All That Jazz

Bally Technologies All That Jazz is a five reel, 40 pay line video slot, available in 1c to $5 denominations.  Bally's has taken the use of the Ideck to new levels with this game by offering a bonus round with an interactive piano, used similar to the video games Rock Band or Guitar Hero.

The game is played out on Bally's V32 portrait monitor and is further enhanced by the crystal clear audio for this jazz themed game. The reels feature a unique setup, whereby the 1st, 3rd and 5th have three pay symbols each and the 3rd and 4th have four. This results in regular pay outs, as there are many winning combinations to be had. 



Bonus Rounds:

Grand Piano Bonus: is triggered by bonus symbols on the first, third and fifth reels. Here the Ideck touch screen becomes a set of piano keys you'll need to pay, like "Rock Band" or "Guitar Hero" 

You are first given the choice of varying difficulties, which result in higher credit awards for the higher difficulty.  Songs available to play are ...

Novice - Twinkle Twinkle, Spring, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Green Sleeves and Ode to Joy
Intermediate - Beethoven's Fur Elise, Star Spangled Banner, Drunken Sailor and Entertainer

As the tune plays, dots will flash on the piano keys to indicate which keys you need to press to play the song.  Every time a correct note is hit, a note on the screen turns into a number and floats to a reel set at the top of the screen. When the tune ends, the reels spin to reveal your credit award. 

Progressive  Jackpot: Each of the five progressive jackpot symbols are displayed above one of the reels. Any time you land five trumpets, saxophones, bass fiddles, microphones or All That Jazz symbols, a shower of music notes pour down the reels. If a note lands on one of the five of a kind symbols, you are awarded the progressive jackpot corresponding to that reel. 

You have the possibility to hit multiple progressives in one spin with the top progressive resetting at $100,000.

Sex And The City Fabulous

IGT's Sex And The City Fabulous:  is a five reel, 40 pay line, penny video slot. The game has a max bet of 300 credits.  The game also comes equipped with the IGT MegaFX Surround Chair, with powerful speakers and vibrations.

Base Game:

This sequel to last year’s popular Sex And The City video slot reprises all of the features that made the first slot popular, along with a few new additions. Sex And The City Fabulous is a MultiPLAY video slot, meaning there are four reel-sets on the screen. You first must choose your wager, to activate from one to all four reels, resulting in four games playing simultaneously on each spin.

The new feature of this version is the addition of IGT’s Tumbling Reels. In this setup, when there is a winning reel combination, those symbols disappear and a new group of symbols tumble into place. If those symbols create another winning combination, those symbols disappear, repeating the process until there are no winning combinations on the screen. This is the first MultiPLAY game to employ this feature.

Bonus Rounds:

When bonuses occur, the full screen fills up with the bonus sequence. In this version, there are nine total bonus events, with four of them corresponding to the main characters in the TV show, Carry, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda. You play as one of the characters, which affects the symbols and backgrounds on the reels according to which character you select.

Actor Chris Noth again did the voice-overs for the game as Mr. Big, hosting the bonus rounds, which include four new bonuses

• Charlotte’s Gallery
• In The Bag
• All That Shimmers
• and of course, a Shoe Bonus

The game also features five progressive interactive bonuses leading to one of the jackpots. With a top award that resets at $50,000

Charlotte's Gallery: displays paintings in an art gallery to select from to be awarded credits

In the Bag: you select from purses for big wins and surprises.

Shoe Bonus: again you must select from varying pairs of shoes to be awarded credits. This bonus has the potential for large credit pay outs.

All That Shimmers: the tumbling reels feature to increases your winnings in this free spins bonus, where pink diamonds fill bracelet holes awarding multipliers and additional free spins.







Blackbeards Treasure

 
American Gaming Systems Blackbeard's Treasure is a five reel, 27 line, video slot, available in 1,2 and 5 cent denominations. The primary game math is unique, and is what game designer Olaf Vancura calls a "What You See Is What You Get" game. Each of the 5 reels are not weighted and each symbol on the reel is equally likely to appear, regardless of their value or pay out.

The base game utilizes AGS's trademark "Lock and Bump" feature, which adds both wild symbols and the chance at triggering more of the bonus events.

Bonus Rounds:

Free Spins: Three scattered map symbols trigger this round, but the number of free spins is dependent on the number of symbols that trigger it. When map symbols land, they lock in place and become wild. After any additional win is paid, all five reels bump downward. If at least one bonus symbol bumps to a payline, the whole process starts over again, allowing up to five triggers for a maximum of 21 free spins.

