New Game Review

by Frank Legato

This new Dragon Kingdom game series is on Everi’s Empire Arena setup, which connects the monitors on the supplier’s portrait cabinets in a pod setup.

The inaugural games in the series, Dragon Kingdom Eternal Wealth and Dragon Kingdom Golden Creatures, are Asian-influenced 243-ways-to-win video slots. Across machines in pods runs a horizontal wheel, its selections streaming by players in a community-based feature.

Using a mystery trigger, the wheel comes to life, with prizes including free spins, multipliers, progressive jackpots, multiple wheel spins and two secondary bonus features streaming past all the players in the bank. There are six localarea progressive jackpots available on the bonus wheel, the top Grand resetting at $5,000.

The dragon character breathes fire that forms a pointer on each player’s screen above the wheel, and each active player on the bank wins the bonus that lands on his or her screen.

The wheel begins to come to life before the actual spin, foreshadowing big wins as the wheel nears the mystery trigger.

Manufacturer: Everi Holdings Platform: Empire Arena Format: Five-reel, 243-ways-to-win video slot Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10 (multi-denomination available) Max Bet: 880 Top Award: Progressive; $5,000 reset Hit Frequency: 32% Theoretical Hold: 4%-15%

This premium game on Aristocrat’s enormous new Neptune Dual cabinet highlights the eighth and final season of the epic Game of ThronesTV fantasy series. It follows the theme of King’s Landing, the capital and largest city of the series’ Seven Kingdoms. Icons and bonus events recall the Drogon beast and the Red Keep, the seat of the story’s king.

The base game is a 40-line video slot on a four-by-five reel array. In a mystery feature dubbed Drogon High Fire Reels, the Drogon randomly appears and expands the reels to a random height of seven to 14 rows, with wild symbols added to two or more reels.

Three Free Game icons in the base game trigger five free spins. Additional free spins are awarded with “Collect+1” symbols in the free games. They are guaranteed to be “Drogon Spins,” in which the reels are expanded on the imposing twin 49-inch monitors of the Neptune Dual cabinet.

The main Red Keep Bonus involves “Credit on Reels” symbols, Aristocrat’s version of the “Cash on Reel” play mechanic that involves reel symbols displaying credit amounts that are accumulated for a payoff. Six or more of the symbols trigger the Red Keep bonus event, which utilizes Aristocrat’s “Hold & Spin” pay mechanic. The triggering Credit on Reels symbols lock in place for three re-spins, and the feature continues as long as at least one Credit on Reels symbol appears, which resets the spins to three. In this feature, the throne symbol unlocks up to four additional rows of symbols, and resets the spin count to three.

Within the Red Keep Bonus, the player can trigger the Red Keep Jackpots feature, in which rows of spaces appear under each of the four progressive jackpot meters. As the bonus progresses, jackpot icons can fill the spaces under any of the jackpots—the player can win all four if the feature lasts. The top Grand jackpot reset at $10,000.

Manufacturer: Aristocrat Gaming Platform: Neptune Dual Format: Five-reel, 40-line video slot Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10 (multi-denomination available) Max Bet: 240 Top Award: Progressive; $10,000 reset Hit Frequency: Approximately 50% Theoretical Hold: 3.8%-11.38%

This new game on IT’s V55 and Infinity Summit cabinets takes full advantage of the 55-inch monitors on each cabinet to bring the Ultra Rush game, the supplier’s first to utilize a “hold-and-spin” bonus feature, to a premium format.

The Ultra Gold Rush series is being launched with two sister games—Tiger Run and Mythical Phoenix. Both are five-reel, 30-line video slots. The game character—a golden tiger or a phoenix—is the main difference between the two base games. Like the original Ultra Rush game, each base game awards eight free spins for three scattered bonus trigger symbols. During the free games, all royal symbols are wild, and there are “nudging” wild symbols—wilds that land just above or below a pay line and nudge to the line, potentially forming a win.

