Manufacturer: Bally Technologies
Platform: Alpha Elite
Format: Five-reel, 25-line stepper slot
Denomination: .01, .02, .03, .05, .10, .15, .20, .25
Max Bet: 200
Top Award: Progressive; $5,000 reset
Hit Frequency: 33.79%
Theoretical Hold: 11.62%-14.28%
With this game, Bally offers a novel new use of its V32 video platform, which features a vertical 32-inch video screen. (It is the format popularized by Bally’s video roulette game and Fireball video slot.) A three-reel, 25-line base game sits underneath a video display dominated by the upper-right side of a standard bonus fortune wheel.
What makes this application of the wheel bonus unique is a feature called “U-Spin.” When a bonus symbol appears in any position on the third reel, the player gets one spin of the wheel, which contains spaces for various bonus amounts, a free-game bonus, or one of two progressive jackpots-a “Minor” resetting at $100 or a “Major” resetting at $5,000. With the U-Spin feature, the player physically touches the wheel and gives it a spin. The wheel “reacts” to the force of the player’s spin. Audio replicates the sound of a fortune wheel as it slows down. It is an innovative effect.
The base games use Bally’s “Interactive Reels” technology, in which a video overlay on the reels causes animation to float across the mechanical reel set during bonus rounds. The player must wager a minimum of one credit per line plus a 15-credit “U-Spin Bonus Bet” to activate the bonus feature.
In addition to the free-spin bonus activated through the wheel-12 free spins with all pays doubled, except for the progressives, with the ability to re-trigger the free games up to 60 total-there is a second-screen event triggered by three scattered bonus symbols. In the “Money Bag Bonus,” the player selects one of three money bag symbols on the reels to reveal a hidden credit value ranging from three to 50 times the total bet. This bonus also can be triggered during a free spin.
