Light & Wonder: Flash and Wonder

New hardware and ramped-up R&D translate into a burst of new content from L&W

For the past several years, Light & Wonder has explored new ways to display some of the best content in the industry.

From sleek cabinets like the Cosmic and Horizon to the groundbreaking LightWave, which surrounds slots with giant LED displays that amplify the game display, L&W surprises operators and players every year with new ways to present games, and new titles designed to exploit the benefits of the new hardware.

Even considering this history, this year’s Global Gaming Expo will be special for L&W.

“Any pre-G2E discussion comes down to new content, new cabinets, and excitement about what’s coming out,” says Fred Nunez, senior director of product management at Light & Wonder. “But for us, this is a really pivotal year. Across the board, there’s been a lot of investment back into our studios, and you’ll see that actually come to fruition.”

As in many recent years, the flood of new content starts with hardware. L&W will officially launch four new cabinets at G2E, offering elaborate displays that call attention to unique game offerings. Another new cabinet, LightWave Solar, was released in June with launch titles Hot Hot Flaming Pots and Hot Trio Fiesta Caliente.

At the show, L&W also will debut the Cosmic Profile, a slant-top version of the sleek Cosmic Dual Screen cabinet, along with three other new cabinets: the Cosmic Halo, a new portrait slant; Landmark 10K stepper; and FireBird, a gaming ops premium cabinet.

LightWave Solar features a 49-inch Ultra HD LCD integrated with an enhanced digital MLED surround, giving it a commanding 65-inch multi-plane surface of display.

It also features a built-in edge lighting design, giving the bank a premium-quality look and feel. It also boasts modularity and flexibility as a standard single upright machine, bankable and moveable across the casino floor in all desired bank configurations.

“We’ve made quite a bit of an investment in our technology,” says Nunez. “LightWave Solar is the one platform that allows us to take that gameplay experience and move it out throughout the enhanced digital display that extends the player game display area to 65 inches. “We’ve actually carved out a new space for ourselves—this really is a premium content offering on a for-sale game.”

Presentation Meets Content

The new hardware augments L&W’s current lineup of high-performing cabinets, with a variety of new game offerings that exploit the capabilities of each form factor.

The two launch titles for the LightWave Solar cabinet take full advantage of the immersive environment created by the cinematic presentation. A play on L&W’s Hot Pots brand, Hot Hot Flaming Pots features two hold-and-spin features, the second triggered within the first.

Hot Hot Flaming Pots features three distinct hold-and-spin-style features: the Order Up Feature, the Hot Order Up Feature, and the Hot Hot Order Up Feature.

Landing three scatter symbols triggers the Hot Wheel Feature. From there, players have the opportunity to advance into the upgraded Hot Hot Wheel Feature. Within the Hot Wheel Feature, every Stack Win is awarded with a 2X multiplier. In the upgraded Hot Hot Wheel Feature, every Stack Win is enhanced with a 3X multiplier.

During any Order Up Feature, peppers above the reels fill pots that activate the letters in “GRAND.” When all GRAND letters are activated, the Grand progressive jackpot is awarded.

When a Honey Pot symbol lands, it collects the values of all cash-on-reels symbols into its own value.

Hot Trio Fiesta Caliente, a new three-pot game from Light & Wonder’s Reno studio, wraps a chili-pepper theme around a hold-and-spin feature that changes depending on which pots fill, alone or in combination.

Each of the three peppers carries its own enhancement. Orange delivers 2X3X Surge, doubling or tripling cash-on-reels awards, including jackpots. Green triggers Grande Reels, expanding the hold-and-spin interface to as many as six rows high. Red starts Fiesta Spin, where red peppers build a multiplier of up to 7X that then applies to every prize in a second, nested hold-and-spin round.

That round, the Piñata Fiesta Spin, has eight positions wrapped around an oversized center position that carries the largest prizes and jackpots. Fill every position on the piñata and the game pays the Fiesta progressive jackpot, resetting at $1,000.

Hot Trio Fiesta Caliente is available exclusively on the Lightwave Solar cabinet and supports denominations of 1 cent to $2.

