New Slot Year
As we emerge from the pandemic, players will find the new slot games to be launched in the coming year as great as ever
By Frank Legato
Every year this magazine has been published, the major slot manufacturers have raised the curtain on the coming year of new slot games to us. This was true even last year, when many casinos were shuttered for as long as four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The timing of when the slot-makers reveal all the new games for the year to follow has always been the same—the fall industry trade show, the Global Gaming Expo, or G2E. Last year, the in-person trade show was canceled, and manufacturers generally met their customers virtually to show them all the new games.
That’s because even though there were lock-downs, research and development by the slot manufacturers continued. What did slow down was the rollout of all the new games—first, as casinos were shuttered, and after reopening, as casinos struggled to regain financial footing to buy new games.
This month, the in-person G2E show returns to find a plethora of new games. That’s because many slots that were developed in 2019 were only introduced in the spring or even summer of this year. Therefore, at G2E, the slot-makers are effectively showcasing two years of new games.
This summer, the manufacturers, as usual, gave us a sneak peek at all the new games, and we at Strictly Slots, as we always have, pass that favor on to our readers. Many of them include the new hot game feature in the business, called “cash on reels.” Simply, these are symbols that display credit amounts, which usually are added together and/or multiplied for big payoffs.
Here, in alphabetical order by manufacturer, are the highlights to be found in what’s about to come to a casino near you.
AGS
This year, AGS has centered its new game effort around new entries in its Orion family of cabinets, and the remarkable Starwall merchandising display—that’s the giant video backdrop display for the Orion Portrait cabinet that uses high-definition video graphics in a “canvas” measuring 8.5 feet tall by 5 feet deep to show the art and images of the game itself, synchronized with the game you’re playing.
One of the newest AGS game presentations is the Orion Curve Premium, which places the Orion Curve—with a 49-inch curved portrait-style monitor—under a 360- degree video display. Debuting this cabinet are two new games in the popular Rakin’ Bacon! Deluxe series, Golden Blessings and Pirate Plunder.
Both have the familiar piggy-bank character, but now it reacts to touch—touch the piggy on the screen and it lets out an “oink.”
“Boost” symbols grow the prizes in the Jackpot Pick Bonus. In the free-game bonus, symbols land to expand the reels up to a maximum of seven rows, which results in 16,807 ways to win on each spin.
Also on the Orion Curve Premium platform, Vegas Gold is a playerselectable multi-denomination game that includes a hold-and-re-spin feature and a multiplier reel that spins to award a multiplier of up to 10X on each reel.
The newest title presented with the Starwall display is Prize Stacks. The launch titles, Tiki Jungle and its companion theme, Tiki Shores, combine a cascading wins feature with expanding reels.
Among the stand-alone games on the Orion Portrait cabinet is a great new game series called Bubble Mania, with launch titles Potion Pays and Hai Long. Both the witch-themed Potion Pays and the dragon-themed Hai Long include a persistent-state feature in which bubbles with cash-on-reels values appear from the bottom of the reel array and float upward with each spin.
In addition to credits, the bubbles can award one of two progressive jackpots. But the heart of these games, arguably, is what happens in the bonus features. In the primary game, randomly, bubbles appear over reel symbols to award a credit amount or one of the progressives. In the free-spin round, the reels expand up to seven rows—meaning the bubbles have much more real estate on which to rise upward across the reel array, and more chances at awards.
What could be the most fun is a feature called the Bubble Pick Bonus. This is an interactive touchscreen event in which a fast-paced succession of bubbles—large and small, bearing credit amounts and the occasional jackpot—fly up the screen, and the player touches as many as possible to accumulate awards. This is a fast-paced, extremely fun feature.
AINSWORTH GAME TECHNOLOGY
For the past few years, Ainsworth has concentrated on what it does best: simple, traditional high- denomination games, augmented by a few choice lower-denom titles.
The big star last year is the format many of those games come in—the A-STAR Curve, a sleek cabinet featuring a 43-inch floating infinity monitor and dynamic LED lighting.
This year, as the A-STAR Curve is hitting its stride, Ainsworth takes its product library to yet another level with the launch of the A-STAR Curve XL, a massive new premium cabinet featuring a 55-inch, 4K curved infinity monitor.