Sink the Ship: Blackbeard appears and orders all ship symbols on the reels to be fired upon. Cannons pop up from the bottom of the screen and blast away at the reels. Any missed symbols are turned wild for the next spin.

Wheel Feature: Another departure from the standard weighted reels is the prominent top box bonus wheel, which also features equally weighted slices and therefore an equal chance of being awarded a Blackbeard prize or bet multiplier.

When the mermaid appears on the third reel it activates the wheel feature. All but six of the slices on the wheel are multipliers, up to 100x, the other six are Blackbeard awards. If you hit a Blackbeard wedge the Hyper Wild Super Spin is triggered and you play out your spins on a new set of red bonus reels, one which is completely wild.

Jackpot Treasure Bonus: This is triggered when you hit symbols on any spot on the reels that contain the letters to the word 'Bonus" When the entire word is completed, you are given the chance to pick 5 from treasure chests, each relating to one of the progressive jackpots, which reset at the following:
Plank Walker: $500
Deck Swabber: $900
Navigator: $1000
First Mate: $2,250
Captain: $2,500

Deal Or No Deal The Experience

Spielo International's Deal or No Deal The Experience:  is a 5 reel video slot, available in 1, 2 and 3 cent denominations. The machine is available in 9 and 20 line configurations with a max bet of 150 and 200 credits respectively.

As you would expect, the game is based on the TV show of the same name and is the 3rd in the series released from Spielo International. The slot features the popular music and stylings of the game show as well as Howie Mandell, who introduces the bonus rounds and special features.



Bonus Rounds:

This slot is all about bonus games and features 2 interactive bonuses to provide you with a fully immersive experience where a large element of control is felt. The bonus rounds are triggered randomly and you are given the option of playing the Briefcase Bonus or The Experience.

Briefcase Bonus: This is the whole reason for playing this game. Depending on the line configuration you are playing, 10 or 20 briefcases appear on the main video screen. You are then shown the credit amounts available in all of the cases and they are then closed and shuffled. You then must pick one as your case and the rest is just like the show.

The Experience: In this bonus you are given the opportunity of winning one of the two progressives. You are first offered a credit amount that is midway between the two progressive jackpot amounts. Picking No Deal will mean you are awarded either the higher or lower amount. This is a 50/50 proposition that really adds a level of excitement and interactivity.



The Game of Life

WMS's The Game of Life: is a five reel, 17 line, penny video slot with a 40 credit minimum and a max bet of 400 credits. The game is a wide area progressive, meaning the jackpots are linked over several properties and each bank is setup as a 4 player community slot.

Base Game:

When you first sit down at the terminal, you are given the choice of selecting your character details, from male or female and the choice of 6 different career options. These selections will become important later and impact the amount of credits you can win in the big event community bonuses.

Game of Life Pay table:

In the Game of Life, the playing screen is split in two.  The bottom is where you will play the base game and the top is where the "Bank of LIFE" side game resides.  Here you have 4 potential outcomes.    The more difficult the outcome is to achieve, the higher the bank accrues and pays.

• Purple is awarded every time you have a winning payline in the base game
• Blue is awarded every time you have 2 or more wilds on reels
• Green is awarded every time you have a 5-of-a-kind
• Yellow is awarded every time you have 5 jets on a payline

You can also win more than one of these at a time.  For example, every time you are awarded the yellow bank jackpot, you will also win the green & purple bank jackpots.  That's because 5 jets on a payline is also a 5-of-a-kind and a winning payline.

You can also increase the amount of each individual color bank jackpot every time a white arrow appears on line one and on of the four colored arrow appears on line five.  Each color arrow with increase the corresponding color bank's jackpot amount until it is won or until a white arrow appears on line one and a "Be Back Soon" symbol appears on line five.  This will reset all the the color banks.

Bonus Rounds:

Free Spin Bonus: 3 or more spinner symbols (like the ones from the board game) on any reels trigger this bonus. You are automatically awarded 10 free spins, with the ability to win indefinite sets of free spins.
During the free spin bonus, the Bank of Life pay table amounts can increase and pay out, but the Be Back Soon symbol will not appear during the spins. As an added bonus, the arrows appear more frequently than they do in the base game.

Big Event Community Bonuses: Are triggered by each base game bet, which awards 7 seconds of bonus eligibility. Faster play or higher bets will award eligibility time and larger big event multipliers.  As an average however, the community bonuses randomly trigger every 3 minutes.

