Every once in a while, a casino game emerges with a feature that is so unique, it manages to change the way bonuses are designed and incorporated across the iGaming world. These titles aren’t just memorable experiences, but also milestones in game development as a whole. These introduced ideas and mechanics have been incredibly impactful to the extent that they are now imitated by an extensive number of developers today. As a consequence of this, we have taken a look at some slots which have pioneered bonus features and become landmarks since bringing them into the spotlight.
What Determines An Innovative Bonus?
While there are so many bonuses which bring their own nuances to a title, few can be described as being truly innovative. However, what elevates a mechanic to a level at which it can be considered as having a game-changing status?
Should it introduce something that has never been seen before, bringing a new layout or concept to the industry, this immediately has the ability to be considered an innovative creation. Some of these new creations, engines and systems then go on to become the blueprint, being replicated in future releases across multiple studios too. This can be applied to a number of slots, which rewrote the bonus rulebook, some of the most notable of which include the following:
Fishin Frenzy
At an initial glance, Fishin’ Frenzy is a simple fishing-themed game filled with nautical and aquatic imagery. However, it is the bonus round which was a turning point for many subsequent entrants in the same genre, as well as many others. The fisherman symbol, which could appear in the main bonus round, acts as both a wild and a collector, potentially reeling in the value of fish symbols if they land alongside him.
This game, just like the Fishin’ Frenzy Megaways follow-up, also features a built-in progression metre too. By landing fisherman collectors, this could level up the metre and potentially trigger persistent multipliers and extra free spins. All of these components inspired numerous imitations, which were later seen in a myriad of other fishing slots. Fishin’ Frenzy essentially laid the groundwork for a completely new bonus round style, which is seen across so many games, especially those in Blueprints catalogue.
Mega Moolah
When Mega Moolah arrived on the casino scene back in 2006, progressive jackpot networks had yet to be widely adopted. However, through this safari-centric title, Microgaming changed that forever by introducing a jackpot system that could grow over time, which was tied to a bonus wheel. At any random moment, the giant wheel hidden behind the playgrid could trigger. This brought forth a wheel containing a number of pockets, each of which corresponded to one of the four tiered jackpots on screen.
This Mega Moolah network was connected across multiple casinos, seeing the prize pool rise by taking portions of player wagers and adding them to the jackpots. After this, an abundance of new progressive slots began incorporating these tiered systems and bonus wheels, creating the foundation for many jackpot slots we still receive today. It is a testament to this release’s innovative nature that it still remains a popular game almost 2 decades on from its original release.
9 Masks Of Fire
The 9 Masks Of Fire slot was a masterclass in blending simplistic, retro-style visuals with a signature bonus round. This introduced a fixed prize ladder which could potentially see players trigger columns on it by landing 3 or more golden mask scatters in the same spin.
The clear path of this system introduced a brand new dynamic and broke away from the usual payline logic that players had become accustomed to. This was the first time this type of bonus ladder was fully integrated into base gameplay as opposed to a separate round, with the feature since being adopted by a wave of similar spin-offs.
Gonzo’s Quest
Produced by casino powerhouses NetEnt, Gonzo’s Quest was one of the earliest slots to introduce avalanche reels. This was a cascading system which saw any ancient statue symbols explode if they were involved in a combination before being replaced by new ones.
This was not a brand-new concept; however, the multiplier chains that it came in tandem with certainly were. Should consecutive avalanches continue to produce combinations, this could see a multiplier increase each time. Although this was limited to 5x in base gameplay, this cap was lifted in the main bonus round, with the feature as a whole since becoming a core feature in an extensive number of slots today, particularly Megaways ones.
Dragon Born
Speaking of Megaways slots, this game engine was first introduced in the Dragon Born slot in 2016. Big Time Gaming produced a system which saw the playgrid change upon every press of the spin button. These typically had 6 reels; however, each of the vertical columns could vary in terms of the rows it produced.
Each reel could display between 2 and 7 symbols, resulting in a brand new layout each time the playtable came to a stop. As a result of this, the payline count also alternates between spins, too, with the upper cap being 117,649, a total that had not been seen before. After this mechanic was born, the Megaways engine became licensable, seeing so many other developers build their own releases that revolutionised game grid design.
