May Luck Be with You
STAR WARS: TIPS ON HOW TO PLAY THIS ELABORATE SLOT MACHINE
Chances are that, by the time you read this, what is perhaps
the most intense slot game ever made has been installed on
your favorite casino’s floor.
IGT’s Star Wars: A New Hope video slot, which we highlighted
in the May issue of our sister publication, Strictly Slots,
is like no other before it; the features on the game are so
elaborate that a primer on this remarkable slot is surely
in order.
The Star Wars slot is a penny video slot carrying the sights,
sounds and even the story line of George Lucas’s original
1977 Star Wars: Episode IV film. The 30-payline video screen,
set in a huge, 19-inch color monitor, is housed in an eye-popping
cabinet with a mechanical bonus apparatus in the top box:
a massive, silver sphere that replicates the planet-killing
“Death Star” weapon in the original movie.
The first thing you need to decide is whether you want to
shoot for the top jackpot. It is a MegaJackpots progressive
prize, starting at $1 million in Nevada and $500,000 in other
jurisdictions. And yes, you have to bet the maximum to qualify
for it. So, although this is a penny-denomination game, if
you want to go for the gold, it will cost you $3 a spin.
But you don’t really have to go for the big-money prize
to enjoy this game. In fact, if life-changing jackpots are
the reason you’re playing, you may as well go with the
three-coin dollar Megabucks slot or some other dollar progressive.
You’ll shell out the same per-spin wager, but your odds
of hitting the big one will be about twice as high.
Ladies and gentlemen, Star Wars should be played for the experience
of it. And you won’t experience everything if you bet
solely max-coin. Depending on how much you wager, you will
see one of three distinct sets of reel symbols and animation,
and you will hear different sounds.
Each wagering threshold transforms the theme of the primary
game to reflect a different setting from the original movie.
Betting one to four coins per line will take you to Tatooine,
Luke Skywalker’s home planet. (That’s where droids
R2-D2 and C-3PO land and meet the film’s hero, along
with legendary Jedi warrior Obi-Wan Kenobi.) Betting five
to nine credits per line will switch the screen to the Cantina,
the interplanetary bar where Skywalker meets Harrison Ford…
er, I mean, mercenary pilot Han Solo, and his hairy alien
companion Chewbacca. Betting the maximum 10 coins per line
switches the theme of the primary game to the Death Star sequence,
with sights and sounds reflecting the film’s climactic
battle.
Thus, switching your wagering level around will permit you
to experience all of the themes built into the primary game.
Once you’ve seen everything, if your credit bank permits,
you may want to stick with max-coin for a while. Why? Because
the game’s overall level of return rises a bit each time
you pass one of the wagering thresholds. Some of the jackpots
are higher with the higher wagering levels. As IGT officials
say, “The more you bet, the looser it gets.” Still,
don’t sweat it if you want to preserve your playing time
with lower wagers. We’re only talking a point or two
of difference over the long term. In the short term, you’re
still going to enjoy this game, max-coin or not.
One of the reasons for this is the remarkable presentation,
on IGT’s Advanced Video Platform, a computer operating
system with enough horsepower to display fluid live-action
video and intricate movie-style animation with a quality you’ve
never seen on a slot.
A second reason is incredible lineup of bonus events built
into the game. It starts with a primary-screen event. Scatter-pay
wins are triggered when one or both droids land on the reels.
As the scatter pay logs onto the meter (you get a higher jackpot
with matching droids), the animated images turn into film
clips from the movie of the characters in motion within the
reel spots.
If the villain Darth Vader lands on the first reel with Jedi
Obi-Wan Kenobi on the fifth reel, an incredible animated sequence
ensues, called the Light Saber Bonus. This is a wonderful
re-creation of the light saber duel between the two characters
in the film, created in IGT’s custom motion-capture animation
studio. Hollywood studios use the very same technique and
technology to create computer animation for films.
When the bonus is triggered, the
two combatants appear on the screen, and the player is prompted
to select the one she thinks will win the battle. The light
saber duel ensues, and a bonus award is displayed at the end.
If the player’s chosen character wins the battle, the
player’s award is higher.
Three Death Star symbols on an active line in the primary
game trigger the multilevel Death Star Bonus. This event is
interactive between the main video screen and the large, top-box
Death Star device, in a sequence of animation, lights and
sounds that continues through several levels.
