small wins with bonuses inside bonuses, free spins, re-triggers, multipliers that multiply other multipliers, and at the heart of it all, Aristocrat’s own invention, Reel Power.

Reel Power (and its own spin-offs, Xtra Reel Power and Super Reel Power) is a departure from the time-tested single-line slot machine that required symbols to line up along a horizontal line etched into the glass face of the machine.

Oh, there were some innovations, such as three-line and five-line machines, but these all required a bet placed on each line to activate it as a winning option.

Other manufacturers built three-line and even five-line machines, all of which required an escalating coin-in to qualify for the full number of win-lines.

Enter Aristocrat. In the 1990s, Aristocrat developed what it called Reel Power, which did away with the “lines” concept and made the entire face (the five mechanical reels were now mere digital images on a video screen by this time) a winning field.

Instead of five pay lines (three horizontal lines for the three rows of symbols, along with the two diagonal lines), Aristocrat made a lineless screen, and five matching symbols appearing in any of the three horizontal rows resulted in a win.

Not to go all mathematical on you, but with five reels, each presenting three symbols, this gave the slot player 243 ways he or she could win.

Naturally, with this arrangement, wins would occur much more frequently, and since slot players aren’t paying for those machines — casinos are — Aristocrat had to downsize the wins.

Along with more frequent wins, Aristocrat tossed in bonus rounds, nested multipliers, and wild cards that double as win-multipliers, and you have a winning combination.

By the way, Xtra Reel Power is the addition of a fourth horizontal row of symbols to the game, which gives the player 1024 ways to win, and Super Reel Power is the addition of a fifth horizontal row of symbols (giving the player over 3000 paths to glory).

Me, I’m waiting for Aristocrat to develop Super-Duper Reel Power, in which I win without leaving the house and they just mail me a check.

But we were talking about Aristocrat, the American success story from Australia.

It took some time for the Buffalo to catch on, particularly in “destination” cities like Las Vegas and Reno.

Vegas and Reno (and even Atlantic City) weren’t the only places with casinos, as it happens. Tribal casinos were springing up in the oddest places, and — more often than not — they catered to locals much more than the “destination” casinos did.

Aristocrat put Buffalo slots in these tribal casinos, and — wouldn’t you know it? The locals liked the reality of many small wins to the fantasy of the big jackpot. They adored the cry of “Buffalooooo!” whenever even the smallest win took place. And they were enamored with the idea of “lineless” slots, where even the minimum bet could reap real rewards.

Buffalo slot machine is one of the most famous and popular offline casino slots. It was launched in 2008, but even nowadays, you will have to wait for sometime before you’ll find an open sit. Luckily, Aristocrat launched an online version of this machine and we all can play this great game anytime we like.

Wild: Yes
Scattered: Yes
Free Spins: Yes, up to 20
Multiplier: Yes, up to x27
Bonus Game: Yes
Progressive: no
RTP: 94.85%
Other Aristocrat Slots: Queen of the Nile, Pompeii Slot

Buffalo Slot Machine Features

Buffalo slot offers a neat and attractive design. The design, symbols and sounds are taken from the Animal scenery. This is a all-way-wins slot machine with 1024 ways to win (part of Aristocrat Xtra Reel Power line of 1024 lines slots).

Naturally, Buffalo is the highest paying symbol. Every time you hear the shout “Buffalo”, you should see some nice winnings. Buffalo is a stacked symbol and can fill the whole reel (if you are lucky, even the full screen).

How To Play Buffalo Stampede Slot Machine Video

Free Spins

If you get 3 or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels, you will trigger the Free spins feature. 3 coins will give you 8 spins; 4 scatters – 15 free games, and 5 will be worth 20 free spins. The cool part about the free spins is the multiplier. During the free spins, each Sunset symbol will multiple your winnings x3. It can appear on reels 2,3 and 4 and if you get 3 of them, your winnings will be multiplied 3x3x3= 27 times!

During the free spins, if you get 2 scatter Coins anywhere on the reels, you will get 5 additional spins. The feature can be re-triggered.

Advantages of Buffalo Slot Machine Online

Besides few minor differences, the online slot is similar to the one you can find in your local casino. The only big difference is the payout. The land slot machine payout varies according to specific country/state rules, but in general it goes from 88% to 94%. The online slot RTP is higher and set on 94.85%. It’s far from being the loosest slot online, but it still gives much better odds than the offline version.

Buffalo Stampede Slot

Following the success of the original game, Aristocrat launched additional Buffalo version, Buffalo Stampede slot (check the right image above). The theme and overall setting remained the same, but few new exciting features were added, such as the ability to choose how many reels you want to play. You can choose to play 1 to 5 reels. The total bet per spin is the bet per reel multiplied by the “reel cost”. The reel cost for 1 reel is x1. Two reels is x5. Three reels – x10. Four reels is x20 and five reels is x40.

Bottom Line

How To Play Buffalo Stampede Slot Machine Slots

One of the greatest offline slot machines which is now available for online players. Up to 20 free spins, up to x27 multiplier, 1024 win ways. If you haven’t tried it yet – you really should.