The launch series for the A-STAR Curve XL mines the company’s high-denom appeal with a clever game series called Take It or Leave It, with inaugural games Super Hot 7s Classic and Solid Gold 8s Classic. The wheel bonus provides the game’s hook—the player gets up to four wheel spins. The wheel blacks out while spinning, and lights up one or more slices for the bonus award. The player can take the first result or try up to three more times for a better wheel result. (The game even advises the player when the bonus offer is “hot.”)
Meanwhile, Ainsworth is introducing a wealth of new content on the A-STAR Curve. At G2E, the company will introduce a new game family in the popular QuickSpin series, called QuickSpin Growing Wheel.
Both launch games in this series carry drinking themes—Bier Bier Bier and Mai Tai Money, both low-denomination, five-reel, 40-line games. The themes are played out through a persistent-state feature involving four drink glasses perched above the reels. The bar symbols on the reels each have a character attached—the beer maiden in Bier Bier Bier and the tiki character in Mai Tai Money.
Stacking bar symbols fill the drink glasses above the reels to add multipliers to wheel slices that are the same color as the drink. Wheel slices can grow up to 25X before a spin occurs.
BLUBERI
Last year, Bluberi launched a new cabinet, the Novus b49, with a 49-inch portrait monitor. This complements the 3-year-old, 10.5-foot b.POD, which features dual 23-inch screens topped with a 55-inch portrait monitor. All new b.POD game content will also be available for the Novus b27 series.
This year, a new cabinet is added to the mix, a product completely different than anything Bluberi has previously offered. It’s a giant cabinet called Big Mech. The launch game will be Reels of Steel, a traditional three-reel, single-line game. It features wild symbols and pays in the traditional pay table start at a single cherry. (Thus, a single wild symbol returns the single-cherry win.) There are LEDs behind the reels that allow more modern mechanics, like cash-on-reels in the free spins.
Free spins are triggered by a bonus symbol on the third reel, transforming the color of the LEDframed reels to blue and launching a free-spin bonus.
On the Novus b49 cabinet is Devil’s Lock. The base game is played out on 15 individual reels in a five-by-three array. It is a 40-line game featuring frequent stacked symbols, with a unique unlocking prize feature. Symbols with Devil prizes, reaching up to 100 times the bet each, can all be unlocked and won if the wild Devil symbol lands on the center reel. The wild Devil sticks on the center reel for up to six free spins.
One other new game featured on the Novus b49 is Waves of Fortune, which includes a frequent mystery wild symbol that can appear on all five reels, during regular play or free spins. The game can award up to 100 free spins, with multipliers of 2X, 3X or 5X.
ARISTOCRAT TECHNOLOGIES
Aristocrat is highlighting games this year on its mammoth new Neptune Double cabinet, which features two stacked 49-inch monitors in a remarkable display; a new Neptune Single cabinet that features one 49-inch display; and its popular MarsX dual-screen cabinet.
Neptune Double, launched last year with Crazy Rich Asians and Timber Wolf Diamond, rolled out new games this summer including Wild Wild Buffalo. The game combines Aristocrat’s most legendary game brand with a popular game mechanic in the “Wild Wild Bonus” cash-on-reels feature. The reel array is novel, with three rows of symbols on the first two reels and four on each of the other three, fueling a ways-to-win setup.
Also released in the summer on the Neptune Double was Game of Thrones: King’s Landing, based on the final season of the epic Game of Thrones TV fantasy series.
This fall, Aristocrat launches the follow-up to the Game of Thrones series, The Power of 88 Dragon, on the Neptune Double. This game combines the mechanics of three former Aristocrat hits. From Gold Stacks 88, it borrows the imagery and stacks game mechanic in the base and free games. It is topped off with an entertaining mystery bonus along the lines of the legendary Cash Express franchise that borrows from VGT Red Screen free spins for win values.
On the dual-screen MarsX cabinet is Gold Stacks 88 Empire.
The game reprises characters from the original Gold Stacks 88 series, such as the Baby Choy character, while adding two new metamorphic “piggies,” activated when the player bets up past the minimum 88 credits. Reel symbols feed the characters, which grow larger until a collect feature is triggered.
The game also features a wheel bonus, reel expansion, multipliers, stacked wilds, and the twin-spin feature from the classic Fire Light game. The new version can link with Gold Stacks 88 games already in the field.