You will notice that the display includes three arrows on
top of the sphere and three arrows on the bottom, with bonus
amounts on the actual sphere. When the Death Star spins, the
player scores the amounts on which two of the arrows land.
And before you ask, yes—it matters which selection you
make at each juncture. The machine’s random number generator
has predetermined where the Death Star will land, but it can’t
predetermine which arrows you light up.
Here’s how it all plays out in the actual bonus.
The first level of the bonus depicts Han Solo’s battle
with the evil Empire’s “stormtroopers” inside
the Death Star. After a letter-box window on the video screen
shows the film’s sequence of Solo yelling as he is chased
through the vessel’s corridors by the white-clad stormtroopers,
the player sees Solo’s view of three stormtroopers ready
to zap him with their laser weapons. The positions of the
stormtroopers on the video screen correspond to the positions
of the arrows on the Death Star. The player is prompted to
touch one of the villains—whom Solo shoots dead—lighting
up the corresponding arrow on top of the Death Star.
The process then repeats itself, with the player again selecting
a stormtrooper to zap—this time lighting up the corresponding
arrow beneath the Death Star. The sphere then spins, stopping
with bonus amounts or a “Superlaser” symbol lining
up with the arrows. If they’re both bonus amounts, they
are added together and the sequence ends. But Superlaser sends
the bonus round into a new level, with the video screen depicting
the film’s chase scene between Han Solo’s spaceship,
the Millennium Falcon, and the TIE fighters of the Empire.
The player sees three of the enemy fighters through the Falcon’s
electronic targeting displays, and selects one to shoot. The
fighters selected by the players correspond to the arrows
on the Death Star and illuminate one each on the upper and
lower displays. The Death Star spins again, landing either
on two bonus amounts to end the round, or on the Superlaser
again to trigger the third and climactic level of the bonus:
the final showdown between Lord Vader’s fighter ships
and the rebel alliance fighters in their quest to destroy
the Death Star.
The sequence repeats—the player targets the TIE fighters
through the scope of Luke Skywalker’s ship, lighting
up arrows on the Death Star to spin the sphere a third time.
If two credit amounts land, all the accumulated bonus awards
are added together and awarded to the player. If it lands
on the Superlaser again, the player will receive 1,000 extra
credits as the Death Star explodes, just as in the film.
That’s the key to the quality of these bonus events—“just
as in the film.” They really do transport you back to
experience the 1977 film.
You may get a broader overall experience by altering your
wagers in the primary game, but I have only one tip for getting
the maximum enjoyment out of the bonus sequences: Just sit
back and enjoy the ride.
TIP OF THE MONTH
What About that House Edge?
Star Wars is a penny game, and penny games have been taking
the industry by storm. The most frequent question we receive
on penny slots is, What about the house edge?
You may have heard that the lower the denomination on a slot,
the lower the overall payback percentage. You heard right.
On Star Wars, if you don’t consider the progressive jackpot,
the primary game returns less than 88 percent of wagers over
the long term. That’s a whopping 12 percent-plus in house
edge.
The fact is that most penny-denomination games you’ll
find on the floor have a house edge that is well over 10 percent.
Does this mean you should avoid them?
Not necessarily, and here’s why… The penny video
slots, and increasingly, penny reel-spinning slots, are designed
for entertainment. Sure, it is possible to win big on these
games. But, by and large, they are there to offer players
a lot of playing time for a little bit of money. Today’s
penny slots will often let you cruise through an entire night
of playing slots on a couple of $20 bills. You may get a higher
overall return on quarters or dollars, but unless you’re
very lucky, there’s no way you’re getting out of
there for less than a C-note if you want to play for a while.
As we’ve seen with Star Wars and other new penny games,
many machines are designed to keep the enjoyment level high.
Players love the multitude of bonus features in penny video,
and the multitude of hits that come on the penny reel-spinners.
If you are a player with a big bankroll playing mainly for
the shot at some serious money, by all means, go with quarters
or dollars, or even $5. But if you primarily want a good time
from the games, without having to dip into your wallet constantly,
then the sustained entertainment value of these penny games
can be good compensation for putting up with that hefty house
edge.
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