Strictly Slots December 2022

The Best of Slots 2022

THE SLOTS WE LOVE

W elcome to our annual “Best of Slots” issue, in which our readers give their opinions on their favorite places to play slots, and just as important, their favorite slot games. These are the games you told us you return to again and again— your opinion of the best the slot floor has to offer. Sometimes, your choices are slot titles players have loved for years, even decades. In fact, of your favorites, a good portion are not new games, but games that have been around for years. Others are new versions of old favorites, but what your opinions tell us is that some games stand the test of time. Your opinions are important not only to us, but to the slot manu facturers that produce the games. Player feedback is essential to slot game development, and there’s no better feedback than identifying the games players most like to play. Here are what you’ve told us are your favorite slot games in eight different categories. —Frank Legato Favorite Reel Slot Machine Your favorite game is a new version of one of the most popular slot games in history—Double Top Dollar from IGT. Top Dollar was a game originally from British manufacturer Barcrest, and IGT liked it so much it bought the company. The original was a traditional reel-spinner with an early form of bonus—when triggered, incandescent light bulbs would flash among bonus awards behind a silkscreen-glass top box until stopping on one. IGT has painstakingly re-creat

Rounding out the top five are Cleopatra, another legendary IGT title; and Buffalo Gold, utilizing a theme that is one of the most popu lar of all time.

❶ Double Top Dollar, IGT ❷ Crystal Star Deluxe, Everi Holdings ❸ 88 Fortunes, Light & Wonder ❹ Cleopatra, IGT ❺ Buffalo Gold, Aristocrat Gaming

Favorite Reel Slot Theme The reel-spinning version of Cleopatra from IGT got your nod as the favorite reel-spinning theme. You’ll find lots of small-to-medium hits, and a re-creation of the popular free-spin bonus round that made the original Cleopatra so popular in the early 2000s. One of the cool fea tures in transferring Cleopatra from video to reels—the most popular version is a three-reel, nine-line format—is the flashing of light behind the reel symbols in winning spins, showing you how you won on that particular payline. Coming in second was Quick Hit from Light & Wonder, another classic Bally reel-spinning theme. Quick Hit is known for its simple mul

tiple progressive setup based on the title symbol—three, four or five Quick Hit sym bols return static jackpots, but six or more Quick Hit symbols anywhere on the screen return progressives. There are six progressives tied to the symbols, visible on a jackpot ladder. Right behind that was the venerable Wheel of Fortune from IGT, which established the spinning wheel as a favorite bonus feature and has applied aspects of the world’s favorite game show in dozens of different ways in dozens of different versions since its 1996 introduction. Rounding out the top five reel-spin ning themes are Crystal Star From Everi, the original version of the game described above; and Blazing 7s, the game with multiple “7” combinations that is one of the most popular slot machines of all time.

ed that experience with modern tech nology, even to the point of duplicat ing the original sound effects. Coming in second was Everi’s Crystal Star Deluxe, a three-reel, nine line traditional game with a “double nudge” feature that enables you to win two progressives on one spin. Mechani cal reel-spinners are one of Everi’s spe cialties, and it definitely shows here. Right behind that was Light & Wonder’s 88 Fortunes, a perennial on our lists of favorites. Originally launched when L&W was called Bally Gaming, it has been one of the most popular Asian-themed slots in the business, its 243-ways-to-win scatter-pay format augmented by a wealth of extra features, like five gold bars you can activate for huge jackpots, “Fu Bat” wild symbols, free spins with only high-paying symbols on the grid, and a progressive picking bonus that returns one of four jackpots.

❶ Cleopatra, IGT ❷ Quick Hits, Light & Wonder ❸ Wheel of Fortune, IGT ❹ Crystal Star, Everi Holdings ❺ Blazing 7s, Light & Wonder

36 DECEMBER 2022 ■ STRICTLY SLOTS ■ www.casinocenter.com