Of course, the iconic Buffalo theme also is the subject of a new dual-screen MarsX game this year. Buffalo Gamble takes the original Buffalo game and adds an intriguing gamble option for winning spins. After a winning spin, the player has the option to bet on a 50/50 proposition to double the pay by picking red or black for a card flip.
Hitting the gamble button again offers a one-in-four chance to quadruple the win by picking a card suit for a card flip.
The single-screen MarsX Portrait cabinet features a new version of the multi-reel-array hit Wonder 4.
As with the original, Wonder 4 Boost Gold allows the player to wager to play one of several games on each of four reel arrays, choosing a single game times or mixing and matching titles.
This version adds two new multi-screen bonus features. Free games are triggered by different triggering symbols. Normal blue coins trigger regular free games, which, as in the original, play out on one reel array, enlarged to fill the screen. This new version offers different icons to trigger Super Free Games, played out on all four reel arrays at once; and Extreme Free Games, which doubles the overall setup to eight reel arrays on the big portrait screen.
ARUZE GAMING AMERICA
Aruze is featuring new games on each of its cabinet styles, plus a radical new offering you’ve never seen on a slot floor before.
The Muso Curve-43, with its 43-inch curved vertical monitor, designed in a “J” shape, features X Wheel, a game all about multipliers. The heart of this title is a bonus wheel with nothing but multiplier numbers on it. The games in the series are distinguished by a central character— X Wheel Panda, Lion, Chili or Tiki.
During the primary game, credit amounts on cash-on-reels symbols randomly travel up to the bonus wheel, which spins to multiply the award anywhere from 2X to 20X. In the free games, all cash-on-reels bonus symbols travel up to the middle of the bonus wheel. After six free spins, the X Wheel spins to multiply the total.
A second free-spin feature blackens out all but the cash-on-reels symbols, which remain in place for the entire feature.
Aruze is using the Muso Curve-43 to launch two new licensed game groups from Bandai Namco, Dig Dug and Wacky Gator.
The Dig Dug games are based on the arcade game of the same name, which features Pookas, red creatures wearing comical goggles, and Frygars, fire-breathing green dragons, who are chased through an underground maze by Dig Dug, the protagonist controlled by the player.
In Aruze’s Dig Dug Pooka and Dig Dug Frygar, if the Pooka or Frygar character appears on the reel directly below Dig Dug, the main character will pump them up until they explode into wild symbols.
Wacky Gator is based on a Namco series of whack-a-mole-style arcade games. Aruze’s Wacky Gator Green River and Pink River both offer a wild feature, triggered by the Gator character. If three hiding Gator symbols appear, players will select one to reveal eight free games, Gator Respin or a credit prize.
The Muso Triple-27 and Triple-27 Hybrid cabinets feature the Cash Blaze family.
Cash Blaze Eastern Festival and Cash Blaze Tropic Jungle offer players a choice of volatility in the free-spin round— fewer spins with larger potential awards or more spins with smaller awards.
The game family also offers a new twist on the cash-on-reels mechanic. Any three cash-on-reels bonus symbols award all their prizes and retrigger the spins. These prizes can include static bonuses and progressive jackpots.
On the Muso Limited community-style cabinet, Dragong Phoenix and Dragong Lion feature a community event in which the giant Dragong wheel will spin across all connected games. Wheel spins are joined by free games and wild symbols.
For the Aruze-exclusive Roll to Win Craps, the radical hybrid electronic craps table that places electronic wagering stations on a standard table that features a back display formed by a series of LED panels, new bets and tip features have been added.
Finally, in the never-before-seen category from Aruze is a completely new type of offering that harkens back to the days of carnivals and arcades—a casino claw machine.
Go Go Claw resembles the claw machines at the arcade in which you manipulate a construction- style crane to grab trinkets, watches or other prizes. But in this case, you’re manipulating a claw with a joystick and touchscreen to grab plastic balls filled with bills representing cash prizes, and move them to a prize chute to win a credit award. This, you’ve got to see.
EVERI HOLDINGS
If any one product reflects the success of Everi’s portfolio, it’s the Empire Flex cabinet. First released at the end of 2019, the hardware package features a 49-inch curved monitor, curved LED light bars and a high-quality sound system.
