If you enter an online casino expecting to just find a few classic games presented in an old-fashioned way, you’ll be surprised. What started as simple casino platforms have been transformed into entertainment hubs where a wide variety of themes are used to create new ways of playing. How did this happen, and how have these themes been slotted in to boost different types of games?
Themed Slots Appeal to Different Players
Slot machines are among the most traditional casino games, and it’s safe to assume that most people who have played them have seen a selection of themes – although you might still be unaware of just how many there are.
Since they went online, this genre has expanded enormously, as the space limitations of physical casinos have been removed. If we look at the Sportaza online casino, we can see a huge selection of slots, including titles such as Rise of Triton, Penny Fruits, and Fishing Splash. Other themes covered here include vampires, the jungle, and the Wild West, meaning that anyone can find a slot with a theme that appeals to them.
Perhaps the biggest change is that the themes are not just seen as skins that add visual appeal. Rather, they are now used to tie together the gameplay and the audio with the visual aspect. They even enhance the game’s special features in many cases – this is why we see games where the bonus rounds fit perfectly with the setting, like fishing sequences in a fishing slot or a shootout in a Wild West game.
These themes have moved slots from being simple games of chance to becoming immersive games where players are taken into a world filled with exciting sights and sounds. The fact that this has been done without losing the simplicity of the slot mechanism is also part of the success story, as there’s no need to read a lot of rules before spinning the reels.
Live Games Introduce a Variety of Settings
An equally dramatic change has occurred in the area of live casino games. These are live-streamed events where a human dealer or presenter entertains the players while calling out the result. These games were first introduced to recapture the spirit of the traditional casino, sticking closely to the rules and presentation that were so fundamental to games such as baccarat and roulette. However, as more people started playing in this way, it became obvious that there was scope for new themes to be added.
This was first seen in themed games based on those classics, like Gold Saloon Blackjack and Speed Baccarat. They generally gave us a luxurious casino setting and didn’t introduce too many changes to the traditional rules.
Since then, we’ve seen new games brought out that introduce the likes of multipliers and bonus rounds. They’ve breathed new life into these games, adding something fresh to the gameplay while retaining many of the classic features. For example, roulette games with multipliers use a traditional wheel with the same pockets as any other game, but the multiplier is usually added to randomly chosen straight-up numbers.
Another element can be seen in the arrival of game shows such as 25x Candy Wheel, Football Thrill, and Cash Wheel Carnival. They introduce new gameplay mechanics, like giant wheels and slot machine rounds. This has proved to be the ideal way to bring in new themes, with sports, fairground action, and fantasy worlds among the most eye-catching settings for these games.
Instant Games Attract Casual Players
Another relatively new genre brings instant games like Crash and Plinko. These are designed to be fast and simple to play. If we look at the crash games, we can see titles like Maverick and Aero, which follow an aviation theme. This matches the gameplay nicely, as players need to watch a plane fly across the screen and then decide when to cash out – before it flies away or crashes. This type of game can also be played with themes like sports and fishing.
Plinko is another simple game, with balls bouncing down the screen to finally land in one of the multiplier slots at the bottom, similar to the classic Japanese arcade game called Pachinko. Despite this simplicity, the leading developers have bolted on various themes that may attract casual games, like dragons, sports, and mythology. They turn a very simple game of chance into an adventure.
By looking closely at these themes, we can see how they have each added something new to the overall casino scene without losing any of the traditional appeal of games of chance. As more games get added, we can expect to see more new themes that let everyone find a way of playing that fits their interests.
This article was written in cooperation with Bud Ozzie