New Trivia Slots
Sometimes, you just can’t keep a good idea down. And blending slot machine excitement with tests of knowledge plays right to my taste.
Sometimes, you just can’t keep a good idea down. And blending slot machine excitement with tests of knowledge plays right to my taste.
When you’re a smaller slot manufacturer trying to compete with the likes of IGT, Bally, WMS and Aristocrat, you need to be nimble, creative and innovative.
Multimedia Games has been all of that, and expects to keep bringing the innovation now that it has been acquired by Global Cash Access. The new company is in the process of rebranding, and will reveal a new name in late August.
When video slots first came out, it took only a single bonus event to entrance players. Neighbors would stop their play to watch whenever someone went fishing in Reel ’Em In or chose their Chinese foods from the menu in Fortune Cookie.
For gamemakers, attracting slot players is all about offering different play experiences to different segments of players. There are big jackpot games, high volatility games, second-screen bonus games, free-spin bonus games and more.
Slot machine manufacturers have drawn on TV, movies, board games and pop culture icons for years, and they’re not shy about crossing generations to do it. After all, the games need to appeal to a wide variety of players.
The video age has enabled game designers to get creative in any number of ways, and that includes the way they use reels and symbols. One of the latest wrinkles is Cluster Power, a new way to play you’ll be seeing in the coming year on Aristocrat Technologies’ Sons of Anarchy slot machine.
Players usually don’t notice, or even have a chance to see, behind-the-scenes procedures that are important to the house.
You always can count on International Game Technology for an interesting twist on video poker. In the coming year, the twists will include games with new Ace-based multipliers and a marriage of poker and keno.
WMS Gaming has long been an innovator in slot machines, with games such as Jackpot Party and Reel ’Em In becoming casino standards, and Lord of the Rings, the Monopoly series and others taking gaming in new directions. But WMS has not been a major player in video poker, a field dominated by International Gaming Technology. WMS is trying to change that with a couple of new products, and one I find particularly intriguing is Winning Streak Poker.
Inspiration for new slot machine themes can come from anywhere. We’ve seen slots based on board games, movies, TV shows, rock bands—if it resonates with the public, it’s fair game. At the Global Gaming Expo, Spielo International introduced a line of slots based on popular online free-play games, while Aruze Gaming turned to classic literature.
I love a little skill in my games. That doesn’t mean I’m particularly good at applying the skill, but I love the feeling that I have an impact on whether I win or lose. International Game Technology has taken its popular Little Green Men theme and added a test of skill in a bonus event on Little Green Men: Cosmic Blaster.
If you’re playing video poker, there’s about a 95 percent chance it’s on an International Game Technology machine. IGT is the only major game manufacturer involved in video poker in a big way. Former competitors Sigma Gaming and Casino Data Systems are out of business. Bally Technologies still puts video poker games on its multi-game GameMakers, but hasn’t released a new video poker product in years. New kid on the block Incredible Technologies does offer video poker, but its early inroads mostly have been with slot games.
Resorts Casino Tunica got a new beginning when the Foundation Gaming Group assumed operation of the casino here last November. Now, six months later, Resorts has been transformed as a result of a renovation project undertaken by the ownership group.
In our last Hollywood Casino spotlight we promised to bring you the scoop on the newest game on Hollywood’s casino floor. Let’s dig in!
HollywoodCasino offers a variety of some of thenewest and most exciting slots in themarket. The premier gaming house now has 98percent payback available on select dollar IGT reel Double Diamond games as well as a slew of new games!
The King of Pop is looking a lot like slot machine royalty, too, if the crowds at October’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas were anything to go by. And it wasn’t just Michael Jackson’s music that kept casino industry professional swarming around the Michael Jackson: King of Pop games at Bally Technologies’ booth.
Each year at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, I’m on the lookout for new trends in the games slotmakers will be offering us. It seems that one thing we’ll be seeing more of are slots that let us choose our play experience. Both International Game Technology and Spielo International showed new games with “choose your volatility” options.
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