Slot Reviews: Spiderman, American Bandstand and America the Beautiful

29 January 2004

By Gayle Mitchell

Spider-Man is here with a multitude of villains to confound our hero. An explanation of various bonus events for this must-try Bonus Slot follows:

Spider-Man (ShuffleMaster)
This 9-line slot's win combinations will be indicated by linked, flashing colored boxes. Scatter Pays occur when three or more newspaper or camera symbols appear.

Three or more Peter Parker symbols on a lit payline will initiate one or more villainous bonus events with the Vulture, Lizard, Dr. Octopus, Sandman and Green Goblin.

Vulture's Lair Bonus: Watch for the Vulture's lair where nine hiding places will be highlighted of which four will be selected. As each hiding place is selected a moneybag, jewels, or gold bar
symbol will appear and the player is credited when matching treasures are located.

These four picks end this bonus round but you may be sent to the Green Goblin Bonus.

Lizard Bonus: The player is shown a screen containing a series of photo negatives and selects one. If the negative contains a clear picture of the lizard, you are rewarded and asked to choose another. If the picture is out of focus, the bonus round ends.

If all selections contain clear pictures, you move on to the Green Goblin Bonus.

Doctor Octopus Bonus: The many tentacled Doctor Octopus appears whereupon, the player chooses a part of Doctor Octopus for Spider-Man to shoot with his web. For each part of Doctor Octopus shot, you garner an award. The game continues until all of the parts are shot or Spider-Man misses. If you are successful in shooting all of Doctor Octopus' tentacles, you are sent to the Green Goblin Bonus.

Sandman Bonus: Spider-Man is perched on a wall next to the Sandman and you are prompted by flashing boxes to select a path to a power outlet.

Your progress will determine the rewards along the way. When Spider- Man reaches the plug, a power outlet selection is made to start the vacuum cleaner nearby. If correct, the Sandman is sucked into the vacuum and the Green Goblin Bonus awaits. If incorrect, Sandman escapes and the round ends.

Green Goblin Bonus: The player is shown a screen with a picture of the Green Goblin juggling pumpkins. When the juggling stops, you pick a pumpkin and reap the multiplied award.

You can spin your own magic with the entertaining Spider-Man slot at casinos in the Midwest and California.

It may not be available in Nevada due to the 'kiddy content' debate and if so, it's a 'Net Loss' for slot players who love the Web Man.

American Bandstand (IGT)
America's oldest teenager' is going to the slots again for the fourth time. His voice announces the songs and guides the player through the bonuses.

The legendary show has songs from different decades, the AB theme music, dancers and gold and platinum record icons. The 20-line game accepts $20 worth of nickels and it has a high hit frequency. Five AB logos on the payline returns $10,000 on a max-coin bet.

The main 'Top Ten Bonus' occurs when a Top Ten symbol lands on the first three reels. The player is prompted to select one song out of our and a chart appears with 25 spaces depicting five weeks of air play for that particular song.

The slot randomly moves the song up the charts for at least two weeks rewarding a bonus with each upward move, however, it could also move down the charts and the player has the option of 'take the money and run'.

Three 'RR' symbols trigger the 'Rate A Record' bonus where the player again selects one of four songs and is rewarded with up to five free spins plus there is a chance of multiplying those credits for a very large jackpot. This game definitely has a good beat and you can dance to it.

America The Beautiful (Bally)
The second Ray Charles themed slotcenters around his wonderfully patriotic rendition of 'America The Beautiful.' The primary paytable includes bars, cherries and 7's with a top award of 4,000 coins. The 'Paylettes,' Ray's three beautiful back-up singers are Bonus symbols along with Ray Charles concert tickets.

Line up the Paylettes and choose one of the girls for a bonus amount. Three concert tickets on the payline trigger the main 'America The Beautiful' bonus and you are transported to the Apollo Theater in Harlem where Charles has performed numerous times. The player selects different appearance dates and accumulates credits along the way while Ray tells a story of that particular gig.

I will be back soon with more slot reviews, as we enter the Slots Playground.