Romancing the Slots

I can’t believe I haven’t written about this slot game yet. It’s an odd one but one that I find oddly addictive. Now, before you worry about money and  gambling addiction, the only places I’ve been able to find that offers SlotBox are UK Casinos where I can only play free online casino games in demo mode. So I’ve never bet a penny on the actual game. I just like watching it play.  It’s a strange little game and I’ll actually put it in auto play mode while I write just so I can watch the falling bloxs (or blocks).

Now, if you look at a screen shot of the game, you might notice that it looks very familiar. In fact, it looks a lot like tetris, that computer game that everyone was addicted to back in the 90s.  And you’d be right. It is a lot like tetris, at least in appearance and the general concept of creating lines. The big difference between Slotblox and Tetris is that you can’t do anything to control the fall of the slotblox blocks. Or else this really would be the perfect slot game for Tetris fanatics to clean out the casino. Okay, the other difference is that you can play Slotblox for real money, provided you aren’t in the US.

But playing the game is easy. You just hit play and the blocks start to fall. If you make a line across the playing field, you win. A double, triple or quad line scores even more. Better yet, for every line you score in a single game (or fall of blocks) your winning go up. So, bet a dollar and score one quad line and you’ll win $4. Score 2 and win $40. 3 gets you $400. And if you somehow get 4 quads in on fall of bricks, you can win $4000 for you $1 stake.  Oh, and if you make a line with the Magic Block, you win 10 free spins.

So, all of this seems rather simple and I know it’s hard to understand why I’m so drawn to this game.  But then I was one of those people addicted to Tetris back in the 90s, and the fun part here is it’s kind of like playing Tetris but without doing any of the work. And it would be really dangerous if I could play for real money.

Today I’m thrilled to see that I can get back into the demo play site for Skyvegas Casino.  Despite the “vegas” in the name, Skyvegas.com is actually a UK site and doesn’t accept US players, at least for real money. In the past, I’d been able to visit the site and play games in the demo mode and I love doing so because some of the British slot games are just so different from the games I see on US facing online casinos.  For a while there, I wasn’t able to play on Skyvegas, even in a purely demo game/no money mode, but today it let me back in so I had to check out a Halloween slot game.

I chose The Curse of Frankenstein which is a slot game based on the movie from Hammer Films. I know this because one of the symbols in the game is the Hammer Films logo, which is an obvious bit of advertising placement that I usually don’t see in slot games. But the Hammer Films logo is the symbol that awards free spins — just to make sure players are looking for it.  You can check Google News for more info on the film, but I found a movie poster to share.

There aren’t any bonus games other than the free spins but if you win with any of the character symbols – Dr. Frankenstein, the woman or the monster, the game plays a clip from the movie that features that character.  Just a bit of Frankenstein trivia. The book Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley in the 1800s and is actually considered an early example of science fiction since the focus was on man’s (Dr. Frankenstein) ability to create life. The monster itself was not named Frankenstein but known as Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. Frankenstein was actually the doctor himself.  But it’s the monster who resonated with the reader over the ages.

Now, as for the slot game – The Curse of Frankenstein, well, I think the curse might be that this game is a bit on the ugly side and I can’t see it having much appeal beyond a Halloween audience. The background is a blood red cityscape of some sort that doesn’t really offer me enough details to connect with a place and time, and there’s a disconnect when it comes to the symbols.  Some of the symbols are screenshots of characters from the film, so these are “real life” images. Then there are the Wild symbol and the Curse of Frankenstein Symbol which are screen shots with green text overlaid on them. But then we slip into the Q, K, A symbols which are cartoonish symbols of letters stitched up like Frankenstein’s monster himself.  The overall appearance makes the slot game look like it was also created out of mis-matched parts from different bodies. Perhaps that’s part of the theme.

Today I’m taking a look at a simple three reel slot game with a Halloween theme. Now, you may wonder why I’d play a simple slot game instead of a fancier game. Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that though I often play the fancier games for free, I love to play simple three reel games when I’m playing with a few dollars, or even a few pennies, of bonus money at an online casino.  Online casinos sometimes give a new player a little bonus money to try out the casino. If I get $5 to play on, it’s not like I can sit down to a long game of blackjack online.  But I’ve discovered through a little experimentation that a three reel game will let me play for a longer period of time and often I end up with more money than I started with.