At G2E, Everi will launch three new Empire Flex exclusives—Ultra Cascades, Cha-Ching! and Money Line.
Ultra Cascades is a series of games featuring Everi’s first cascading reels feature. The games combine the features with expanded reels in a ways-to-win format, which increases both the cascades and the potential wins.
Cha-Ching! is another Everi game that eliminates spinning reels for a new play mechanic— as the company has scored successes with game groups like Zap and Crush. Cha- Ching! is essentially a picking game in which the player picks to reveal credit awards and free plays behind boxes.
Money Line is another game featuring a play mechanic that doesn’t depend on reels. In this case, credit amounts, multipliers and wheel-spin icons appear in one of five lines on the monitor, and if they line up horizontally, the player collects.
Blazin’ Riches Big Diamonds and Blazin’ Riches Big Rubies include a cash-on- reels feature designed to drive up the average bet, including a new mechanic called Gem Pays. When the Gem Respin symbol lands, all gems lock in place for a re-spin. It repeats the process as long as gems land.
Super Jackpot Grand is a three-game series known for quick-hitting progressives and multiplier combinations awarding up to 5X on wins. Genie’s Prize and Pixie’s Prize are ways-to-win games loaded with bonus features, including a pick bonus, full-reel wilds and a persistent coin-pot feature.
Among the standouts among mechanical spinning-reel games are Diamond Power Grand, Smokin’ Hot Gems Grand, Gold Shots and Wild Freedom. All keep the classic game style and four symbol- driven progressives with the configurable bets and progressive resets.
Premium video categories also are receiving much attention this year. One highlight is on the Flex Fusion cabinet, the full-feature bank version of Empire Flex that features an overhead display with audio, lighting and sounds fully synchronized to game play.
The star on this platform at G2E promises to be Cashnado. One of the intriguing features of this game is that it’s a player-selectable multi-denom game in which the odds at two progressives scale upward as the denomination is increased.
But the feature sure to draw a crowd is called the Cash Grab Bonus, in which bills and progressive icons fly across the 49-inch touchscreen monitor, and the player tries to touch as many as possible to increase the bonus award.
New games also will be launched on the Empire DCX, the premium cabinet featuring dual curved 43-inch landscape-style LCD monitors that was launched with The Karate Kid and The Mask. Featured on this cabinet will be MonsterVerse, a monster-themed game that showcases a “Godzilla Lock and Respin” mechanic. Landing a red Godzilla expands the reels up to eight rows. It also includes a feature in which players can wager an ante of $40 to play four reel arrays at once.
GAMING ARTS
This year, Gaming Arts unveils the Vert-X Grand, a new cabinet featuring an ultra-bright, 4K 49-inch portrait monitor, theater-quality sound, an ultra-bright LCD button deck, programmable LED play buttons, and attention-grabbing LED side lights.
The first games on the Vert-X are sister titles Let’s Spin and Let’s Spin Vegas. At the core of the games—they are similar, except for the Sin City theme in the latter title—is a new kind of wheel- spinning bonus. There are concentric wheels, and a really powerful gambler game featuring bars and 7s.
The base game on each title is a five-reel, 243- ways-to-win game, with classic reel symbols— cherries, 7s, card suits and fruit symbols, with icons such as dice and slot machines added in the Vegas version.
On top of the reel set are four concentric wheels, each with slices showing multipliers from 1X to 5X, plus icons representing four levels of progressive jackpot—a Mini, a Minor, a Major and a Mega. The top prize resets at 100,000 credits times the denomination—$1,000 on the penny version of the game. The jackpot values go up as more wheels are activated. (The Mini is available on the first wheel, the Minor on the second, the Major on the third, and the game’s top jackpot, the Mega, on the outermost wheel.)
The wheel is triggered frequently by a simple combination on the reels—a “Let’s” symbol on the first reel and “Spin” symbols on any of the second through fifth reels. When a player hits “Let’s” on the first reel and “Spin” on the second, it activates the first concentric multiplier wheel. If that first symbol is landed and “Spin” symbols land on reels other than the second, those symbols stick on the screen for three spins, giving the player extra chances to land multiple wheel spins.
Next up on the Vert-X will be the Pub Series, a fun group of games themed according to styles of pubs around the world.
