Sunday, March 25, 2012

Texas Tea


IGT's Texas Tea slot is a 5 reel game with 9 paylines.  You can bet anywhere between 1 to 5 credits per payline and the max bet per spin is 45 credits. The most you can win in the game is capped at $50,000.
The game features fun caricatures of Texan imagery like a cowboy-hat wearing oil tycoon (his name is Texas Ted) driving a cadillac with longhorns mounted to the front of the car and his corporate jet is painted to look like a cow.


Bonus Rounds:
Oil Dividend Bonus: is activated when you hit 3-5 "Texas Ted" symbols anywhere on the reels.  Texas Ted takes out his pen and writes you a nice fat oil dividend check. He calculates the amount by multiplying the bet that you placed that triggered the bonus. So if you place bigger bets, you’ll get a bigger oil dividend bonus.
You will also be awarded higher credit values depending on how many "Texas Ted" symbols you received that activated the bonus.


Big Oil Bonus: is activated when you get at least three of the oil pump icons on a pay line that you actually wagered.

As with the Oil Dividend Bonus, it’s worth even more if you have 4 or 5 derricks on the wagered line.  Once activated, the screen begins to rumble and shake and then a big geyser of oil appears. At this point, the game allows you to place oil derricks in different regions of the state. The derricks then start pumping oil furiously and your credit value increases according to how much oil is pumped. This is the most sought-after bonus in Texas Tea slots because you’ll see a huge amount of bonus pay when this happens.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Amazing Race




IGT's Amazing Race is a 5-reel, 50 pay line game with a 300 credit max bet.  There are 4 progressive jackpots and 3 bonus rounds.  The slot bank is fitted with multiple LDC layers and surround sound seating grouped in a 4 player slot bank. 

Voice over and video from the show's host, Phil Keoghan, helps guide you through the game.  All bonus and base play games are modeled on the show.

In the base game, the End2End feature creates an added plus as stacked symbols on separate reels transform the symbols in between to the same icon creating big credit wins.  The game is designed to create the feeling that the players are competing against each other in a race around the world.  However, since this is a slot and the results are completely random, all player decisions create a positive outcome.

Bonus Rounds:

Ticket Challenge Bonus is a group play bonus were all players "dig" through a pile of sand searching for tickets.  As the timer counts down, the ticket value decreases but accumulated credits increase until the ticket is discovered.

Around the World Instant Bonus occurs randomly during base game play.  A plane flies around the spinning earth rewarding a multiplier and bonus credit values which are applied to any line wins from the current base game spin.

Group Challenge Bonus is triggered by hitting 3 scattered Amazing Race icons on the reels.  This is another group play bonus round.  Each player is awarded 5 free games in which the you accumulate miles and credits that advance you in the continental race.  To advance in this bonus, you must find Mileage Metres which increase your travel distance.

For each destination you reach, you win its corresponding progressive and 5 additional free spins toward the next leg of the race.

As an added plus, during this bonus round, you may randomly be awarded a detour.  In this, you are offered tickets with either credit values, extra miles to contribute to the Mileage Metres or fast forwards which advance you straight to the next destination and its corresponding progressive.  You must select from the tickets until you find 2 matching symbols, then you are given that award.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Clue


WMS Gaming’s: Clue is a 5-real penny video slot with a 40 credit min bet (consisting of 30-lines and Feature Bet) and a 400 credit max bet.  It’s available as Wide Area Progressive or local jackpot.  Clue is another game that works with Player’s Life, allowing you to not only track your progress in the game but gives you the option to participate in mini games to help unlock bonus games.  However, to be clear, you do not need to have a Player’s life account to play Clue.

Clue comes with 4 base units and two 55 inch flat screens resting above the game terminals in a Mr. Boddy’s Manor frame.

To start the game, you need to select a character from the classic characters of the board game.  The character you choose will be the high symbol on the reels during the game. 

Clue also has two random bonuses called the “Time to Add Wilds” & the “Lights Out” bonus. 



Time to Add Wilds - bonus is triggered randomly during the game.  A clock appears on your screen and prompts you to select a finger print to win up to 15 wild symbols.  Once you make your selection, the hand on the clock will spin around the clocks face until it lands on how many wilds you are awarded.  You get one free spin during which you will see where your awarded wild symbols will be placed and how many credits you win.

 Lights Out bonus - is triggered randomly on any active machine in a game bank.  The game directs you to look at the community screen above to watch a sequence of events culminating with the game selecting one player’s character to win credits or to go into one of the 6 bonus games, regardless if you have unlocked it or not.

Bonus Rounds - 3 scattered Mansion symbols trigger one of 6 bonus games.  Initially, the Kitchen and Ballroom bonuses are available to select for play.   4 more rooms can be unlocked by acquiring 1, 10, 50 and 500 sleuth points.  Sleuth points are awarded after each bonus rounds, as long as you are logged into your “Players’ Life” account on the slot terminal.  You get 1 Sleuth Point per bonus round and 5 if you solve the mystery.  Once a room bonus has been unlocked, that room will be available any time you trigger a bonus round.