Now, Haunted Reels starts with the simple basics of an old fashioned three reel slot game with one, two and three bars as symbols. But to that it adds some of the usual “Trick or treat” fare.  Candy in the game is a treat in that even landing one of the candy symbols on the reels will give you a small payout. The witch is the jackpot symbol as well as a wild symbol. And the Jack-o-lantern will trigger the bonus game.

Yep, this is a three reel game with a bonus game. Now, you have to bet 3 coins to trigger the bonus game, but that can be as little as 3 pennies.  If the Jack-o-lantern shows up in the third reel on the payline, a bonus screen opens that lets you choose from a selection of jack-o-lanterns to reveal a cash prize. You can then trade or keep that prize.  The bonus games are where I usually have manage to boost my winnings. I’ve turned three pennies into nearly $2 this way. Yeah, not a big jackpot, but enough to let me play some more.

Haunted Reels is a simple three reel games but for some reason these are the games I find most addicting!  It’s good think I only play for pennies.

Since it’s October, it’s time for some spooky, Halloween themed slots. I started my search on the Yahoo Gambling Directory, looking for Halloween slots and eventually stumbled across House of Fun. In this case the House of Fun is a big scary mansion that our scared-of-everything heroes, Paul and Jane, have to seek help at when their car breaks down on a foggy night. Cue all the expected clichés.  But, hey, it’s slot game not the next bestselling novel.

Paul and Jane are welcomed to the house by a Jack in the Box and introduced to the various characters we’ll encounter in the game.  Be prepared, this is a noisy game from the background music to the characters leaping out and trying to scare you.  And Paul and Jane don’t help. They jump, leap and scream whenever I hit for a win. They’re sort of annoying me.  I want them to take charge of the situation. Look, take the shovel from the grave digger, conk Jack in the Box over the head and bury his box in the garden. Then get out of there. I do get to help them try to escape in the bonus game, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

First let’s take a look at the symbols that include a candelabrum, a mirror, a spooky portrait, and a cast of creepy characters. There are actually a couple of nodes to Lewis Carroll tucked in here in the form of the Cheshire Cat and the character dressed in purple who seems to be a Mad Hatter.  Now people are familiar with these characters from Alice in Wonderland and don’t know where Carroll’s inspirations came from.  The cat may date back to a 16^th century carving of a grinning in a church in Cheshire, England or a grinning cat gargoyle in Guildford.  As for the Hatter, mercury was once used in the process of making hats and many hat makers suffered mercury poisoning, which made the appear somewhat mad.

But back to the House of fun.  The game is set on crypt-style reels in front of the Mansion and if you’re looking for a game with spooky music and symbols that noisily jump at you, this is the game you want. It also offers a selection of bonus games to keep the player amused.

The Jack in the Box is the scatter symbol and will trigger free spins if land three on the reels. Jack, if I may call him by his first name, will stay on the center reel, making it wild which does boost your winnings.  And our Mad Hatter triggers a Mad Click Me feature when you land three of him on the reels. The Hatter symbols become click me symbols that you get to click until you win.

The main bonus game is triggered by landing three of the door knocker symbols. This opens the Escape Bonus Round where we help Paul and Jane escape from the house by choosing doors until we find the escape door.  But, umm, I win money every time they don’t escape, so I think my goal is really should be to keep them in the mansion.  This bonus round falls a little short of what it could be. When I open the doors, I either get “Jack” or a black space, indicating the escape route.  I’d find it more interesting if the doors opened to different rooms in the mansion and let the artists show off their skills.

I’m torn on rating this game. The graphics are great and it really is an interesting Halloween-themed game. But I’m not as interested in continuing to play it as I was with Viking Age.  But I think we’d have to get into percentages of points here. And I do have to give extra points for whoever managed that subtle Lewis Carroll reference. That can’t have been accidental. Check the game out and let me know what you think.

Today I’m taking a look at Fruit Frenzy because it’s one of those classic online slot games that you’ll see mentioned often if you look for places to play free slots.  Fruit Frenzy is one of the slot games that reminds me how varied the world of slots can be and when compared with the slots I’ve been playing recently, how much technology has added to slot games.  Which isn’t to say that Fruit Frenzy is a bad game, it’s just a simpler version of slot games and one that depends on a rather carnival-like environment to add interest to the game.  I mean that literally. The game is themed with drawings of various fruits at a carnival.  The orange is dressed as a clown, the banana is the ring master, the grape is enjoying popcorn and the strawberry and pineapple are part of a cannon shooting game.  Other symbols include balloons, tickets and a watermelon cannon.  Win and you’ll be treated to old-fashioned carnival music that will bring back memories of cotton candy and buttered popcorn. Hmm, probably shouldn’t have decided to review this one before lunch.

