There’s only a couple of months left in 2016, and very soon, around January, we’re going to start looking at all the slots released during the year and decide upon the three best slots of 2016. In order to reward the best of the best, we play through dozens of the most popular slots that came out, judging each and every single one of them on multiple parameters, including, but not limited to, graphics, RTP, bonus games, winnings, smoothness of animation, theme/license, music and sound. Yes, you heard right – music and sound. While many gamblers like to play slots with the sound turned off, and maybe while listening to their own music, we here take great effort to examine every single aspect of a slot when comparing it to all the others. And honestly? Believe it or not, the music can make or break a slot when it comes to whether or not it receives an award.
Now, before you take out your torches and pitchforks, allow me to make a few things clear. First of all, yes, music is very important. Slots are, after all, entertainment – just like movies, TV shows, videogames, plays… They do have a narrative. They aim to create an atmosphere. Sure, that doesn’t apply to all of them, of course, there are some (like “Reel King”) which are very simple in nature and seek to emulate the traditional fruit machines, which don’t have a particular theme, characters or story. But most slots today aren’t like that. “The Avengers” tells the story of a team of superheroes that, despite being drastically different, come together to defeat a common threat. “Aliens” tells a story of isolation, where death (in the form of an alien threat) may come from any corner. “Cashapillar” tells the tale of a cute little caterpillar on his own adventure in animal world. Each of these has a very distinct tone it’s trying to achieve through its characters, tone, graphics, and yes – music. And for those of you who don’t believe that music can be important in setting a tone, try watching the same movie scene with different music and tell me if it doesn’t feel entirely different each time.
Now, with that said, it’s important to note that a slot is not a movie or a TV show. Setting a tone is NOT what it sets out to do. As a result, things like the bonus games, payouts and overall playability of a slot will always be more important than its music. However, we do look at a slot as both a complete experience and as the sum of its parts, and no matter how you look at it, music plays a role in that, even if some would say a small one. So at the end of the day, if you have two slots which are absolutely excellent, stellar, perfectly made, but one has put a whole ton of effort into its music while the other just has some kind of generic melody, well… The former is going to take the award home. that’s just how it works. Not everyone can have first place, and we don’t give out participation awards. Some might call that cheating or unfair, but we’re not looking at slots as a hobby. We’re looking at them as a piece of media, with all of the elements that comprise them. And important or not, music is just one such element. To deny that fact is ridiculous.
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few weeks, then you’ve undoubtedly heard of “Pokémon GO” – the latest mobile craze which sent millions of people out on the streets in search of rare Pokémon to add to their collections. To say that the game has been a massive success despite a myriad of server problems, glitches and missing features would be the understatement of the century – it seems like every time you go outside there’s at least one person quite obviously playing the game, their phone outstretched in front of them as they look at their map. It was so, successful, in fact, that after its release Nintendo’s stocks jumped by 25% – the biggest jump since 1983, when they pretty much revolutionized gaming with their NES, shaping the entire videogame industry after the infamous videogame crash earlier the same year. And the kicker? Nintendo didn’t even make the game – “Pokémon GO” was developed by former Google subsidiary Niantic. Hell, Nintendo don’t even own the company that makes the main “Pokémon” games (only a third of it), and yet they still somehow managed to earn over $7 billion in stocks alone. 
In a few articles on this blog (past and future), you may spot sentences such as “[Casino Name] is definitely award-worthy”, or “[Casino Name] absolutely deserves any awards it gets”. Notice how this is different from a casino that is simply praise-worthy – no, here we’re talking about something more, something better. Many things can be praise-worthy. My office chair is praise-worthy – it’s soft, it’s comfortable, it does wonders for my back and I would recommend it to a friend who is in need of an office chair. Would I stamp it with an award, though? No, I would not. Online casinos operate on pretty much the same principle – the very best of the very best 
Microgaming has just turned into that little overachiever teacher’s pet who just had to graduate third grade with straight A’s while also winning the spelling bee and being featured on TV for helping the homeless. They’re not only successful – they’re so successful on so many levels that they just have to rub it in your silly face. To start off, they managed to win Innovator of the Year at the International Gaming Awards, which happened in the beginning of February. They managed to achieve this by creating the very first VR (virtual reality) casino game, a roulette simulation. With the advent of VR, it was only a matter of time before this technology began being used for casino games, and the award is probably going to stimulate both Microgaming and other developers to experiment a bit more with VR from now on.
Throughout my gambling years, there’s one thing I’ve always wondered – slots are meant to be played by adults, right? I mean, there’s actually a law prohibiting minors from playing them, and the average slot player is over 30, so why do the overwhelming majority look like they were designed for the 5-10 year old demographic? It’s insane! You’ve got slots like Kitty Glitter that are trying to take themselves seriously with pictures of cute cats and all! It’s insane! Well, Machine Gun Unicorn takes that concept and shatters it! You’ve got cute, little ponies that wouldn’t look out of place in a show like “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”, except they’re brandishing bloody weapons and decapitating zombies. It’s so great! Combine that with a very nice RTP, awesome bonus features and a whole lot of polish being thrown into the slot overall, and you’ve got a winner! More like that, please! 
Siiiiiigh… I thought we’d moved past this already. Can’t the era of uninspired, zero-effort basic slots be over already? I mean, seriously, you guys, how many more slots based on a public domain concept with almost no features or personality are we going to have?!? You wanna make a successful slot? There’s no need for stuff like imagination or whatever, just pick a subject that’s somewhat relevant, but non-copyright infringing and then reskin the most basic slot you can find with that new theme, and you’re set! Seriously, as we all know,