A highlighted game launching at G2E on the Solar LightWave is A Purrate’s Life, featuring a feline pirate straddling treasure chest collection pots. Next to the cat are rows of credit awards floating above the sea.

In the primary game (Treasure Treats or Amethyst Fortunes), when a “catalyst” coin symbol lands on the first reel, any tuna can symbols on reels 2-5 award random values from the floating prize board. (It is the same prize-board mechanic used in L&W’s Universal Monster series.)

There are changing multiplier values above each reel. When a credit feature occurs, any credit values on a given reel are multiplied by that reel’s multiplier. The collection pots—“Extra Games,” “Multiplier” and “Expanding”—enhance a free game feature. The “Expanding” feature adds a row to the reel array when a blue gem lands on any reel.

Extended Families

The new cabinet augments what is a remarkable variety of cabinet presentations from Light & Wonder. The company is deploying its entire arsenal of hardware for new titles to be highlighted at G2E. On the original LightWave presentation and the Jumbo Horizon cabinet is the latest game in L&W’s Universal Monster series, Dracula Rising.

Like other games in the Universal Monster game family, prizes in the bonus round zap from the “head shot” of the monster—in this case, Dracula—to an overhead prize board with a lightning bolt that animates while the prize is being awarded. It is particularly entertaining in the LightWave format, with the giant Dracula head on the backing canvas reacting in concert with the character on the screen.

Landing Heart symbols on reels 1 or 5 and any wilds on the middle reels triggers the Dracula Bonus, in which four unique colored Dracula symbols zap prizes to the overhead board. The Dracula perceived-persistence pot can trigger a free-games feature on an expanded reel set, with the various Dracula heads zapping more prizes from the board.  Keep an eye out for the bats and fog that could trigger the Dracula Mystery Bonus in the base game or free games, which reveal hidden Heart or Dracula symbols.

L&W will include another brand extension at G2E, a new entry in the Ultimate Fire Link family.

Ultimate Fire Link Blazing Dragon (base games Beijing and Shanghai), featured on the original LightWave cabinet, includes familiar fireball cash-on-reels awards and a giant bonus wheel behind the reels. A wheel symbol in the base game awards jackpots or one or more enhancements to a hold-and-spin feature.

The hold-and-spin feature takes place on a four-row grid, with four more rows that can be unlocked by reaching thresholds in collecting fireball symbols. There also is a “pick your volatility” free-spin bonus.

Carnival in the Sky

At G2E, Light & Wonder will feature an elaborate spectacle of a game on the towering Cosmic Sky cabinet, which rises over 11 feet and features stacked 55-inch portrait monitors. Enter the Fun House uses this setup to create a carnival/arcade/circus theme that incorporates a trip to the fun house into reel symbols and bonus events.

Throw the ball into the clown’s mouth to trigger the hold-and-spin. Four circus characters each provide a different enhancement. Additional enhancements can be triggered within the feature. There are fun images popping up throughout the features, and funny animated sequences throughout. There is a “Fun House Bonus” that plays out as an old-style lightbox bonus. There are fun twists like the “World’s Smallest Mini,” that starts at $1, but increases for every arcade-style prize ticket issued.

Other entertaining games include Cats, Hats & More Bats, and the dog-themed Hooowlin’ Spinfire.

Cats, Bats & More Bats is part of the Lock it Link series of hold-and-spin games. Hooowlin’ Spinfire is a three-pot collection game with enhancements to a hold-and-spin feature. Pots include “Hot Treasure,” which boosts the value of every treasure symbol (cash-on-reels) landing in the base game. The “Hot Reels” pot triggers a feature in which wheel symbols spin to reveal a cash award. “Hot Jackpots” triggers a jackpot picking round after the main bonus.

Light & Wonder’s G2E display reflects the results of an expanding network of game design studios. The latest is Vivid Studio in Reno. “We announced development of this studio two years ago, and now their games are live in the market,” Nunez says. “For us, it’s exciting to have that talent coming into the company. We reinvested, and now we have the fruits to deliver.

“It’s great to see the convergence of great hardware and talented designers across our development centers globally,” says Nunez. “They’re leveraging technology and cultivating our internal and third-party IP on these great canvases, still finding new ways to take that movie and make a different journey out of it.”