LOTS OF ROCKETS
Ainsworth’s Rocket Frenzy brings explosive action to slot floor
By Frank Legato
Slot supplier Ainsworth Game Technology develops a lot of hit games, but some of the most clever features in those games result not from player research or sophisticated analytics, but from an annual brainstorming “game summit” that involves everyone who works for the company.
Every year, in early December, Ainsworth holds a summit open to every employee, from game designers to administrators to receptionists, and asks everyone to pitch ideas for new slot games. One promising game about to be released is the result of one of those brainstorming sessions. In December 2022, Ainsworth game designer Ian Kesler pitched an idea for a “game with rockets.”
“I came up with an experimental game called Exploding Riches,” Kesler recalls. “It had no reels; you were just looking to line up frames with credit values, and they would explode and award everything around it. Everybody seemed to really like that action that the game was using to give you your credit prizes.”
At the time, Kesler demonstrated that game on a computer, but he says the concept blossomed after artists and engineers adapted it to Ainsworth’s new A-STAR Raptor cabinet and its 49-inch curved high-definition monitor. The “game with rockets,” set to be released in January, is an action-packed game called Rocket Frenzy.
Keith Kruczynski, Ainsworth’s vice president of studios, says he knew Rocket Frenzy was destined to be a hit as soon as he saw the finished product, because it provides the kind of constant action players have embraced of late in the three-pot collection style of game—but in a way different than the pot collection feature, which has become ubiquitous of late among slots.
“The three-pot games show us that players want the action,” Kruczynski says. “They want to see something happening every few spins. This has that action.” Unlike pot collection games, though, instead of collecting coins that accumulate toward a feature that will eventually lead to winnings, the action in this game is accompanied by instant wins. “You’re not looking to line up three or four symbols to get something to happen,” says Kesler. “You see one on the reels, it gives you the money.”
When rockets land on the reels, they ignite and shoot up to a prize grid of orbs marked with cash symbols above the reels, and blast those symbols to reveal instant cash awards.
The base game in Rocket Frenzy is a 1,024-ways-to-win game played out on a four-by-four reel array. The orbs above the reels bearing cash symbols grow larger as they approach the top of the screen. There are four rows of cash orbs, each a different color.
Every time a rocket lands on the reels, it shoots up to the lowest unexploded orb on the grid above that reel, revealing an instant credit prize or one of the bottom two of the four jackpots—a static $3 Mini and a $7.50 Minor.
The idea is to continue to shoot rockets to burst the next cash symbol up—the awards are larger as they progress up the screen, toward the top row, where awards are in the thousands of credits. Hidden behind at least one cash-symbol orb is a bomb—if a rocket hits a bomb, it explodes to reveal all prizes surrounding the orb on the grid, awarding them instantly.
During the base game, it is not uncommon to land several rockets on a single spin, including stacked rockets on a single reel that can get you right to the top of the grid. There’s a great anticipation feature when multiple rockets are about to land. “It gives you a fun little ‘wahoo’ sound, and rockets fly across the screen,” Kesler says. “During those spins, you have a really good chance of landing a lot of rockets on the screen at once, as well as enabling the special rockets.”
Those “special” rockets can get you to that top row much more quickly. A “Bunker Buster” rocket splits into three rockets. One rocket flies to explode the next orb up above that reel, and the other two fly to random cash-symbol orbs, including those on the top row, which can trigger the main bonus feature.
There also is a special rocket that morphs into a larger rocket that shoots all the way to the top of the grid, exploding all the orbs above that reel along the way, and automatically activating the “Bonus Reel” on the top row.
The Bonus Reel, when hit by a rocket, lowers to the center of the screen and spins for a super-sized credit award, any of the four jackpots—including the Major progressive, resetting at $500, and the Grand, resetting at $10,000—or a trigger to the main Rocket Frenzy Bonus. On any random spin, a rocket can fly directly up to the top row to trigger the Bonus Reel and possibly the main feature.
Frenzy Mode
As the name indicates, the main Rocket Frenzy Bonus is an action-packed frenzy of shooting rockets. The four rows of the reels shrink down to one row, and the rest of those rows are added to the grid of cash-prize orbs.
The single-row reel array contains rockets and extra spins. The player gets five free spins, with rockets landing all over the place—at least three rockets are guaranteed. The rockets each fly to random cash orbs, so the top-row prizes can be won at any time during the feature.
Players also can fill the single-row reels with extra-spin symbols to extend the feature by five. During the feature, the grid contains plenty of bomb symbols that explode the orbs surrounding the initial orb. Some of those orbs can reveal another bomb, starting a very exciting chain reaction of explosions and multiple awards—even to the point of exploding the entire prize grid starting with a single rocket.
In the bonus feature, there are icons behind the orbs corresponding to the two progressives. When one is revealed during the feature, it fills a spot under the progressive jackpot meter—filling three spots lands the Major; four spots land the Grand. It’s even possible to win both progressives in a single feature.
“The Rocket Frenzy Bonus takes the chase that we have in the base game, simplifies it, and makes it bigger and more fun,” Kesler says. “You’re looking for rockets and ‘plus spin’ symbols and nothing else, and you have a much higher chance of landing the special rockets—and you’ll see a lot more of the bombs as well.”
“The Rocket Frenzy Bonus gives you 40 orbs, all credit prizes and jackpots,” adds Kruczynski. “Also, instead of hiding the prizes in the top row as mystery awards, at the start or the feature, the row descends and all the prizes are revealed, so you know what you’re playing for.”
In addition to the main bonus, three or more scattered “Rocket Spins” symbols trigger a free-game feature. During the free games, every spin is guaranteed to land at least one rocket.
All of these features are wrapped into one of two main 1950s themes, “Drive-In” (with reel symbols like muscle cars, popcorn and sodas) and “Diner” (jukeboxes, milkshakes and the like).
“Players will love the frequency of the rockets,” says Kruczynski. “It’s just constant action, which is what players are looking for. And once you get into that Rocket Frenzy Bonus, you know you’re not going to get skunked or have a bad time. It’s going to be good, or it’s going to be great.”
“It’s unlike anything on the floor right now,” says Kesler.
Look for both Rocket Frenzy themes in casinos early in 2025. They are definitely…well…a blast.
Rocket Frenzy
Ainsworth Game Technology
Game Type:
Five-reel, 1,024-ways-to-win video slot; random primary-game instant rewards; second-screen and free-spin bonus events; .01, .02, .05 and .10 denominations
Payback % Range:
88%-94%
Average Hit Frequency:
Approximately 30%
Top Award:
Progressive; $10,000 reset