Player’s Life – You can also unlock bonus rooms online at playerslife.com or at totalrewards.com/clue by playing the “Quick Clue” mini game.  This game is a very simple guessing game.  You have to solve the crime by guessing who did it, where they committed the crime and with what weapon.  You have 3 chances to get it right.  Items selected correctly are highlight and incorrect guesses are removed from the guessing options until you either guess correctly or us all 3 of your chances.  Complete 10 of these and you open a random bonus room.  There are a total of 3 rooms you can unlock this way but only for a limited time.   Once that time frame has elapsed, the mini game will reset and you’ll have to complete the mini games again.  If you are a Total Rewards member, play the game at their site.  You get up to 60 days access to the open bonus rooms, which is more than you usually get at playerslife.com. 

Bonus Games

Kitchen bonus – Here you receive free spins until you collect 5 knives or poisons.  For every knife in a pay line you find, it turns the entire reel into a wild.  For each poison you find in a pay line, it turns that win into a 2x multiplier.  Once you find 5, you are prompted to select from 5 cleavers.  One of them will extend the bonus round and the rest will end it.




Ballroom Bonus – Here you receive 7 free spins.  The symbols make their way into the ballroom as if they were dancers and file into the standard 5 wide, 3 deep reel columns to determine your spin results.  After each spin, the lowest value symbol on the reels are removed which means by the end of your spins, the number of symbols available are greatly reduced to only the most valuable ones.  This can result in big wins.  At the end of your 7 spins you may be awarded an encore spin, otherwise the bonus round ends.




Dining Room Bonus – You pick from 3 courses to be served to a guest; an appetizer, a glass of wine and a main course.  If you poison the guest, the bonus round ends unless you’ve found the antidote before the poison, in which case, it cancels out the poison.  Once you find the antidote, you will hold onto it until the bonus round is over or you need to use it.  You can serve up to 6 guests and the prizes increase after each guest you don’t poison.  If you find 3 poisons in the 3 courses, you win 50x your bet.

Billiard Room Bonus – You get 5 spins and a super spin.  Every wild symbol billiard ball that appears adds 1 wild to your final super spin.  Once your 5 spins are complete, all of your billiard balls are racked up, then broken which randomly distributes your wild billiard balls into position on the reels while the final spin of the bonus rounds takes place.  Once they are all in their positions and the reels stop spinning, the bonus rounds ends and you collect your credit award.

Conservatory Bonus – You are award 5 initial spins.  Any dart that appears on the reels awards a dart to you to throw at one of the 5 musicians in the room.  The various musicians award credits, more spins, credits & spins or additional picks.  If multiple darts appear on the reels on the same spin, the prize won from the musician is multiplied by the number of darts at that appeared on the reels.  The bonus game ends when you run out of spins.

Library Bonus – This is my favorite.  It initially gives you 5 picks to select books with.  Each book shelf has 10 books and it and there are 10 shelves in the bookcase giving you 100 options.  Books can award you more picks, credits or secret passages to additional room bonuses.  If you find a secret passage, the library bonus will be interrupted to take you to that room’s bonus game.  Once you complete the bonus game in that room, you will be returned to the Library to continue that bonus game.  Once you have used up all your picks, the bonus round ends.

Solve-the-mystery Progressive Bonus – After each bonus round, you may be the offered the chance to solve the mystery and win the bank-wide “community progressive” jackpot.  Your odds of getting to solve the mystery increase based up your bet.  Players Max betting automatically gets a chance to solve the mystery.  To “Solve the Mystery”, just like in the board game, you select an available character, a weapon and a room.  If you guess incorrectly, one of the items incorrectly chosen is removed as a possibility as well as making it easier for the next player to solve with less incorrect options available.  This continues until the mystery is solved.  The mystery must be solved at least every 20 tries. Successfully solving the mystery will award you not only the community progressive jackpot but 5 sleuth Points.

The Wide-Area Progressive jackpot is won by lining up 5 Progressive symbols on Pay Line 1 at Max Bet

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Lobstermania 2


IGT's Lucky Larry’s Lobster Mania 2 is a 5 reel game video slot with 40 pay lines.  The base game features stacked wilds and multipliers which, depending on your wager, can result in huge credit wins. The new edition also features 3 progressive jackpots that can be won in the base game.

When you trigger the bonus round, you are given the option of either a free spin bonus or the interactive buoy bonus round.  

Free Spins Bonus: the player is awarded 5 free spins and has the potential to win up to 240.

Buoy Bonus Round: you are offered the choice of a fishing location, Brazil, Australia or Maine.

Each location offers a different amount of buoy selections from 2 to 4 picks.  The relevance of the destination will become important later in the round.

You are then taken to your chosen spot and given the choice of 9 buoys from which to select from. The fishing captain hauls the lobster traps on to the deck and reveals trash, which has low awards to large lobsters with huge credit values.

If you find the golden lobster, the player is taken into a further bonus round, where the destination you picked earlier becomes relevant.

If Maine was picked, a pelican swoops down and snatches the golden lobster away. He then lands on the top of the boat with 4 other pelicans. The player is then given 3 chances to select pelicans and can either accept the credit value offered or select again.

In Australia, a kangaroo bounces onto the deck and swipes the golden lobster. You then chase after him and must keep selecting from 6 kangaroos which award varying credit values. Finding the lobster ends the bonus.

Finally, in Brazil, a tentacle slithers on deck and drags the golden lobster to the bottom of the ocean. Here you must select between 8 treasure chests attached to the octopus. The player is awarded multipliers ranging from 1x to 5x until the lobster is found, which then ends the bonus.