Fruit Frenzy is a fairly straightforward “spin the reels” slot game with one bonus game on offer.  You have to hit five of a kind to trigger the bonus game where you’ll shot the strawberry from a canon to win 5 or more free spins.  Now, there isn’t any real aiming involved in this bonus game, so it’s low on the interactivity scale.  But those playing Fruit Frenzy for real money will be thrilled with the number of free spins you can trigger in the bonus round, because you can win the jackpot during a free spin. I just managed to hit for 30 free spins. No luck. The jackpot still stands.

So I logged into my email today and of course saw the top stories in Yahoo news.  Really, isn’t there anything positive they can talk about?  So, I went off in search of online slot games. Today I’ve decided to play Viking Age because Vikings took a more direct action to solving an economic crisis.  Not that I recommend pillaging and plunder. But in a slots game it can be fun.

Now, let me set this one up. Stirring, thunderous music brings you into the game and a steady drumbeat encourages you to keep spinning on a “slot machine” that’s a giant stone structure set in a field and overseen by a Shield Maiden.  Now, there were real shield maidens. These were women who chose to fight alongside the men and alert readers might recognize the term from Lord of the Rings. Tales of shield maidens were Tolkien’s inspiration for Eowyn. Though this shield maiden seems frustrated at me for stopping to type.  She keeps waving at me and saying “any day now.”

This is the fun of an interactive 3D slot.  Developers are creating characters within the game to interact with the players and fantastic animation sequences even for individual wins.  These are slot games you want to take a little extra time to play.  In Viking Age the symbols include Viking warriors (men this time), a ship, the prow of a Viking vessel, treasure, a rune stone, an axe and a shield. I’ve decided that has to be a shield (it explains the arrows when I win with it) and not a wheel unless Vikings had great rims.

The shield maiden is named Amma and she tends to yawn and get bored if I stop spinning.  But she also cheers me on when I’m winning and if I hit 3 Amma symbols in a row, she summons the warriors to remove part of the carved stones and reveal the multipliers for the free spins.  This shield maiden could be worth her weight in gold — or slot tokens.

Three or more shield maiden helmets awards the Doors to Valhalla feature where I choose a runestone and Amma checks the symbol to see if I’ve won credits , free spins or access to the bonus round. Since I didn’t win the bonus round, I need three or more arm wrestling Vikings to make it to the bonus round  where I to choose if I’ll be Erik or Elgrim in an arm wrestling contest. Then choose coin tosses to determine which warrior wins and how much I win.  The game includes snippets of dialogue between the warriors and who are set in a full rich 3D scene. Play this slot game with the sound on.

Viking Age is a great slot game. I’m posting this blog then heading back to play more!

I’ve found a slot game that I absolutely love.  This one is called Enchanted and you can find a free play version over at onlineslots.org to try it out (just scroll down for the game).  Now, for those who keep track of such things, Enchanted is a 5 reel, 30 pay line slot game.  Okay, standard stuff. Now let’s get to the fun. This slot actually has a PLOT!  As a writer, I am totally amused by that.  Players are invited into a world of mysterious light (enchanted forest) where fairies take flight.  The game features fantastic 3D artwork representing various creatures and items from traditional and non-traditional fairy tales.  I’m seeing bits of Tolkien here as well as a little of Harry Potter influence. Though it’s always tricky to call out something for Harry Potter inspiration since the Harry Potter world was based on so many existing inspirations.  But let’s take a look at the magical symbols.

The surround to this game is a fun enchanted forest theme and the characters, because they are characters more than just symbols, fit right in. Now the two most important characters are Feera, the fairy, and Rufus, the ogre.  Rufus does remind me of Shrek, though this ogre isn’t as articulate. But then, he’s not as evil as Tolkien’s ogres were.  Now, you can hit the usual winning combinations with both Feera and Rufus alone, but if you land the two of them side by side on an active pay line, you trigger the bonus round.  This is a full in-game bonus game.  Rufus has stone Feera’s birdie and you have to maneuver her on the screen to zap Rufus with her spells. When you hit him three times, he turns into a frog and Feera rescues her birdie and flies away.