The hold-and-spin Ultra Rush Bonus also is reprised, but with a new basegame feature that increases its frequency.

The goal of the bonus is to collect scatter symbols over three spins. Each symbol bears a credit amount, some rising as high as several thousand credits. The feature starts out with three spins on a special set of reels. Each time a scatter symbol lands, it remains in place and the number of available spins resets to three. If three spins occur with no additional scatters, the feature ends with the player awarded the cumulative total of the credits displayed. If the entire 15space grid is covered with the symbols, the player gets a bonus of $600 (on the penny version at max bet), in addition to the accumulated credits.

In Ultra Rush Gold, the primary game includes normal game symbols that are also orb symbols—they appear as an orb with the game symbol at the bottom. These symbols combine with other game symbols to form the normal line combinations, but they also lock in place to count toward triggering the bonus, in a persistent feature called “Gold Lock Spins.” This persistent feature mimics the main hold-and-spin feature in a three-spin sequence. The symbols, like the main feature, all include credit amounts on them. There are other twists added to the main hold-and-spin bonus. During the feature, in addition to the scatter symbols bearing credit amounts, there are symbols labeled “wheel.” At the end of the feature, each of those symbols triggers a spin of the progressive wheel above the reels on the top screen. There are four awards on the wheel. There are static Mini and Minor jackpots of $10 and $50, respectively, plus two progressive jackpots—a Major resetting at $500 and the Grand, resetting at $10,000.

The progressives are available at any bet level, including the minimum 50-credit bet. After the main feature ends, you get as many spins on the progressive wheel as you’ve accumulated. It’s possible to win more than one progressive in a single feature.

Manufacturer: Incredible Technologies Platform: V55, Infinity Summit Format: Five-reel, 30-line video slot Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10 (player-selectable multi-denomination) Max Bet: 300 Top Award: Progressive; $10,000 reset Hit Frequency: Approximately 50% Theoretical Hold: 5.92%-14.92%

This new game series woven around the mythical Kraken sea monster is featured on Scientific Games’ TwinStar Matrix cabinet, featuring three stacked 27inch monitors in landscape configuration.

The two inaugural games in the series, Dive For Five and Storm Maiden, include a common feature that is a twist on the hold-and-spin mechanic. Each base game is a five-reel, 50-line video slot including a two-level near-area progressive jackpot plus two static jackpots.

Three, four or five scattered Temple symbols award six free games with a win multiplier of 1X, 5X or 20X, respectively. During the free games, any Maiden symbol on reel 4 awards a multiplier of 2X to 5X.

The progressive Kraken Feature is triggered by three Plank symbols. If a Plank symbol lands in the top or middle position of a reel and the Kraken Feature is not triggered, the symbols on that reel shift down by one position and lock in place for the next spin, or next free game if in the free-spin feature.

Each Plank symbol displays a credit prize up to 100 times the total bet, MINI Bonus, MINOR Bonus, or MAJOR Jackpot. Six or more scattered Plank symbols trigger the Kraken Feature, and three spins are awarded. All Plank symbols that triggered the feature will be held in place for the duration of the feature.

During the feature, if one or more Plank symbols land on screen, then those symbols will be held for the remainder of the feature and the number of remaining spins is reset to three. If fewer than 12 positions are held at the end of the feature, the prizes displayed on all held Plank symbols are awarded. If all 12 positions are held, then one spin of the Kraken Reel is awarded and awards a credit value of 20-200 times the total bet, a multiplier of 2X-5X, the Mini Bonus, Minor Bonus, Major Jackpot or the Grand Jackpot. The top jackpot resets at 500,000 times the denomination.

Manufacturer: Scientific Games Platform: TwinStar Matrix Format: Five-reel, 50-line video slot Denomination: .01, .02, .05, .10, 1.00, 2.00 Max Bet: 500, 50, 25 Top Award: Progressive; resets at 500,000 times denomination Hit Frequency: 23.97%-29.16% Theoretical Hold: 9.07%-12.17%