Little BigHorn is an extremely volatile (as always) slot by Nolimit City (NLC) that has a hard to follow screen and 'not so fine' structure of the grid. Its relatively low max payout of 25,676x and dull maths is disguised by 'smoke and mirrors' of historical plot and fine graphics too. Its complex row of characters is quite energy consuming for a player to digest. Little BigHorn's features that are 'not easy to grasp' at the first glance, appear to be mostly the borrowings from the BTGs mechanics. This cocky slot game promises a low retention, but it's obviously made for the players to hit and run. Or may be for the NLC to fetch a 'Best slot game / provider of the year 2022' award instead? 

Well, within the context of Little BigHorn discussion I will base my arguments on several most important things about The Nolimit City slots. Now, it is clear to me that :

• NLC games have extreme volatility;
• their adverts are focused down to relatively high payout (but not the largets in the industry through), while NEVER talking about a chance of hitting it;
• Nolimit City is online casinos' baby due to their marketing 'efforts' and extreme volatility: a perfect money making combo for operators;
• their games are shock provoking and immersed with violence: characteristics that may appeal to certain category of gamblers, still a niche product though
• their games have low retention, games are mostly made for 'hit and run'.

Despite the fact the RMG games are skewed towards less frequent but bigger number wins as compared to social slots, The Nolimit City takes it to the new level. Like other NLC slots, Little BigHorn released October 2022 boasts being extremely volatile. It appears to me that NLC wants to be remembered as making the most volatile games in the industry... And most shocking too. This kind of brand building is supported by the Little BigHorn release: built around the massacre episode of early US history, the slot is a move onto the 'big history' idea and the possibility of making a big fuss too.  

This slot has several 'marque' things about it:

1. a historical plot
2. a complex row of characters and not easy to grasp features
3. a relatively low max payout of 25,676x (that can be hit ~1 in 19M rounds)

The game uses a story of the Little BigHorn battle that happened June 25–26, 1876 and was known as a massacre of the US troops by Lakota and other Plains Indians. The historical interpretation of this event is not unanimous, what was the actual reason the Lieutenant Colonel Custer lost and who is to blame is not so clear. So, Little BigHorn is another illustration to the following question: 

 

There's a notion that a developer should go with what an audience knows, not what is factually true. If your audience is not likely to know a part of the story, don’t write it. Why? Because it takes a good deal of energy to 'plug in' to the story, especially the one with a lot details, when you have not heard of it before. It is like a Frenchman reading Tolsloy's "The War and Peace" with more than a hundred of heros mentioned and a writer will call them all by their Russian names. You go like: Who done what to whom? likewise, do the NLC really think a player will follow the symbols called Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse or Two Moon? Does they even make sense to someone who does not know the history of Little BigHorn battle? 

There's also a notion that as a developer you must skim over the bad parts. Slots are played for fun, nostalgia, and romance themes. Slots are played for escape. If there is a violent act in the story (as there was in the original Ali Baba or Little Red Riding Hood, for example), you skip over that part when you choose symbols. So here everything is just the poosite. The slot is obviously made to provoke a shock instead. In my opinion, the logics why the NLC made this game is two-fold:

1.     to capitalise on historic realism fuss, and secure themselves a top spot in casino lobby for a lower fee,
2.     to disguise a lack of thrill from the game as well as the fact of copying features and ideas from BTG, etc.  

Gameplay

The Little BigHorn has rich characters that require a big deal of work. The pictures of Teton Sioux leaders (Indian warriors) such as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Two Moons are well finished and very realistic. The same concerns George A. Custer and American soldiers.
In my profane opinion, the history has been rendered into graphics and animation pretty well.
Yet, phrases like: "a piece of cake", "perfect strategy" and "not in my backyard" (seen when hitting some wins in FS game) show that the whole thing is just fuss.. They sound like The Lucky Luke comics instead. I have Googled and could not find proof that these pertain to the plot of Little BigHorn too... 

Another thing is that if you call 2 or more types of symbols of the same category (like 2 types of Wilds or Scatters) abstract names, it does not help in understanding. Players can't remember that. It's better to use a descriptive (not abstract) name, i.e. a converted scatter instead of a Totem Scatters ... This tells how a particular scatter works.

Little BigHorn plays hard judging from the number of void spins. Little BigHorn RTP is set up at 96.06%, 94.09% (DX1) and 92.11% (DX2).
Max payout of 25,676x (that can be hit ~1 in 19M rounds). Hit frequency is 32.35%

Little BigHorn Features

If stripped of the abstract names and the historical 'smoke and mirrors' the Little BigHorn slot has:

1. full reel wilds (a BTG 'marque' feature)
2. expanding wilds
3. wilds +1 multiplier in one symbol
4. converted scatter (scatter that may works as a second type of Wild) - something new to me
5. Scalp xBet® (analogue to Pragmatic Play 'Ante Bet' too)
6. MegaScatter or Enhanced Free Spins game (a full analogy to BTG)    

Yet, on the face of it the Little BigHorn slot's features looks a way too complicated. I will try to break them down for you here as below.

Two type of wilds:

1. A nudge Wild: the Scalp Wild will then nudge and expand over the entire reel. This a Vertical Wilds idea of BTG. For each nudge, the American soldiers’ heads would be scalped, giving +1 multiplier to the now-turned Wild symbols. 
2. A converted scatter: Totem Scatters will turn into a second type of Wild, a Totem Wild. So, Scatters perform 2 functions here: call a Bonus game and work as disguides Wilds too. Any Totem Scatter that lands in Free Spins will become an expanding Wild and award +1 spin. 

Two types of scatters:

1. The basic one (that also works a Wild symbol as said above): a totem Scatters (only land on reels 3,4 and 5).
2. The respin scatter: No Mercy Scatter can land only on the 5th reel. Spirit Call Respin is triggered in base game when it lands in full on that reel. No Mercy Scatter moves to the first reel and a respin begins.

Special characters (revealed by 'No Mercy Scatter'):

1) Sitting Bull: Turns his symbols into expanding Wilds 
2) Crazy Horse: Turns his symbols into normal Wilds plus adds +1 multiplier to all of his symbols. 
3) Two Moon: Turns his symbols into normal wilds. 

Scalp xBet® - a clear analogy too Pragmatic Play's Ante Bet feature. It means that at a cost of an extra 50%, the player is guaranteed a Totem Scatter on the second reel, increasing the change to trigger Free Spins substantially. 

Free Spins game 

There are 2 types of FS games (each can be acquired through the game menu):

1) Basic one: 8 Scalp Freespins that are called Scalp Freespin. These are triggered by 3 Totem Scatters
2) Enhanced Free Spins: 10 spins game where a Wild Symbol will stick on the first reel and turn into Lakota Commanders symbols: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Two Moon.