Games for Lunch: Reel Deal Slot Adventure
4/27/2009 8:21 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3
Kyle Orland
Status: "You can't get quality video game editorial from a value menu!" "No, really, you can't."
Developer: Phantom EFX
Publisher: Phantom EFX
Release Date: April 5, 2009
System: PC
ESRB Rating: T
0:00 I generally hate slot machines and all they represent as far as "gaming," but when I got a PR e-mail about an "Adventure" game based on the one-armed bandits, morbid curiosity forced me to find out what the hell was going on.
0:01 My pre-game research has revealed that this is currently
the No. 1-selling PC casino game on Amazon. So it must be good, right?
0:07 The past seven minutes were spent installing copious amounts of data from this DVD onto my hard drive. I can't imagine the slot machine logic requires a lot of coding, so there must be a lot of flashy animations and sounds coming, huh?
0:08 "Welcome to Reel Deal Slot Adventure!" says an incredibly cheery voice. "Please fill out your VIP card to continue." In the background, sounds of chattering gamblers and ... birds? "Now that your VIP Card is ready, click on the PLAY button to start your adventure." This guy is so friendly and bubbly. I just want to stay with him forever!
0:09 A text note explains that I'm about to embark on "an exciting journey to discover the mystery of the Sister Queens." It also explains the difference between the Real World slots, with "realistic casino odds," and the Dream World slots, which give "much better odds and payouts." I was wondering how they were going to get around the debilitating house edge in an adventure-game setting...
0:13 "March 15, Egypt! I never thought this day would come," says a diary entry. The author is in Siva, searching for the "Sister Queens of Nubial" mentioned in a dusty library text he found. These queens declared themselves rulers of a small town, which then prospered for a while before disappearing overnight amidst "strange reports of magic, ice and death." Um ... ice? Anyway, our diary author evades pickpockets in the streets of Siva before retiring in an inn for the night. And now my "Challenge Goal" is to play the Oil Tycoon slot for 10 minutes. Boy, they're not even attempting to work the slots into the story, are they?
0:14 Twangy country music plays behind a video slot with five reels and three lines, filled with barrels of oil, diesel fuel pumps, Texas oilmen with pink Cadillacs, oil cans and more similarly themed images. I click "Bet Max" as my dear slot-loving grandmother always taught me to, and spin my way to 1,520 credits on my very first try! Whoo! I can't really understand WHY I won so much money, even though a bunch of random-looking lines appear showing which patterns are winners. Oh, well. I'm not arguing.
0:16 My next nine spins win me 80, 0, 45, 10, 20, 95, 20, 0 and 0 credits, respectively. This is after spending 45 credits per spin, of course. I guess that first spin wasn't exactly representative. I like the little stat box in the corner, which shows I'm up $67 so far and averaging nearly 400-percent payout! Vegas would be out of business with a few of these machines!
0:20 A few more big spins -- 300-plus credit wins -- are mixed in with a whole lot of zeroes. I'm trusting the game to tell me when I win or lose, of course, because I can't suss the patterns out of the cacophonous grid of images. I am digging the music and sound effects, at least.