The wizard in the game is a traditional wizard figure with a flowing beard, magic staff and pointy hat. But it’s the hat that brings to mind Harry Potter because the Crazy Hat is also a symbol on its own. And if you land 2 or more Crazy Hat symbols on the reels, the hat triggers a special reel respin feature where the hat gives specific reels an extra spin to earn you extra winnings.  This extra spin feature is in addition to the more traditional free spin feature you can win with the Spellbook Free Spins feature. Land three or more spell books for free spins and bonus money.

The other bonus I really enjoyed was Tonk’s Tinkering Doors. Now Tonk is supposedly and elf. He looks more like a happy, chubby gnome to me and trust me; there is no resemblance to Tolkien’s Legolas here. But during the game play, you’ll occasionally land a golden key on reel number 5. Tonk collects these keys and when you have 3, the Tinkering Doors feature turns on. Here the reels come to a stop and you have to select three doors for Tonk to open with his key and fix the gears. Every door earns you bonus money.  But really the fun is watching Tonk react to each door you choose. Pick a door near the top and he’ll actually look a bit put out.

If you enjoy fantasy novels or fairy tales, check this game out.  It’s the best done fantasy-inspired slot game I’ve found.

Crystal Waters is a fairly simple slot game that I came across when playing some freeroll slot tournaments. I’ll write about slot tournaments a little later, but slot games played for tournaments often tend to be a bit simpler in design.  Now, the name Crystal Waters had me confused about this slot game from the beginning. Crystal Springs is a fairly large bottle water company in my area, so Crystal Waters makes me think of spring water. Or perhaps delivery trucks.  Not the Caribbean. So the first time I opened this slot game, I was little surprised to see that the name referred to the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean and the theme was an underwater theme.  Pleasantly surprised since I probably prefer an underwater theme to a delivery truck theme. (But I bet I can find a slot game out there with that as a theme if I look hard enough.)

Crystal Waters is a five reel, twenty payline slot game that’s pretty enough to look at. The surround is a coral reef and the background a beach scene with waves and sailboats. The symbols are mostly ocean inspired. Mostly because the game does rely heavily on the 9, 10, J, Q, K, A symbols. This are drawn with wavy lines and bubbles as if being viewed while under water, but I can’t help wonder how the designers could have been so challenged with the prospect of coming up with seven more ocean or beach inspired graphics that they had to resort to card symbols. Despite the pretty peaceful ocean theme here, this isn’t a slot game you’re going to jump in and play for the fun graphics.

Now the game does have some bonus symbols and offers, but no separate in-game game. This is common with slots I’ve found used for tournaments. The focus is more on the straight spinning of the reels for quick points, so a bonus game can slow down the winning.  Crystal Waters does offer a Scatter Yacht which will give you 15 free spins if you land 3 of them. And there’s a Bonus Fish on the third reel that substitutes for other symbols.  The dolphins on reels 2 and 4 are also substitute symbols and can double your winnings.  All important in a slot tournament.

Also, if you play slots for real money, Crystal Waters has a progressive jackpot.  With real money players, the term “progressive jackpot” can cancel out all other review considerations if it’s big enough.  And this is a pleasant enough game to play while you chase the big winnings.

Remember the show The Wild Wild West.  Well, this game is nothing like that show – either the 1960s original or the 1999 remake.  But I do have to admit, this game is freaky.  I actually had to go read the game rules to figure out what was going on. For a seemingly simple slot game, it’s rather complicated. But it’s fun. And if you like bonus games, this could be a slot game for you.  It’s available at Bodog Casino and there is a free practice mode.

Okay, let’s get the basics over with. This is a five reel, 30 payline game themed after cowboys, Indians and bandits.  And yes, the game does use the term Indians.  Though the fact that all the symbols are designed to look like desert plants sort of minimizes the political correctness issue. There are lots of cactuses wearing cowboy hats here and some really funky animations for some of the wins.  It’s a game that will keep you amused even at a basic spin level, but there’s more to it than that.