First up will be Kaleigh’s Pub, celebrating the Irish bar; and Anastasia’s Tavern, with a Russian vodka theme. Then will come Isabella’s Tequileria, with a Mexican tequila vibe, and Sophia’s Cellar, depicting an Italian wine bar.
Each game includes clever features centered around the main character, who does things like filling up your glass for four spins in a persistent wild feature. Up to 12 wild symbols can land in the feature and stick until the glass is full.
In primary and free-game spins, shot glasses randomly pop up to award multipliers up to 20X or one of four progressive jackpots.
Each of the games also features custom-written, toe-tapping music appropriate to the nationality showcased in the theme.
On Gaming Arts’ legacy Phocus cabinets are sister dual-screen games Rise of the Pharaoh and Rise of the Queen. The games incorporate orbs in a unique feature. A pyramid on the reels triggers a blue, red or gold orb to drop to the screen—the blue being the lowest values, the red being the middle values and the gold being a huge value.
The orbs stick on the screen and move to the left with every spin. If a pyramid lands to match up with an orb, that credit value is awarded with a multiplier or a chance of winning free games.
NOVOMATIC AMERICAS
Novomatic this year is featuring sleek cabinets, new concepts in video gaming technology and a variety of entertaining premium content.
The new Thunder Cash Link progressive game, Voodoo Magic, enhances the popular multi-level jackpot offering and gives operators a new theme to add to an already exciting link.
The game, using the new Signature Tower Design, features a beautiful Voodoo Priestess who comes alive in a magical bayou setting—with rewards to match.
Novomatic Americas will launch the Ultra Boost Link progressive, giving a new boost to the popular lock-and-spin feature. This family of games has three titles: Grand Eagle, Tiger Storm and Great American Buffalo. Players can unlock two matrices to accumulate wins on, simultaneously.
Novomatic also has released several families of stand-alone progressive titles. This attractive mix of games includes Eternal Mandarin Ducks, Royal Crane and Noble Peacock progressives, available on multiple cabinets.
Leveraging the success of the Dancing Series of games are Dancing Tiger Gold and Dancing Lantern Gold. With rising-lantern jackpot mechanics and entertaining trigger features, these games will keep players entertained while their jackpot totals pay. And for those who like mythology jackpot madness, the Mythological Creatures family of games are an ideal choice, with the Mighty Minotaur and Enchanted Pegasus paying Power Prizes.
IGT
Game development efforts these days at IGT are likely to begin with the hardware, with launch games for new cabinets tailored to the strengths of the hardware. Such is the case with the new Peak65 video game cabinet, which will debut at G2E with new titles for both Wheel of Fortune and The Price Is Right game franchises.
Peak65, with its imposing 65-inch 4K monitor, will launch with Wheel of Fortune High Roller, featuring a versatile wheel bonus that can include multiple pointers, progressive jackpot slices, multipliers and mystery bonuses.
The base game reprises the expanding reels mechanic first seen in the hit game Hexbreak3r. The reels expand with a “High Roller Arrow” that adds multipliers and extra pointers to the bonus wheel.
The new Wheel of Fortune title will be accompanied by a The Price Is Right title expected to be revealed at G2E.
IGT will have one more new cabinet to launch at G2E, with new games to match—these ones stepper titles in the new Diamond RS cabinet and format. The Diamond RS features IGT Diamond Glass, which places a transparent video overlay on top of mechanical reels. To launch the new stepper cabinet, IGT has drawn on a franchise more than two decades old, the beloved stepper game Top Dollar. Fans have known that game by its original incarnation, a classic stepper with a carnival-style bonus played out by alternating lights behind cash symbols silkscreened on a glass top box.
The Diamond RS version is called Double Top Dollar.
It plays exactly like the Top Dollar you remember, but the transmissive technology of the cabinet allows for multiple payline configurations in the same cabinet.
On the premium CrystalWheel Stepper mechanical reel-spinning cabinet, Wheel of Fortune 2X Wild Diamond Spins features a three-reel, nine-line bet structure with a max bet of nine, 18 or 27 credits. The primary game features multiplying wild symbols that double or quadruple the win. The iconic bonus wheel, with up to three pointers, includes the top progressive.
Among the standout video offerings for this year in premium video slots is Megabucks Mega Vault. The game features free games with locking wilds and multipliers, offering frequent chances at successive big wins. Locking Megabucks sub-symbols in free games create a suspenseful Megabucks progressive chase.
