Avatar Sacred Bond Slot Machine
When it comes to cinematic themed video slots it is hard to imagine one bigger than IGT’s Avatar machines. James Cameron broke his own gross revenue record from the 1997 epic Titanic when Avatar was released and it has gone down in history as the first film to break the 2 billion dollar mark, the slot game itself was massively anticipated before release, you could go so far to say that at the time it was the most awaited new Las Vegas game ever.
The premise of the film was the growing clash between a mining colony on the fictional planet of Pandora and the native residents of the world - the humanoid Na’vi. The game follows into this theme heavily investing in the latter stages of the film when the battle for the planets supply of ‘unobtanium’ becomes violent and descends into all out warfare.
IGT took no chances with the development of this game and even brought in famed producer Jon Landau to help them make it as immersive an experience as was possible with masses of technology and unique play features incorporated into the game. The result is a fully 3D title which is jam packed with movie cut scenes and interactive bonus rounds.
Theme
Avatar as a film was widely praised for its visual and acoustic effects, to make the slot machine live up to the billing IGT went all out, high definition screens, full size video cabinets and total surround sound provide what they call the full cinematic experience. This is a prime example of a land based casino game which not only competes with the best online slots but in many ways actually outdoes them.
It lives up to the pre-release hype too, the game plays out more like an RPG video game, where you select which possible bonus game rounds you want active at a time, you play from the perspective of a Na’vi warrior (possibly an avatar itself) and the game is almost a journey through the Avatar Universe with the reel display and backdrop changing throughout play. It’s a journey you don’t have to cut short either, if you take a break the machine can store your game allowing you to return later and continue from the story point you were originally playing at.
Features
The gameplay structure is so unique that it’s actually hard to review, you could play this game five or six times and due to the sheer magnitude of player interaction available you wouldn’t have the same experience twice on this 5 reel 3 row video type slot.
You being loosely speaking by selecting which bonus feature you want active, a ‘Na’vi pay’ round where the bonus symbols will award credits, a ‘Banshee wilds’ reward where Banshees appear as a variety of wilds and the ‘Arrow Boost’ multiplier which grants a variety of line win multiplications. The interact further as you can choose low, medium or high danger symbols for the interactive fight scenes between Na’vi and Banshee, each increases the level of potential rewards but also increases the potential variance! There is a ‘seeds of the sacred tree’ pick win bonus round in addition within the Na’vi focused side of the game.
So far as interacting with the human characters of the film and game goes, you will get your chance to take on Colonel Miles Quaritch’s helicopters and mechanised walkers. The first with an avatar controlled banshee and the second as an avatar yourself. The first humanoid bonus round allows you to pick your helicopter target whilst the second allows you to pick parts of the mech warrior to attack, this is about the most interesting way to display a pick win bonus I have ever seen – it is incredible.
Tacked onto this is the community bonus feature, you accumulate one bonus token (from the available bonus type choices at game start) for every 3 bonus symbols you get on the reels, you can play them at the time or save them and play as a community bonus altogether – the player in the other seat of the video slot can join in with you if they have sufficient tokens!
Summary
If you are planning a trip to a Vegas casino – have a go on this game, the minimum bet is just 50c and it’s a fabulous amount of fun to play whether you are winning or not, which is important because the variance can be massive. As an added incentive for thrill seekers – it also has a huge progressive jackpot on offer. Hats off IGT this is a truly great game, if it is released for web play in the future I expect it would become one of the hottest online slots of all time.
