Review G2E LAS VEGAS 2014 - PART 1
WMS Gaming’s Senior Director
Game Studios, Jason Chan, with the standout ‘The Flintstones’
WMS PRESENTS A SUPER CAST OF HITS AT G2E 2014
Mixing hi-tech with old school gaming fun, huge licences and surprising new game mechanics, WMS dazzled at G2E
WMS Gaming exhibited over 180 games on the show floor at G2E, all of which will be available to operators by July 2015. Demonstrating the cavalcade of new titles, WMS Gaming’s Senior Director Game Studios, Jason Chan, took the time to run though the cream of the crop, starting with Reel Em’ In Super Cast, a new fishing themed title that incorporates a rather ‘magical’ wand peripheral. “We want players to sit back and relax,” explained Mr. Chan of the comfortable pace of the game. “The idea behind this fishing concept is that players are waiting for the big bite, before reeling in their prize which delivers a major spin enhancement.”
Players enter event-based fishing contests, driving their boat along a crisply realised river scene while attempting to land the biggest catch of the day. The action takes place across three large 4K displays on top of two side-by-side slant-top cabinets. Players can comfortably hold the LED-lit wand while they play the game with their other hand, enabling them to reel in their fish at any moment.
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Moving from hi-tech 4K displays and wand peripherals to mechanical reels might seem like a paradigm shift, but the new steppers from WMS employ the latest technology to present a classic gaming experience. “Our mechanical reel games have been a big success,” stated Mr. Chan. “We’ve put a lot of research into redesigning the cabinet to adapt everything to mechanical player types, especially when it comes to including high denom games.”
Increasing the brightness levels of the LEDs behind the reels and by simplifying the high denomination games, the latest steppers from WMS have the traditional look of a bright, brand new mechanical reel game. WMS has even simplified the button panel of the games to create a hi-tech ‘old skool’ looking machine with all the bells and whistles of the current generation of games. “We’ve included a host of really simple to understand and play features,” explained Mr. Chan, “with triggers that send the reels into high speed ‘turbo’ bonuses that ramp up the excitement and deliver a modern take on the traditional mechanical reel game.”
Continuing to keep things simple, The Best Things in Life is a refresh of a successful title in which
WMS Gaming has reduced the entertainment content, creating a higher denomination, much more straightforward game mechanic. Having become a theme of show, in that the general sense is that games have become overly complicated to play and understand, Mr. Chan described this shift as providing ‘less fluff’ to the player. “We are looking to refresh the mechanical reel space,” added Mr. Chan. “We want operators to update stale content as players are looking to play attractive and yet simple slot games. These titles bring in a different kind of player, the penny style players looking for less entertainment and more thrill.” It’s a concept that’s working for WMS as its latest generation of steppers are pulling in one-and-a-half times the floor average from a range that includes 28 mechanical reel games in both low and high denominations.
Before embarking on a tour of the big brand licences launching this year on the WMS stand, Mr. Chan demonstrated two ‘sleeper hits’ in the form of Sweet Drops and a new multi-game, Hot Hot 8, on the S32 cabinet. Working on an ‘exploding pays mechanic,’ Sweet Drops is a Candy-esque theme that sees players chasing cascading reels that give a laddering effect to the play, which in turn triggers more spins and
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