There also is a persistent-state picking bonus that can be triggered at any wager, which guarantees a jackpot win and a shot at the top Megabucks prize.
The core video area for IGT this year offers up a mix of new games and revived classics on the PeakSlant49 and PeakSlant32 cabinets.
On the PeakSlant49 are three games that bring back classic IGT video slot themes—Wolf Run Eclipse, Da Vinci Diamonds Masterpiece and Stinkin’ Rich Skunks Gone Wild.
On the PeakSlant32 cabinet is another revival of classic IGT video in Lucky Larry Lobstermania 4 Link. Lucky Larry’s original “Buoy Bonus” picking event is reprised in the new version, along with a collect feature that can lead to three different bonus events, including a wheel feature.
IGT continues to reinvent the video poker genre the company has dominated for decades, with new games like Lucky Suit Poker, in which the player picks a “lucky suit” at the start of a hand and receives a multiplier of up to 12X whenever the first card dealt matches the suit. In Super Triple Play, a one-credit ante doubles the pay for four of a kind.
INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES
Incredible Technologies is launching a radical new cabinet called the Prism VXP. The new platform has a powerful computer, brighter graphics, and an oversized LED button panel. But what makes the platform’s inaugural cabinet, Prism VXP, special is what that VXP stands for—“vertical expansion.”
The cabinet presents three screens to the player—the main 27-inch 4K touchscreen landscape monitor is augmented by the 18.5-inch button deck, the largest in the business, which doubles as an extra touchscreen monitor for use in various bonuses and game play. But sitting behind the main game screen is a giant 55-inch flat-screen 4K monitor.
But the real innovation here is that the big screen doesn t just sit there. During bonus game play, the 55-inch monitor physically rises, using a commercial-grade motor to smoothly move into position for game mechanics on the entire grand display.
The Prism VXP will be launched with four new game families at G2E—UpShot, Pinwheel Prizes, Ultra Rush Gold X and Power Push.
The UpShot family consists of initial games Brilliant 7s and Prosperity Rising. Both are 25-line games with a pinball-style bonus initiated on the 18.5-inch touchscreen button deck. In the interactive UpShot Bonus, pinball springs appear on the button deck and the player pushes them to launch virtual pinballs at the expanded monitor, which displays four levels of moving targets.
The Pinwheel Prizes game family includes base games Cat & Tiger and Majestic Oasis, both 40-line games. Each game features five pinwheels on the top monitor displaying credit prizes. Scatters increase the value of the pinwheel wedges, which remain until three scatter symbols trigger a spin.
The free-spin round in each game triggers the VXP feature. The reels expand into a double set with 40 additional pay lines for eight free spins. In Majestic Oasis, the free-spin round features a lock- and-spin mechanic on the top reel set. Pinwheel scatters lock in place and stay until three fill a reel to trigger a spin of the corresponding pinwheel.
The Ultra Rush Gold X family, with initial base games Wei Yi and Bingwen, features cash-on-reels symbols that display credit amounts and four jackpots. The bonus feature plays out on a reel set including only cash-on-reels and jackpot symbols, in a hold-and-spin feature with three-spin cycles.
The Power Push family, with titles Shiseijuu Fortunes and Lóng de Xiyuè, uses the moving monitor to simulate the old coin-pusher machines that dotted casinos in the 1980s. Primary games feature an eight-spin persistent feature in which coins are collected, and return to the reels after eight spins as wild symbols. The player also collects letters to spell out the word “BONUS,” which triggers the VXP feature.
The VXP feature replicates a coin-pusher game, with the top screen rising to spill coin awards and several icons representing 10 jackpots into a chamber. The screen descends as a pusher sends prizes down to a bottom chamber. The player is awarded three “pushes.”
KONAMI GAMING
Konami continues to fill out its new Dimension series of cabinets, along with games designed specifically for those new cabinets—the Dimension 49J, with its central 49-inch J-curved monitor; Dimension 27, a core video cabinet utilizing three 27-inch screens; and Dimension 49, the portrait version of the series with a 49-inch flat-screen monitor.
This year, Konami released two new versions of the All Aboard game series on the Dimension 49J— All Aboard: Go West! and All Aboard: Masked Warrior. Both include the popular All Aboard train feature. Go West! features a free-game event in which symbols obscured by stage doors open to reveal either wild horse symbols or All Aboard train symbols.
