New Game Review

88 Link Lucky Charms

Zitro

by Frank Legato

This multi-game progressive link from Zitro is featured on the Allure cabinet, which deploys three 27-inch HD monitors, the upper screens synchronized to create a visual spectacle.

88 Link Lucky Charms offers four inaugural base games—Daruma Mystery, Koinobori Party, Kokeshi Dolls and Maneki Neko. All four feature colorful Asianthemed graphics enabled by the Allure platform.

All are five-reel, 243-ways-to-win video slots featuring a five-level mystery jackpot triggered through a bonus sequence initiated by a ring symbol on the reels. The bottom two jackpots are static by total bet—a $176 “Mini” and a $440 “Minor”—with progressives resetting at $1,000 (“Big”), $5,000 (“Super”), and $15,000 for the top “Mega” prize.

The Jackpot Bonus can be triggered in both primarygame and free-game spins.

On all base games, the free-spin bonus, triggered by three scatter symbols, awards eight free games, on a reel array with the lower-paying symbols removed (Kokeshi Dolls and Maneki Neko). Three triggering symbols during a free game trigger eight additional free games. The “Extensive Wild” symbol on the third reel during free spins doubles all wins (Koinobori Party and Daruma Mystery).

Manufacturer: Zitro

Platform: Allure

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

Denomination: .01 through 2.00

Max Bet: 880

Top Award: Progressive; $15,000 reset

Hit Frequency: 50%

Theoretical Hold: 6.79%-11.77%

Brave Firefighter

Ainsworth Game Technology

This new game on Ainsworth’s A640 cabinet carries a firefighting theme in reel symbols and graphics, with an extra row of symbols above the four-by-five reel array.

The base game is a five-reel, 50-line video slot including a unique free-spin feature and a cash-on-reels “Extra Prize” bonus.

Three or more firefighter badge symbols trigger a freespin wheel. The player spins the wheel to uncover five, eight, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20 or 25 free games on a bonus reel set, at the wagering level of the triggering spin. The paylines double during the free spins, which play out on a 100-line array. During free games, two, three, four or five badge symbols trigger three, five, eight or 10 additional free games, respectively.

Prize Balls are cash-on-reels symbols displaying from two to 300 credits times the total bet each. On random spins, the image of a firefighter can appear in the row of symbols above the main reel array. When that happens, the player collects the credit amounts of all Prize Balls on that reel. The firefighter will then move left to right on each subsequent spin, awarding more Prize Ball amounts, until disappearing to the left of the screen.

The Extra Prize feature is active both on primary game an free-game spins.

Manufacturer: Ainsworth Game Technology

Platform: A640

Format: Five-reel, 50-line video slot

Denomination: .01 through 100.00

Max Bet: 500

Top Award: 6 million credits

Hit Frequency: Approximately 40%

Theoretical Hold: 5%-16%

Lucky Envelope

Konami Gaming, Inc.

This new game group on Konami’s Dimension 49J cabinet features unique cash-on-reels events and a progressive bonus feature.

Inaugural games for the series are Lucky Envelope Jade Wealth and Lucky Envelope Plum Riches. Both are five-reel, 243-ways-to-win formats. The main cashon-reels feature is called the Coin Feature in both games. When wild symbols land on the first two reels with at least one coin symbol on reels 3, 4 or 5, cashon-reels Prize Symbols substitute for the coins and award the player the credits. In Jade Wealth, multipliers are added to the awards.

The Coin Feature is available both in primary and free-game rounds, but the free games differ slightly in each version. In both games, three scatter symbols trigger 12 free spins. In Plum Riches, the Coin Feature is triggered on a free spin with only one wild symbol on the first reel. In Jade Wealth, a wild on reel 1 or reel 2 multiplies the total coin prize for that spin by two or three, except in the case of Minor or Mini jackpot wins.

Randomly, a wild symbol on the first or second reel will trigger a progressive bonus picking feature. The player selects icons until matching three correlating to one of four jackpots—on the penny version, static prizes of $10 (Mini) or $25 (Minor); or progressives resetting at $500 (Major) or $10,000 (Grand).

Manufacturer: Konami Gaming, Inc.

Platform: Dimension 49J

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

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

Max Bet: 880

Top Award: Progressive; reset at 1 million times denomination

Hit Frequency: 23.91%

Theoretical Hold: 3.52%-12.54%