New Game Review

by Frank Legato

Hai Long

AGS

This is one of the two launch titles in the AGS “Bubble Mania” game family, designed for the Orion Portrait and Orion Curve cabinets. (The other title is a sister game, the witch-themed Potion Pays.)

The base game is a five-reel, 50-line video slot in an operator-selectable denomination. It is available with stand-alone or linked progressives.

The dragon-themed Hai Long includes 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.

Randomly, the game’s subaquatic dragon swoops through while bubbles appear with credits or jackpots, moving up one reel position for each game played. Oversized bubbles may be awarded in multiple positions.

In addition to credits, the bubbles can award one of two progressive jackpots. If they land on a pearl trigger symbol, they pay the indicated credit amount. The bubbles can randomly grow to cover more reel spots—even the entire reel array, virtually guaranteeing a payoff.

But the bonus features are the center of the game. 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

Manufacturer: AGS P

Platform: Orion

Format: Five-reel, 50-line video slot

Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10, .25, .50, 1.00, 2.00, 5.00, 10.00 (operator-selectable)

Max Bet: 750 Top

Award: Progressive; Reset at 500,000 times denomination

Hit Frequency: 28.63%

Theoretical Hold: 4.38%-14.8%

Pinwheel Prizes

Incredible Technologies

This is one of the first games on IT’s groundbreaking Prizm VXP cabinet.

The 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.

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 Pinwheel Prizes series features two inaugural games, Pinwheel Prizes Cat & Tiger and Pinwheel Prizes Majestic Oasis. Both are 40-line games with five pinwheels on the top monitor displaying credit prizes. reel array, and more chances at awards.

Then, there is a fun feature called the Bubble Pick Bonus. This is an interactive touch-screen 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.

Free games, triggered with three or more scattered dragon head symbols, initiate with 10 spins, and the reel array expands to eight rows. Free games can be retriggered.

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 55-inch monitor rises as 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.

Five pinwheels feature wedges of credit awards and free spins.

Free spins can be awarded by the scatters or by landing on a Gold wedge during a Pinwheel spin. Eight free spins take place on the dual set of reels, with 40 paylines each.

Manufacturer: Incredible Technologies

Platform: Prism

Format: Five-reel, 40-line video slot

Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10

Max Bet: 300

Top Award: 20,000 times bet

Hit Frequency: Approximately 40%

Theoretical Hold: 5.84%-14.85%

Rising Diamond

Konami Gaming, Inc.

This new game on Konami’s tall Dimension 49 cabinet takes the standard expanding-reels bonus and applies it to the entire primary game.

The array starts out as a five-by-three array—five reels, three rows each, offering 243 ways to win on each spin. Any one, two or three wild symbols landing on the reels expands the array by one, two or three rows, respectively. The expanded array and increased ways to win remain in place until no wilds appear for three games in a row, after which the screen reverts to the original five-by-three setup.

Reaching the top level results in a free-spin round on a 10-row array of reels that yields 100,000 ways to win on every spin.

There is an added bonus for when certain height thresholds are reached in the expanding-reel feature. If one wild lands when the reels are seven rows high, or when two wilds land at six rows high or three at five rows high, the “Rising Diamond Bonus” feature is triggered. During this feature, the player selects icons to reveal multipliers, extra free spins, rising reels or extra picks.

When the reels extend to the top, a free spin bonus is triggered, in which the spins begin at five, and the total resets to five every time a Rising Diamond symbol appears on a free spin.

There is a three-level progressive, triggered by matching jackpot symbols on reels one and five—the Minor, resetting at $40 in the penny version, the Major, resetting at $200, or the Grand, resetting at $5,000—500,000 credits in denominations available as high as $1.

The game is available in two versions, Rising Diamond Pink Edition or Rising Diamond Blue Edition. The color of the theme graphics is the only difference.

Manufacturer: Konami Gaming, Inc.

Platform: KXP

Format: Five-reel, 243-ways-to-win video slot

Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10, .25, .50, 1.00

Max Bet: 800

Top Award: Progressive; Reset at 500,000 times denomination

Hit Frequency: 30.57%

Theoretical Hold: 5.94%-12.91%

Tiger’s Throne

Ainsworth Game Technology

This new title on Ainsworth’s A-STAR Curve cabinet features a constant persistent feature that results in wild reels on the four-by-five format and in wilds with multipliers.

The base game is a 40-line video slot, but the persistent feature is always active. In the base game, whenever a framed pearl lands, the frame remains until the game’s main character—the tiger, or in an identical sister game, the Panther in Panther’s Throne. When the tiger or panther roars, all framed positions turn into Wild, 2X Wild or 3X Wild symbols. Frequently during the base game, the tiger or panther will land in a framed position, which turns the entire reel wild.

This injects a lot of volatility into the game. The period in which the player is collecting framed positions can extend a good while, until several reels are all but covered with framed symbols. When what is called the Roar Bonus hits when the screen is filled with frames, the payoff is huge— typically hundreds of dollars on a penny game.

The free-games feature takes the wild sequence farther. When it is triggered with three scatter symbols, the screen expands to double the height— eight rows and 80 paylines. For 10 free spins with a chance to retrigger for additional three-spin rounds, any wild symbol that lands on the screen sticks for the remainder of the feature. If the tiger or panther roars at this point, the wilds can be transformed into 2X or 3X wilds.

Manufacturer: Ainsworth Game Technology

Platform: A-STAR Curve

Format: Five-reel, 40-line video slot

Denomination: .01 through 100.00 Max Bet: 500

Top Award: 36,000 Credits

Hit Frequency: 41.22%

Theoretical Hold: 5%-15%