Firstly, the Life spinner appears on the overhead screen and spins to determine if a random credit prize is to be awarded, or if 1 of 3 Big Event bonuses is triggered.

If a credit award is hit, players watch as the car moves around the Game of Life board and stops on the corresponding tile. If you are playing as that career choice, you are awarded a large credit prize and all other players are awarded a smaller win.

Pay Day Bonus: All players in the big event are directed to the overhead screen and are shown a bank. The more pegs that enter the bank, the more credits you receive. Special pegs will increase the credit meter faster.

Career Day Bonus: Here is where your earlier career pick plays in. One of the six possible careers is randomly chosen.  Everyone playing will win a credit prize at the end of the bonus.  The person with the career matching the one that is randomly chosen is awarded a higher credit amount than the other players.



Speed Spin Bonus:  You receive 7 initial spins on the Game of Life spinner.  You have 10 possible outcomes.  Each outcome either increases the value of prizes (ie house, car, etc), awards more spins or awards 1 or all of the available prizes. This is the highest paying bonus in the game.

Progressive Award: Is triggered when you hit 5 Progressive symbols on the first pay line when playing max bet. This is a wide area progressive jackpot that resets at $201,000

Wizard Of Oz Ruby Slippers

WMS's Wizard Of Oz Ruby Slippers: is a 5 reel, 25 or 40 line video slot, available in penny and 5 cent denominations, with a min bet of 200 credits and a max of 480. This is the first sequel to the hugely popular Wizard Of OZ series. The game is available in stand alone and wide area progressive formats, both utilizing WMS's Sensory Immersion technology comprised of high definition video, Bose surround sound, vibrating chair.

Base Game:

During the base game, randomly, the ruby slippers appear below the reels and click together to award free spins, wild reels and multipliers up to 10x



Bonus Rounds:

Each Reel has different bonus symbols identified as characters from the film. Dorothy on the first reel, Scarecrow on the second, Tin Man on the third, Cowardly Lion on the fourth and one of three symbols on the firth reel (Wicked Witch, The Wizard or The Crystal Ball).
Combinations of these symbols on the reels above trigger any of three bonus events. Due to the high number of trigger symbols, there are 45 ways to trigger a bonus event.

Emerald City Free Spins: A character from the movie is locked on one of the reels and the others are re spun to award extra spins, wilds or extra credits.

Crystal Ball Bonus: The top box display converts to the crystal ball and each character places a credit award in the ball.

Find the Broom Bonus: You are flown through the land of Oz and arrive at a grid of 20 Oz symbols. The aim is to locate the Wicked Witches Treasure, a large credit prize that changes randomly. You may also receive multipliers, credits and extra picks. If you find the Witch herself the bonus round is ended.

Progressive Jackpot: Is awarded when you hit 5 progressive symbols on any payline.
The jackpots reset at the following:
Stand alone- $12,000
Wide Area- $500,000

Code Red

 

Bally Technologies Code Red is a five reel, 30 payline video slot. The game is housed in the previously reviewed Hammer Head cabinet and features the standard player screen, large overhead top box display and fully functional Ideck.

The player screen is a 22 inch curved display, giving the effect of mechanical reels, but providing you with the interactive benefits of video reels.



Bonus Games:

The Code Red Bonus Wheel is triggered when you hit three scattered bonus symbols on reels 1,3 and 5. 

Code Red Bonus Wheel: here you are given a chance to spin the U-Spin bonus wheel and have the opportunity to be awarded either credits, free games or 1 of the 3 progressive jackpots. All of which you are eligible for at any bet level. 

The Free Games Feature: which is awarded through the code red wheel, awards 8-12 free games at a multiplier up to 5x. During the free games a code red icon sits atop each reel and displays what bonus award you can win on that reel should you hit a code red symbol. These can be bonus credits, locked wilds or locked wild reels. If you do hit a code red symbol and receive your award, a new bonus takes its place, so you can keep winning throughout the free spins. 

Wild Fire Reel Bonus: is awarded when you hit 3 Wild Fire symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5. In this bonus the aforementioned reels become locked wilds and up to 3 extra wild symbols can be awarded on reels 2 and 4. This can result in huge pays for those spins. 

Applications:

Code Red is also available on the Itunes Store for $1.99. The mobile version features all the game play of the casino game with the ability to post your scores and achievements on Game Center.