Wild West slots are always fun, but we’re especially pleased when the developer throws a few surprises in. That’s the case with Microgaming’s slot called The Bandit and the Baron. A Wild West odyssey across 25 paylines and a 5x5 grid, The Bandit and the Baron’s special features can deliver wins up to a whopping 25,000x your bet.

Developed by long-time Microgaming collaborator JustForTheWin, the highly volatile slot has plenty of aces up its sleeve. Expanding Wilds in the base game can spice up the action, and the near-miss Bandit Respins can trigger an exciting Bonus Round. On top of it all, you get a hold-and-win feature that’s fun to play and can offer a bandit’s booty if you’re lucky.

All of that comes with JustForTheWin’s trademark graphics and all-around, stylish look and feel. The Bandit and the Baron slot is available for free and real money in new online casinos offering Microgaming slots.

The Bandit and the Baron slot takes place on a 5x5 grid. It has a pretty obvious Wild West setting, with the reels set inside a stone niche on a building. The graphics are pretty great, and the setting is quite different from what we’re used to seeing in today’s slots.

You’ll see 25 symbols on the reels ranging between premiums, Wilds, Scatters, and Card Royals. The premiums pay up to 20x your stake for five-of-a-kind wins, while the Card Royals pay significantly less. Those Wilds can help you complete winning combinations and can also expand on the reels when they land.

The controls are all in their usual spots, and the audio is pretty impressive as expected out of a Microgaming slot. Overall, the slot comes in a great package that impresses with its unusual look and feel.

As expected from mobile slots like The Bandit and the Baron slot, the game is developed on the HTML5 platform. It’s available on all Android and iOS devices and can be played via a browser.

Buy a ticket between $0.02 and $20 per spin, and you can get aboard this train. The action begins when you hit the Spin button, but you can also use the Autospin feature if you don’t want to click on Spin all the time. Start spinning, and the reels will turn with a nice animation while you’re waiting for a win.

Lining up premiums and Expanding Wilds in the base game offers the most rewarding action. You also get 2 features in the base game that can boost your wins significantly. The first we already mentioned – Expanding Baron Wilds. It works as expected – whenever the Baron graces the reels, it’ll expand to cover it fully. The Wild lands on all reels and plays its regular role of stepping in to complete winning combinations. It also follows the highest-paying symbol in terms of payouts.

The second feature is Scatter-related. Called Bandit respin, this one is triggered by 2 bandit Scatters. This symbol only lands on reels 1, 3, and 5. Whenever two Scatters land on them, the Bonus symbols reels and reels 2 and 4 will lock in place as the final reel respins. A Scatter can land there, completing a set of 3 that can get you into the Bonus Round.

The Bandit and the Baron slot has a respins instead of a Free Spins Round. Once triggered, you get 3 respins in a hold-and-win feature common for JustForTheWin titles. The 5x5 grid shifts to a bank vault with 12 locked positions. Any non-blank symbol that lands on the reels resets the respins to 3.

In the Bonus Round, cash coin symbols can deliver instant wins between 1 and 25 times your bet. There are 2 special modifiers too. The key symbol unlocks randomly locked positions, while the upgrade symbol applies a Multiplier between x2 and x10 your bet on all Cash symbols on the reels.

If you fill all positions on the grid during the Bonus Round, you’ll earn the slot’s top payout.

The RTP of The Bandit and the Baron online slot is 96.09%, which feels a bit underwhelming. However, the special features and the hold-and-win highlight feature more than make up for the lower RTP and high volatility.

In the Bonus Round, players can earn 25,000x payouts with the right modifiers.

The Bandit and the Baron is a very exciting take on Wild West slots. It doesn’t reinvent the reels, but the Hold-and-Win feature and Expanding Wilds can deliver great returns. It has a respins rather than a Free Spins Round which is quite unique and can be very rewarding.

If you love Wild West slots and the hold-and-win feature, The Bandit and the Baron is a pretty great slot to try at the best online slot sites.