Contest SLOT OF THE YEAR 2018! RESULTS!

[goatwack]

Who knew that Jammin' Jars would take Runner-up spot after all that controversy. No doubt aided by Chopley's constant lauding it on the boards

If I voted for Napoleon I must have been high because after extensive playthroughs it is a shocking game, no idea how it could win. I've seen HV and I admire Dave's majestic wonder-hit on it but there's nothing to praise about it.

Hard to believe so many symbols can fail to align, that goes beyond credibility and disbelief, and it's terribly produced. Like you want to get on to the next spin after one or two scatters have shown up and if you click to get rid of it it'll give you the result of the next spin instantly etc

Plus what's with the awful wailing during spins and sub- Playstation 1 'cutscenes' Bit overhyped and not worthy of top spot, at all

Wild Heist & Falcon Huntress not even breaking the Top 10 is another mystery

 

[dunover]

Who knew that Jammin' Jars would take Runner-up spot after all that controversy. No doubt aided by Chopley's constant lauding it on the boards

If I voted for Napoleon I must have been high because after extensive playthroughs it is a shocking game, no idea how it could win. I've seen HV and I admire Dave's majestic wonder-hit on it but there's nothing to praise about it.

Hard to believe so many symbols can fail to align, that goes beyond credibility and disbelief, and it's terribly produced. Like you want to get on to the next spin after one or two scatters have shown up and if you click to get rid of it it'll give you the result of the next spin instantly etc

Plus what's with the awful wailing during spins and sub- Playstation 1 'cutscenes' Bit overhyped and not worthy of top spot, at all

Wild Heist & Falcon Huntress not even breaking the Top 10 is another mystery

Wild Heist at Bigcock Manor and Falcon Huntress did actually get a first choice and 44 points between them so were a couple of the better-performing games to be fair. Just seems everything pales into insignificance amidst the onslaught of Megaways and other HV stuff.

 

[samikk]

Napoleon can be brutal (like all HV games) but I can see why it was the winner of this year contest. When it's hot there's a good chance to get those wild/high paying symbol wins and then it's very exciting slot IMHO. Usually you don't get any big wins but basegame can suprise you and pay big sometimes. All HV slots pays bad most of the time. IMO, you have to judge it when it's hotter and pays better to see the potential and excitement. Otherwise most of these HV games are utter sh*t and many of them could be the tosser of the year.

 

[lotusch]

Who knew that Jammin' Jars would take Runner-up spot after all that controversy. No doubt aided by Chopley's constant lauding it on the boards

If I voted for Napoleon I must have been high because after extensive playthroughs it is a shocking game, no idea how it could win. I've seen HV and I admire Dave's majestic wonder-hit on it but there's nothing to praise about it.

Hard to believe so many symbols can fail to align, that goes beyond credibility and disbelief, and it's terribly produced. Like you want to get on to the next spin after one or two scatters have shown up and if you click to get rid of it it'll give you the result of the next spin instantly etc

Plus what's with the awful wailing during spins and sub- Playstation 1 'cutscenes' Bit overhyped and not worthy of top spot, at all

Wild Heist & Falcon Huntress not even breaking the Top 10 is another mystery

For me it was a confirmation that you don't need a gazillion megaway slots to actually hit big.
Napoleon is defo not the most exciting game graphic wise and play wise but I have had some good wins on it topping with a 900x in FS.
And it can do much better as seen on screenshots posted here.

Capable of some serious hits but when it is cold it is cold, agreed on that.

Glad not some stupid megaways slot won!

And yeah forgot to mention I was very surprised about jammin jars high rank too..Tried it a few times,not my cup of tea.

 

[GoldenGhoul]

Nice to see Napoleon win, I do agree it can be too cold sometimes but I like the high pays, something that looks like it would pay 10x can turn out to be massive here as even a small amount of high paying symbols and wilds can be great, though that those wins are so hard to hit is another thing. Still, it is nice to have such a clear-cut HV slot, just get a good amount of wilds and it goes massive, no megaways, elaborate features e.t.c., solid free spins, some random stuff and a good paytable. I wonder if anyone knows about the actual potential here, can we theoretically line up those stacked wilds for multiple wild lines or is it just smoke and mirrors?

BTW @dunover maybe you could think about making a nice long real play video with some of the various slots chosen here with perhaps some old favorites too, I enjoy your Bonanza sessions but I (and probably not only me ) am not that enamored with that slot and would certainly enjoy seeing you play some different slots. Could be a lowrolling session as well, just to get some playtime and so that you could go through more different slots.

In any case though, thanks for compiling the list and have a nice Christmas

 

[lockinlove]

Great job!!

Even though I am one the biggest trash talkers in regards to BTG, they make phenomenal slots. The graphics and ideas of slots like bonanza and white rabbit are absolute genius. Yeah they have a couple stinkers especially book of gods but they changed the look of slots entirely. I think they need to go back to just their megaways and regular slots and enough with the bonus buy and gamble features. Its fine if you had one like white rabbit and then chili for the gambles to add some variety into your library but I truly hope they stop that nonsense. I dont find having to gamble my bonus fun at all and I feel like it causes alot of negativity.

