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There’s an endless debate between different groups about whether gaming refers to video games or gambling, and we’re not here to settle that today. The fact is, like many types of media, video games have crossed over into casino territory more than a few times now.
We’ve picked out three slot games that are either drawn from video games or are game related in everything but name, and see how well they tie back to their original inspiration.
Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior
This is easily the most high-profile game to get a slot adaptation, and thanks to it being an officially licensed game, all the original characters and designs do in fact make an appearance. It’s a lot less interactive than the original, however, it does have a lot of the same key features.
For instance, there’s a character select screen with eight of the most recognizable fighters to choose from, each with their own special effect on the reels which adjusts how often and how big wins are. Every ‘fight’ fills the board with symbols of both your character and your opponent, and when a player’s symbols land, the other character’s health bar will go down.
If you win the fight, you get a boss bonus round; if you lose, you get to beat up a car instead, just like that iconic mini-game. Before you start though, we’d recommend checking out something like MrQ’s ‘How to play slots’ guide as this one is famously a bit confusing to look at for slots newbies.
Tetris Extreme
If you think hard about it, Tetris is a game that fits incredibly well with a casino slot concept, as colorful symbols dropping in is the point in both cases. It’s also an inherently simple game in concept, so it naturally translates very well, although you won’t be seeing any of the usual named Tetrominoes. As with Street Fighter, you don’t play the game directly but instead, rely on all pieces dropping at once.
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Basically, every complete line will disappear and add to the multiplier for that spin, and after all the symbols have finished falling, large enough blocks of the same color will pay out with that multiplier applied. Get enough lines on a single spin and you’ll even get some free spins to play with special Tetrominoes and a jackpot chance as well.
8-Bit Intruders
So this isn’t a licensed slot but with that name, it should be extremely clear where it comes from. It’s full of the classic aliens as high-value symbols and even a few asteroids in there for good measure. The highlight is absolutely the bonus game which is basically just the full game itself, although you don’t get to directly control the defenses in this one, just relying on lasers and shields to fight off the invaders.
We’re definitely expecting to see more of these coming out in the future, especially with licenses to older games like these, as there’s just too much great material to pass up on for game developers.
