I had a chance while in St. Louis this weekend to hit a few casinos, in search of the newer game show slots. Most of the following were found at Harrahs & Ameristar in the St. Charles Area:
First off, if you're wandering through the casino and you hear the beep, think of all the money you'll waste playing...
SUPERMARKET SWEEP: The official description & screen shots can be found
HERE!!!The Good: Not much, This particular slot ate up my cash pretty quick, although I did hit a multi-spin bonus round which was rather confusing.
The Bad: No music from the actual TV game that I could hear, nor was there a David Ruprecht host nor a Randy West or Johnny Gilbert announcer. (However, if you MEET Randy at a future TPIR Live event and the casino floor has the SS slots, he can do live play by play!)
GRADE: C
Move Over, Wheel & J!, King World is milking another game show for as many versions as it can get out of it...
HOLLYWOOD SQUARES -- PREMIER NIGHT: The official description & screen shots can be found
HERE!!!The Good: The Bonus Games are quite fun, the 2 that were commonground during my plays -- The Searchlight bonus, which is an above machine randomizer for extra credits, and the Tic Tac Toe Bonus game in which you can try to get as many 3-in-a-row combinations as you can with 4 or 5 picks. And like with the other 4 or 5 variations of the video slot games, there are a few returning regulars and a few new celebs that fill the board. Only Loni Anderson, Litttle Richard and David Hasselhoff appear on the reels themselves, in addition to the bonus games.
The Bad: Not too much. Joan Rivers was the hostess of the show, and her "intros" and celebrity chats into the bonus rounds were limited. And David Hasselhoff was worth more in credits than Little Richard & Loni Anderson when there were 3 or 4 in a row!?!?
GRADE: A-
The Ghost of Allen Returns in PASSWORD: Descriptions, etc... are
HEREThe Good: Not a bad voice impersonation of Allen, A lot of opportunities to hit WILD spaces -- And if it looks like you MAY hit the required number of symbols to hit a bonus round or a big payoff, the next video reel spins for a little longer time just to tug on your anxiousness. Chuck Donegan mentioned the confusing bonus rounds in a previous thread, but the actual animation of the set and the bonus round celebrities (Marty Allen, Rose Marie, Adam West & Dawn Wells -- All but Dawn are also featured on the spinning wheels) is very nice and realistic-looking. It does play the 70s version theme (or variation thereof) of Password when the reels spin.
The Bad: Adam West is one of the Reel Symbols and not Mary Ann!?!?. The Bonus rounds didn't come up often enough for me to understand the concept, except when you would pick the righ envelope, you'd win the big credit amounts on each rung of the bonus ladder.
GRADE: B+
The Best BLANK-ing machine I Found -- MATCH GAME -- details
HERE!!! (NOTE: I stubled upon this one on the way home at the Harrah's in Joliet, IL, not seen in MO).
The Good: Pretty much all of it. Excellent graphics which represent the pre-Star Wheel orange set. Great Charactures of the Panel (Jimmy Walker, Brett, Charles, Morgan Fairchild (and for winning one of the bonuses, I got to meet her for dinner, yeah, that's the ticket), Rip Taylor and Vicki Lawrence). And the original WANK music plays when the reels are spinning. Even the credit and payoff meters are displayed in eggcrate format. I especially liked the Round 1-3 Bonus Game. I didn't know untill I read on another person's website lised below that if you match enough stars in a round, you play a second and possibly a 3rd round -- No matter, I hit close to $75 on a nickel machine just by picking the WIN ALL ENVELOPES box for well over 1,000 credits in only the first round with only 2 picks out of 9 envelopes.
The Bad: They could've found other people who could impersonate Gene Rayburn better than the person on the video slots. But if that's my only nit-picky disappointment (that and not getting to play the Super Match Bonus Round), then there is no reason why this machine gets...
GRADE: A+
I had also caught eyes on a new Family Feud non-video slot machine. From the few seconds I had to see it in action, it sounds like they use Ray Combs as the voice and actual flip boxes to reveal winnings above the machine itself. Unfortunately, it was a Quarter machine, and you needed to play 3 coins to possibly play that bonus game. I'm not sure how different this Feud version plays versus the 1st generation Feud game which came out about 5 years ago as I didn't get to play this newer version. The short official description and photo of it is
HERE!!!And if you wish to view a little more info an the aforementioned machines *and* get a peek at a Wheel Of Fortune Slots game that is nearly as big as the actual wheel itself. The games and reviews are among the descriptions of other new non-game-show slots found at
THIS site put out by clayvision.com.
Enjoy!