Let’s talk bonus games.  Freaky Wild West Slots is divided into three games, each with its own bonus game. You’ll start off in Indians. Now, to trigger the bonus game, you have to collect slot symbols. If the same symbol lands on the center line of the second and fourth reel, it is added to your symbol collection. You can only collect a symbol once, so repeats don’t count.  In “Indians” you only need to collect four symbols to trigger the Indian Gold bonus game. In the game, you’ll see 5 cups, each with a different amount of gold. The cups run around and scatter themselves and you have three guesses to find the most gold. Anything you win is yours and added to your game money.  Then you can choose to continue playing in Indians or move to Bandits or Cowboys.

In Bandits the basic game is the same but now you have to collect six symbols before you can play the Safe Crackers bonus game.  In this game, you visit the bandits who have five sticks of dynamite and a bunch of safes to choose from.  You’ll choose the five safes you want to blow up and collect any money inside.  Then you can stay with Bandits, go back to Indians or go to Cowboys.

The Cowboys bonus game is the most difficult to trigger since you have to collect eight symbols to play it. If you’re low on fund, you might want to drop in at Indians on your way and see if you can win some Indian Gold.  It’ll take a while to collect all eight symbols, but when you do, you’ll play the Shoot for the Loot bonus game where use your mouse to shoot bandits trying to rob the bank in a Wild West town. You can win a tidy sum of money in this bonus game and by the time I got there, I needed it.  (Well, I’m play for free, so I only needed it in a virtual sense.)

Freaky Wild West slot is a game with enough fun built in to keep you spinning the reels without getting bored.  It’s fun to play for free and if you play slots for real money, it has enough small wins built in to keep you happy.

I can’t resist Egyptian themed slot games or Egyptian themed books and last winter I finally made it all the way to Egypt! I did all the usual tourist things – saw the pyramids, rode a camel. Camels take a little getting used to but I rather enjoyed it.  Oh and yes, I got to go down into a pyramid. It was a smaller one with only a couple of chambers and apparently one of the easier ones to climb down into.  “Easy” means that you scoot down the slope bent double while trying to keep your footing on a long board with strips of wood nailed in it as steps.  Just your average pyramid.  But since I can’t get back to Egypt anytime soon, I’m enjoying an Egyptian themed slot game.

I’m playing Pyramid Plunder over at WinADay Casino and this may be one of my favorite Egyptian slots.  Fortunately there are a lot of Egyptian themed slots out there to choose from, so I can have lots of fun comparing them.  Pyramid Plunder is all gold and sand colored. I do have to say that the sandy stretches of the Egyptian desert are beautiful, and the game does capture the look of sandstone carvings.  And when you win, the winning symbols turn to full color symbols with animation. It’s fun.

Look for the gold! This slot game has an interesting twist when it comes to symbols. Two of the symbols can be either sandstone colored or gold, and if they’re good, it gives you an extra chance to win.  First, the mummy. If the mummy symbol appears on a gold background, it triggers the Mummy’s surprise. This is a bonus I haven’t seen in any other game.  The gold Mummy waits until all the winning symbols are paid out and then he turns around and breaks the stones of the reel he’s on. They fall and new symbols take their place. The game treats this like a whole new spin and calculates all the wins again.  And you can land more than one gold mummy on the reels for extra fun and winnings.

The other gold symbol can be the scarab.  If the scarab is gold, it triggers the Golden Scarab Spell where the scarab beetle leaves his frame and lands on another symbol to change it. This spell can make a non-winning combination into a winning one, so look for that golden scarab.

The game also features a pyramid treasure hunt. On the left side of the game, you’ll see a pyramid silhouette. The slot reels contain pyramid pieces and whenever you hit a Pyramid symbol on the reels, it is added to the pyramid silhouette.  So think of it as building a pyramid. When you have all four pieces of the pyramid, you’ll enter the bonus game. In the game, you’ll go into a pyramid and select three floor tiles to reveal a prize. You can win spins or cash bonus or a map to another pyramid.  If the prize is the Pick a Map prize, you get the name of the pyramid you’ll visit in the next treasure hunt. Nefertiti’s pyramid and Ramses pyramid hold the best prizes, so you want to find those maps.

Pyramid Plunder is a 5 reel, 20 payline slot game with bets starting at a penny a payline. There’s also a free play version available if you create an account at Winaday Casino. I have to admit, I’ve been enjoying the free play on this one.