Here Come the Slots Our annual “sneak peek” at what’s in store for the slot floors The array of new games that will arrive in a casino near you during the coming year is completely mind-boggling. The reason, believe it or not, is the recessiona major replacement cycle is upon the industry, and the slot-makers wanted to be sure they had the games to capitalize. Here come the games. All of the slot manufacturers converged on Las Vegas last month for the annual Global Gaming Expo, or G2E, the trade show event that marks the unveiling of what can be called the “new model year” in slot machines. The array of new games that will arrive in a casino near you during the coming year is completely mind-boggling. The reason, believe it or not, is the recession. The economic funk has slowed down new slot purchases by the casinos over the past two years, and as a result, slot floors around the country are populated by games that are older, as a group, than they have been for years.

Mega Meltdown. The Mega Progressive is awarded when the Mega symbol lands on the first reel in a winning combination during max bet play. Players have the opportunity to win any of six progressive awards. The Mega symbol is wild and substitutes for any symbol that also lands on the payline to form winning combinations.

A major replacement cycle is upon the industry, and the slot-makers wanted to be sure they had the games to capitalize. That means all of them pulled out the stops to create great new slot games for 2010—all to the benefit of us, the players. Welcome to this year’s preview of all the new games coming your way. We compile this feature every year to serve as your first peek at what the slot manufacturers have in store for the near future of the slot floor.

So as not to favor one slot-maker over another, we have assembled them in alphabetical order by manufacturer. Here are the highlights of what’s coming your way. This year, it’s going to be a fun ride. AC Coin is focusing on expanding its market this year, and the way it will do it is through community play. You will see games from the slot-maker in groupings, usually three slots in front of a big, common bonus game. This year, however, AC Coin has added two-machine banks to the community-style offerings—two machines under a big bonus screen. One of the best is Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends.

IGT’s Triple Hot Ice is a great base game, but this one’s about the rockin’ bonus. When the bonus is triggered, one of four animated, 3D “Legends” appears on the big screen, next to a musical staff. He starts the standard rock-god jamming, and musical notes come out of his guitar and float across the staff as bonus amounts float upward. When the notes touch the money, you win that amount. Other AC Coin highlights: Dream Weaver is a unique game that uses an IGT Sizzling Wild base game linked to a bonus on the top LCD screen.

The bonus screen displays three sets of reels, and a random number of spins occurs. The reel spots display credit amounts. The “Dream Weaver” character appears to decide how many spins the player is awarded on the bonus screen.

The unique twist: On each bonus spin, the player can be awarded up to nine credit amounts. As long as each reel displays a higher amount than the previous reel, the values on each reel are added together. Finally, The Munny Returns features cartoon animation of a mummy monster and a top-box device that houses two different bonus events. One of them is a simple event in which lights flash behind bonus amounts until one is awarded, but it happens every six spins on average.