| I found the hybrid intriguing, a format that could please players who like both the three-reel format and the bonusing usually found on multiline video games. The screen is set back from the front glass, and a few others who tested the games said they felt like they were staring into a tunnel. I didn't have that problem, and found the games fun to play. Shuffle Master, meanwhile, put on the largest display of new slots it's had. A number of games were based on pop culture favorites, including The Incredible Hulk, Laurel & Hardy and Rubik's Cube. But the real eye-catcher, and a game with a bonus round that was one of the most fun to play, was the Budweiser slot. In a cabinet shaped like a beer bottle, Budweiser is a nine-line, five-reel video slot with reel symbols that include bottle caps, cans and various Bud logos. There are two bonus rounds, one of which is triggered by lining up three bottle caps. The reels fade from the screen, replaced by a view from above a case of Bud. Touching a bottle cap reveals a bonus multiplier. The player continues to choose until two matching multipliers are revealed. That determines the bonus. More entertaining is the swamp bonus, launched when three frogs land on the screen. This animated round features old TV commercial favorites--Frank and Louie the lizards, and the "Bud" "Weis" "Er" frogs. The lizards provide pithy commentary as the frogs dive into the swamp. Hiding places light up on the screen. The player touches the hiding places, collecting bonuses with each swamp creature found. Finding the ferret ends the round. If all three frogs are found before the ferret, the bonus is multiplied. All the while, the lizards keep up a low-key, humorous dialogue that will sound familiar to fans of the commercials. When I played the bonus round, Louie claimed that "When they win, I win," and encouraged players to send him a check, leading to this exchange: There actually are four Saturday Night Live games, with the reel-spinning Blues Brothers and Hans and Franz games joining two multiline video slots--Church Lady and The Coneheads. I took time out to test the Coneheads game and its two bonus rounds. One, called the Win Mass Quantities bonus, features a spaceship bouncing off planets on the video screen, with the planets revealing bonus awards. The other is the Senso-Ring Toss, which SNL fans will remember from the old Coneheads skits in which the adult characters had, ahem, marital relations by tossing rings over each other's cones. On the slot machine, Senso-Ring Toss features animation of either Jane Curtin's Prymat or Dan Aykroyd's Beldar Conehead character. The player selects a Conehead, then touches rings on the screen to send them flying toward the cone. The more rings that land on the cone, the bigger the bonus. I also stopped to try another old TV theme--To Tell the Truth. It's a multiline video slot with reel symbols associated with the show, including crossed fingers, the words "Trust Me" and a "To Tell the Truth" show logo. When the player lines up three, four or five adjacent show logos, it launches a bonus round that plays like the TV show. In my trial run, I was asked which player was a dog expert. One of the contestants was a dog-I thought that might be a clue. Alas, when the players on the screen had finished their half-stands and sit-downs, faking out the "audience," it was a human figure standing up. For barking up the wrong tree, I had to settle for a smaller bonus. |
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