Review of Aristocrat slot machine game

So I actually played this machine, believe it or not, but I walked away $500 richer!

Played at Viejas Casino here in San Diego, Ca.; Asked the staff if a picture would be okay, but as was no surprise, they said no. It was fun, even when I was down $100; it was just nice to play something so exquisitely designed with iconography that you enjoy. The machine actually doesn't pay out that much on its usual lines. I won my bet back maybe a handful of times in the span of about an hour. The real money maker was, of course, the bonus games, which I played I think all the versions of.

In each of the Phantom's animal friends games, the animal tokens themselves only appear in the middle rows, and during the bonus game they have different 'power-ups.' Hero's token will cause all the icons in the column to convert to a credit value, Devil's token themselves have singular, high values but may come in pairs, and Fraka's token expands the reels to 5 rows and gives you bonus spins on the mini-game.

You can get one bonus meter full or multiples, I actually got all three for my last stretch of play before I cashed out, and so each of these tokens had their 'abilities' along with Fraka's 5 row slots, which led to big wins on the 250 credit ($2.50 USD) tier I was playing on, with the max bet being $8 per spin, while the min bet was $0.75.

While there is a meter for each friend, I didn't see much of a rhyme or reason for when they activate. Fraka's activated the most, often when his meter wasn't even close to full, while it took ages to activate Hero's even though his meter appeared near-full when I started and I had hit his token several times on the reels.

The icon that comes up most often on any play is the Phantom's, which awards a very small payout even per column, much less than your actual bet. Other icons are standard card suits, like other slot machines; credit value icons, which, as they sound, award the amount of credits as the number listed; the "phantom bonus" icon in the first reel, which "activates" the combo across the reels; and the Phantom's Fist on the last reel, which can be won when eligible icons land across the reels and the Phantom Bonus is active. Eligible icons are the credit and animal icons (if I recall correctly).

The final bonus game, activated with the Phantom's fist, changes the field of play into a 3x3 grid, giving the player 3 free spins; each cell of the grid then spins, the 8 on the exterior oscillating between "no win" represented by a brown Mark of Good symbol, and "win" as a gold Mark of Good. At 250 credit play the win bonus for each grid was 300. In the middle, there is the no-win "wham" and the win "Phantom Icon", when the Phantom Icon is landed upon, one of the current winning Mark of Goods (sometimes multiple) is increased by the value of "The Phantom Prize" - This prize value is based on the reels when the mini-game was active, so if you activated the mini-game with 3x "300" credit icons, the value would be 900, and each time the Phantom appears in the middle, one of the winning marks of goods would have the 900 value added to it. Each time a mark of good wins or Phantom appears, the free spins are reset to 3. This game is also where the jackpot occurs, which happens when all Marks of Good appear, which is a chance between the "Major Prize", a machine-based value that was around $900 on mine, and the "Grand Prize" which I think is the machine-linked value between multiple at $10,000. Each time any jackpot is won, or bonus game concludes, this very fanciful tune plays that doesn't fit the Phantom at all.

Some of the icons I simply have no information on include Diana's, which appeared often but never hit for anything in the hour I played, as well as the Phantom's rings and a bejeweled shield and spear icon, which I equally had no winning lines with.

As I said, I had a fun time. I went in expecting to drop about $200 just to spend some time on the casino floor and enjoy a few free beverages and some Phantom gaming while I was there. I will say that, yes, this not only makes little sense for the character of the Phantom, it's something he would actively be against; to be fair, that might be true of many aspects of merchandising as well, though I acknowledge that there is a unique level of predatory consumerism with gambling that makes it different than providing a product (even of questionable quality) that a fan can walk away with.

As always, game responsibly.

[Editors note: Thanks to 'Pirate Dave' for his first article and review with us at Chronicle Chamber - look forward to more from you. This article first appeared on the Phantom Reddit group and was re published here with permission.

As Pirate Dave said, The Phantom would not be impressed with his likeness on a gambling machine, and Lee Falk created a story featuring the pitfalls of gambling and another story where a young 21st Phantom rescued his friend who was ensnared by it. As a Phantom site, we will review all things Phantom, even if we do not agree with them personally. We ask that if you do not agree with the game, you voice your displeasure at King Features instead of us.]