WMS Gaming is expanding its license relationship this year with Hasbro, the game company from which it licenses the longstanding hit franchise Monopoly. Among the newest Hasbro licenses the slot-maker has acquired is a Hasbro game once made into a slot by the former Mikohn, the “Battleship” board game.
In reproducing the legendary game, in which players face each other in a strategic competition to sink each other’s unseen battleships, WMS had the advantage of 10 years of technological advance since Mikohn executed the license. It also had game styles like “Immersive Gaming” (as in “Wizard of Oz”) and the new competitive setup of the Community Play “Team Compete to Win” series.
This new setup involves four or six machines in front of one large LCD monitor framed by two portrait-style monitors. The bonus is split into two “teams”—the left half of the bank constitutes “Team Blue,” the right half “Team Red.” When one of three competitive bonuses is triggered, the player teams try to sink each other’s battleships, with high-definition video, BOSE surround-sound audio and vibrating chairs all adding to the immersive experience.
There are four base games in the series—“Periscope Pays,” “Commanding Officer,” “The Brigade” and “Grand Armada.” Each base game has its own individual bonus events.
The three common competitive bonus events occur at random. In “Bomber’s Run Bonus,” each portrait screen displays the team’s “bombing run” while the central video displays the results—for added tie-in to the board game, the bombs look like the pegs from the game and land in pegboard spots on the ships to go toward sinking each ship. The team with more hits in the first round receives a second bombing run. Each hit results in bonus credits for both players on the team.
In the “Free Spins Victory Bonus,” a reel set appears on the main screen, and cannon symbols award shots at the opposing team’s fleet in an effort to sink ships. The team sinking more ships receives a 2X multiplier at the end. In the “Find and Conquer Bonus,” each team places its fleet of ships in various positions on a replica of the Battleship game board, and then shares three picking rounds to fire at the opposing team’s ships. The team sinking the most ships gets an extra pick at a 5X multiplier.
Manufacturer: WMS Gaming
Platform: CPUNXT2
Format: Five-reel; 20-line, 30-line or 40-line video slot; 45-credit or 60-credit minimum bet configurations
Denomination: .01, .05
Max Bet: 150—1,500
Top Award: Progressive—$200,000 reset; Stand-Alone—15,000, 20,000, 25,000, 30,000, 50,000, 100,000
Hit Frequency: 23.11%—53.38%
Theoretical Hold: 10%—14%
For more information, visit www.wms.com/battleship, and for a video of the game features, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv26N9fNTP0.