Fair is fair. When BTG does well they get praised on here all the time. So when they make some duds they deserve that too and both slots nominated absolutely deserved the hate they got!

Off to drink some rum and eggnog.

Merry Christmas!!!

 

[robby811]

Off to drink some rum and eggnog.

Merry Christmas!!!

Cheers

 

[JGslots]

Thanks Dunover Microgaming used to be my favourite manufacturer, but they’ve seriously lost their way.

For me Pragmatic, Novomatic and BTG are releasing the most fun slots now, I just don’t like the Blueprint slots, they always ‘feel’ impossible to get big hits on for me.

Looking forward to many more releases in 2019 and hopefully Microgaming can get back on track.

Also what’s happened to SG/WMS? They need to let WMS release more of their old school slots, their current bunch have been boring dull and too confusing.

Rob

 

[bonustreak]

Great work Dunover!

 

[Broke]

Napoleon... Really? Under 96% RTP. It's a good game and would be a great one be the RTP over 96, but I don't think it's the best one of 2018.

 

[Lemon]

In fairness to Blueprint, most of their points were from their BTG-licensed 'Megaways' slots, and Napoleon was made by Reel Time Gaming (Eye of Horus / Fishin' Frenzy etc) if I'm not mistaken, so it's not quite a runaway victory. Strip all of those titles out and you're left with stuff like The Goonies which is akin to all of the games they've been doing for the last 3 or 4 years.

Play 'n GO have done well this year and have knocked out a lot of new titles, but their best one is just a clone of Montezuma. Some of their original stuff is pretty good though

There's a dearth of creativity and innovation this year, and a lack of originality. Could it be that a lot of studios are feeling the saturation-point closing in on a crowded market and are going for 'quick wins'? Financially it makes sense but for the player it leaves them starved of something new. The number of Book of Ra clones this year has been truly embarrassing, but if they take money and are quick to develop, why wouldn't you?

I think Push Gaming have come along with some decent new slots this year, to their credit, many of which have depth to them. Yggdrasil and NetEnt are also trying new stuff as always, and fair play to them for that, because if it wasn't for these guys I'd still be firing up slots from 3 or 4 years ago all the time. I suppose every studio has to do a mixture of games; safe ones and easy-to-develop ones just to pay the bills, and then some different ideas that have risk involved but will pay off handsomely if they work.

Most of the WMS stuff consists of Vegas-style 'short-term entertainment' offerings converted to online, and for the most part they simply are not what online players want profile-wise.

Been an interesting and enjoyable year's slotting overall - Happy New Year to everyone

 

[dunover]

In fairness to Blueprint, most of their points were from their BTG-licensed 'Megaways' slots, and Napoleon was made by Reel Time Gaming (Eye of Horus / Fishin' Frenzy etc) if I'm not mistaken, so it's not quite a runaway victory. Strip all of those titles out and you're left with stuff like The Goonies which is akin to all of the games they've been doing for the last 3 or 4 years.

Play 'n GO have done well this year and have knocked out a lot of new titles, but their best one is just a clone of Montezuma. Some of their original stuff is pretty good though

There's a dearth of creativity and innovation this year, and a lack of originality. Could it be that a lot of studios are feeling the saturation-point closing in on a crowded market and are going for 'quick wins'? Financially it makes sense but for the player it leaves them starved of something new. The number of Book of Ra clones this year has been truly embarrassing, but if they take money and are quick to develop, why wouldn't you?

I think Push Gaming have come along with some decent new slots this year, to their credit, many of which have depth to them. Yggdrasil and NetEnt are also trying new stuff as always, and fair play to them for that, because if it wasn't for these guys I'd still be firing up slots from 3 or 4 years ago all the time. I suppose every studio has to do a mixture of games; safe ones and easy-to-develop ones just to pay the bills, and then some different ideas that have risk involved but will pay off handsomely if they work.

Most of the WMS stuff consists of Vegas-style 'short-term entertainment' offerings converted to online, and for the most part they simply are not what online players want profile-wise.

Been an interesting and enjoyable year's slotting overall - Happy New Year to everyone

Eye Of Horus is known as a Merkur game, as is Fishin' Frenzy but yes, they are using Reel Time like Novo use Red7 etc. Reel time actually have some standalone games, like Convertus Aurum which uses the Blueprint Interface too. Napoleon Rise Of An Empire is actually available through the SG interface as well. I think they're Australian but interact with other developers mainly through the supply of those multi-game cabinets you see nowadays. All very incestuous. I did mention that although BTG weren't the best developer this year, they were responsible for much of Blueprint's overall score, but surely the biggest travesty was Play'n Go's Bitch Child Book Of Dead winning in 2016; should this occur next year with that bloody Book Of Oz I'll ditch the poll thereafter.

 

[samikk]

This is a good example what Napoleon can offer you when it's hot.

 

[Lemon]

Good Jesus, that's a nice hit!

 

[TheresNoDInBonanza]

Cool... can't play any of them

Stupid government.

 

[johnnybagel]

Some brutal comments in there haha. I know what you mean about WMS, i'm not actually sure they care anymore.

Thanks for doing the scores etc, v interesting reading.