Masked Warrior, themed around feudal Japan, features a mighty ninja character with special doors in the free games opening to reveal wild ninja symbols or the All Aboard train symbol.
As in the original, when the All Aboard feature is triggered, all the train symbols transform into credit awards.
At G2E, more new Dimension 49J premium titles will be launched, including the showcase game Lucky Envelope. It is a linked progressive slot with a 243-ways-to-win base game and four jackpot levels that scale by denomination. Wild red envelope symbols on the first two reels can randomly trigger a jackpot pick game. The player chooses from 30 red envelopes to match three icons for a guaranteed jackpot.
Also this year, Konami introduces its customers to the new Dimension 75C and its massive 75-inch curved main screen. The new Dimension 75C will host versions of all four All Aboard games—Piggy Pennies, Dynamite Dash, Go West! and Masked Warrior.
Coming on the Dimension 49 will be Rising Diamond, featuring a unique expanding reel mechanic that takes advantage of the tall portrait screen. There are two unique game iterations: Pink Edition and Blue Edition. Wild diamond symbols that appear in the middle three reels are colored pink or blue. Every time a wild diamond symbol lands on the reels, the player is rewarded—with an expanded reel frame and/or the free game feature.
On the Dimension 27 triple-screen cabinet, Konami is showcasing game groups including Mystical Pearl and Panda Power.
Mystical Pearl games feature an undersea-themed linked progressive focused on collecting simmering pearl symbols, for a “Stay & Spin” bonus that can lead to one of four jackpots— fixed Mini and Minor prizes and progressive Major and Grand prizes.
Any time throughout primary play or the free games, the hero character can randomly deliver additional pearl symbols to the reels, increasing the odds of triggering the Stay & Spin feature.
Any six or more Pearls will trigger the feature, where players have the chance to win random credit prizes or one of the jackpots. Mystical Pearl has two compatible base game options: Mystical Pearl Mermaid and Mystical Pearl Neptune.
SCIENTIFIC GAMES
The big star in Scientific Games’ lineup this year is the company’s new Mural slot cabinet. Launched in April, the Mural features dual, stacked 55-inch 4K curved monitors—that’s 110 inches of game real estate, the most in the business—in a presentation that rises 11 feet.
For the first game suite designed for the Mural, SG has brought out its biggest guns. The first two games are Willy Wonka: Dreamers of Dreams and Emperor’s Coins— 88 Fortunes.
The Willy Wonka game uses every inch of the massive display for the player-favorite “Super Oompa Loompa” feature, including a multiplier reel that stretches all the way to the top. A giant Wonka Double Wheel can award a credit prize and a multiplier, and Fizzy Lifting Free Spins feature a reel set and wilds that float up over the display.
Emperor s Coins, the latest version of the iconic 88 Fortunes series, leverages one of the company’s most successful brands while adding the largest pot-style feature you’ll see anywhere. That’s the popular game mechanic in which symbols collect in a pot that swells until randomly bursting with credits, wilds or bonus events.
In Emperor’s Coins, you fill up the pot every time you land a wild.
The launch of the Mural and its games follows last year’s big cabinet introduction, the Kascada upright portrait cabinet, which is completing its rollout this year both in North American and Asian markets.
Kascada features a unique 43-inch double-curved monitor featuring ultra-high-definition 4K graphics.
New on Kascada is 5 Treasures Explosion. The 5 Treasures game was originally part of the Duo Fu Duo Cai series. In addition to Kascada, the game can go on SG’s other large-format cabinets, the V75 and the Wave XL.
Also on the Kascada—and also on V75— is a new entry to SG’s Monopoly franchise, Monopoly Cheaters Edition.
In this game, the host, Monopoly Man, actually helps you cheat in the game. He makes the outcomes better. He might take the dice away and give you higher-scoring dots. He might move you along the board. He might give you a jackpot.
Another Monopoly title on the Kascada is Monopoly Money Grab, which combines a persistent cash bag feature (similar to the pot mechanic) and a hold-and-re-spin feature with cash-on-reels symbols.
But the real star is the Monopoly Money Grab Bonus, which randomly spews dollars out of the “Monopoly Cash Jar” for the player to snatch.
