 The Reel Deal
The New Bonuses
By Frank Legato
Free spins may still be strong, but cool bonus events are making a comeback
Slot machines generally follow trends. They start as ideas from the slot-makers, but ultimately, the trends in game style that stick around do so simply because gamblers enjoy playing them. The trends that hang around are the ones you like.
If you are a frequent reader of Casino Player and our sister publication Strictly Slots, you know that the trend for the past few years has been “back to basics.” The elaborate bonus rounds of the past have all but disappeared, replaced by high volatility penny games.
High volatility means you win big or you lose big. You don’t get the frequent hits, but occasionally, you’ll clean up with huge credit wins—which, after you figure them down to the penny, often aren’t that huge at all. But the theory behind why people love this style of game is that slot players love getting those big hits.
True enough, there is a large core of slot players who couldn't care less about sitting through “entertainment” in their bonus rounds. However, many of these same players acknowledge that some games simply get dull. Spin after spin after spin, finally awarding a few scatter symbols to trigger the bonus, to experience…well, spin after spin after spin.
A lot of players are getting tired of watching video reels spin. And because of this, slot manufacturers are returning to bonus rounds: Interesting bonus rounds. Entertaining bonus rounds. Even funny bonus rounds.
That’s good news for people who are ready to take a break from all those endlessly spinning reels. Even better, the slot-makers are developing these new machines without sacrificing the experience of winning. Today’s bonus rounds not only entertain, they build up a mighty bank of bonus credits.
Many of the top slot manufacturers have started releasing great new games, all with a return to the bonus round. WMS Gaming is probably doing more of it than anyone. The slot-maker’s newest “Big Event” game—you may remember the game style from last year’s “Monopoly Big Event”—is a revival of the classic “Piggy Bankin’” theme, which had us all chortling back in the ’90s as a little dot-matrix pig transformed into pig-Elvis and said, “Thankya very much.”
“Bigger Bang Big Event” has an overhead screen that lights up when a central computer launches a random bonus event. No free spins here, just five comical bonus sequences, with animated pigs being catapulted toward bonus signs, having pig races, or leaping around the screen. You earn a big bonus multiplier by betting more on the primary game, which means the fun is accompanied by a nice bonus prize.
WMS has also released the stunning “Wizard of Oz,” which has several elaborate bonus sequences played out in fully immersive surround sound. This is one you won’t want to miss. There are three bonus events that put you right into the legendary 1939 film, along with all the cast of characters you've loved for years.
This game brilliantly uses the rich experiences of the iconic film as a setting for big-money bonuses. Even the free-spin bonus is vastly entertaining, thanks to those foul “Flying Monkeys.” They fly from behind your ear (the sound system makes it seem that way) and land on the screen to transform several reel symbols into wild symbols, making the free spins really lucrative. Even if they were a lot nastier in the film.
The Deal, the Monkey, the Force
Atronic is also returning to bonus rounds, most notably the “Deal Or No Deal” series.
Every game in this series—the latest a classic dollar reel-spinner—contains one of the most gambler-friendly bonus rounds in the business: The “Briefcase Round” from the Deal Or No Deal television game show.
It's a bonus made for players who love an adrenaline rush. You’re shown a screen of briefcases, each hiding a bonus cash amount. You’re shown all the possible cash awards, but you don't know which awards are in which cases.
So you pick a case. Other cases are opened and their bonus amounts eliminates. The “Banker” then makes you an offer for your case. That's when you can decide to take the sure money (“Deal”). or turn it down (“No Deal”) and open more cases.
This is the essence of gambling. Do you play it safe or risk a smaller award for the shot at a jackpot? People are flocking to these games. Entertaining, yes, and you’re shooting for the big bucks at the same time.
New Jersey’s AC Coin & Slot made its name by producing clever bonuses, and the company is barreling forward with a variety of brand new bonus rounds. Check out the four-player “community play” versions of its two most popular games, “Slotto” and “Bankroll.” With these games, several players go into a bonus round all at once on a huge central apparatus—swirling lotto-style balls in the Slotto games, or a huge scrolling display on the Bankroll games.
Later this year, an old favorite comes back when a community-style version of “Empire” is released. This last one recreates the classic miniature gorilla bonus—four slots surround a mockup of the Empire State Building, with a King Kong-like miniature monkey climbing up the building toward multiple “Bonus Zones" when the bonus round is triggered. The awards are juicy, and the classic Empire bonus round is one of the features that made AC Coin famous.
Finally, just look at the latest version of the game that started it all: IGT’s Wheel of Fortune.
The newest entry in the Wheel franchise is “Wheel of Fortune Multi-Level Progressive.” The big wheel has arrow pointers around it. The more you bet, the more the arrows light up. If you bet the maximum 400 credits, or $4 per spin, you are guaranteed to win one of the four progressive jackpots every time you enter the bonus round, and it’s possible you could win two progressives.
The bonus round is the same one that players have loved for more than a decade—the sound of the game show audience, the music, the spin of the wheel. Only this time, you’re doing it with several pointers resulting in multiple bonus awards around the wheel. It’s the classic bonus experience with more potential winnings than ever.
All of these new games have two things in common: They have interesting, entertaining bonus rounds, and they offer the player a shot at winning a lot of money. It’s the best of the past combined with the best of the present.
Hooray for the bonus! Welcome back.
TIP OF THE MONTH
Multi-Denoms: Same as Stand-Alone
Our monthly reader mail reveals many questions about multi-denomination machines, and how they work.
We’ve always said that casinos follow a reliable policy when it comes to payback percentage. It boils down to a simple formula: The more you bet, the better your return. This is one truism of the casino floor that has not changed with the advances in slot technology.
A nickel game will have a higher long-term payback percentage than a penny game. (Generally, 91 percent for nickels, 88 percent for pennies.) A quarter slot will have a higher percentage than either of the smaller denominations, dollar slots even higher, and so forth, on to the premium denominations like $25, $100, or more, where you will find the highest returns on the slot floor. In these denominations, 98 percent or 99 percent returns are not uncommon.
One of our most frequently asked questions is what about multi-denomination machines? Does the old adage, that higher denomination means higher return, apply when several slot games of different denominations are in the same machine?
The answer is yes. The multi-denomination machine is designed with a single game chip, but the newest versions of the multi-denomination machine have several game programs written onto that one chip. Each game program has its own built-in theoretical payback percentage.
Thus, several games—or several denominations of the same game—when placed into a multi-denomination machine are the same as if you were looking at several individual machines, each with its own denomination. When you go up in denomination, you are switching to a higher-returning game program.
Individual casinos, of course, will vary the return difference on various denominations. However, whatever the casino’s general policy is with respect to denominations on stand-alone machines, that same policy will apply to the individual games within the multi-denomination machine.
It’s always the same: The more you bet, the more you get. |
