Yeah, the spooky season is again upon us! Halloween is a century-old tradition that recurs every year at the end of October. Activities include trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins, costumes parties, lighting bonfires, telling horror stories and much more. Unknown to most, Halloween can be traced back to Celtic harvest festivals some 2,000 years ago when people would don costumes and light huge fires to fend of ghosts of the dead.
In more modern times, Halloween has served countless times as a theme for video slots. Literally, every developer has at least one title in its portfolio that features vampires, werewolves, carved pumpkins, Halloween characters and symbols, haunted mansions and other related items. Casino operators use the Halloween celebrations for special promotions where they hold tournaments, do giveaways or simply offer special bonuses or free spin bundles.
We at GMBLRS are big Halloween fans and look forward every year to the latest creations game providers will present to us for the haunted season. And there is never a shortage of new titles being released just before or around All Hallows Eve. In this newsletter, we look at some of the newest as well as older creations which convey best the spirit of the haunted season.
Immortal Romance | Microgaming
The blockbuster slot is to this day one of the most played slots although Microgaming released it nearly a decade ago. The plot follows Amber, Sarah, Michael and Troy who are entangled in a web of intriguing reel mystery. Amber is a pharmacist that comes from a long line of witches and best friend of Sarah, a doctor in pathology who is in search of a cure to ageing. Sarah falls in love with Michael, an 800-old vampire hiding in the body of a genetics professor. They all pale in comparison to Troy, a vampire playboy and the darkest character of them all. Best friend of Michael, he haunts Sarah in the belief she’s hiding a dark secret that could turn out dangerous to vampires.
Haunting enough? Then play it on a 5×3 game window with 243 ways to win, a random Wild Desire feature and a free spins round with four options and you could win up to 12,150 times your stake.
Lucky Halloween | Red Tiger Gaming
Although released in 2016, the game is still a masterpiece in slot design as it comes with stunning graphics and animations surrounding the Pumpkin Rider and his blazing motorbike whose laugh sounds so authentic that it might haunt you in your next nightmare. Played on a 5×3 reel set with 20 pay lines, it stands out with four random features that will award reel modifiers or win multipliers, a Full Moon bonus game and a free spins round. Plenty to look forward on Hallow’s Eve and in fact any other day. A top win in the bonus game of 800 times your bet and up to 8,000x in the main game are surely very sweet treats for Halloween.
Blood Suckers II | NetEnt
The original was already and still is a hit with players, often because it has a rather high RTP of over 98%, which means it often landed on the restricted list for bonus wagering. On the sequel, NetEnt lowered the RTP to a more common number of just below 97% and centred the gameplay around young vampiress Amilia, who is on a quest to retrieve her families treasures that were taken by vampire hunters and are kept in a haunted castle under the watchful eye of a Demon creature. Played on 25 pay lines spread on a 5×3 reel set, Blood Suckers II impresses with stunning 3D animations and authentic graphics as well as a bonus game and a free spin round. The win potential peaks around 1,300 times bet which is not very high but good enough for a vampire encounter on Hallow’s Eve.
Book of Halloween | Inspired Gaming
We always thought there already enough “Book of …” slots lingering in the casino lobbies with Book of Dead from Play’n GO leading the charts but at closer inspection, we realized that no developer had one with a Halloween theme. Inspired Gaming has probably seen that too and brought us Book of Halloween, featuring the well-known expanding symbol mechanic in the free spins. A high-volatility reel ride for the spooky days on 10 pay lines with a win potential of up to 5,000 times your bet.
Halloween Jack | NetEnt
The slot was NetEnt’s contribution to the 2018 Halloween season and is actually a clone of Jack And The Beanstalk. While we are not big fans of clones, we made an exception for Halloween Jack as it comes with spectacular graphics and animations while keeping the features and massive win potential of the original. Hit sufficient collection symbols in the free spins and you could be collecting treats worth up to 5,000 times your bet.
Vampires vs Wolves | Pragmatic Play
Released earlier this year, the game pits vampires against werewolves in a fight for reel supremacy. Which side will you take? Played on 5×3 reel set with 10 pay lines, it offers a choice of two free spins rounds with either the wolves hunting as a pack to turn other symbols wild or the vampires transforming into sticky wilds. Choose wisely and you could win up to 1,000 times your bet on a single spin.
Well, that concludes the list of our current favourites for the haunted season. We do hope they can serve as your inspiration for a Halloween slotting session and you will be hitting some ghoulishly good wins. Worth mentioning are also Wolf Hunters from Yggdrasil, Vampires from Amatic, Vampire Hunters from 1×2 Gaming and Vampire Desire from Barcrest, which are not among our favourites but nonetheless feature a Halloween theme.
Happy Halloween!
Your GMBLRS Detective