TEST DRIVE: IGT “MULTISTAR – ALL STARS
Over the years, IGT has achieved very strong game performance on their mid and high denomination games. With Multistar-All Stars, the best of these games have been included in a multipack, designed to allow club managers to remove the old machines and replace them, with exactly the same games, in a more contemporary Crystal machine cabinet.
IGT: “Multistar – All Stars”
Denomination: Game dependent multi-denom adds some extra denomination choices to these popular old games. Pot of Gold (5c, 10c), Oriental Treasures (10c, 20c, $1), Clovers and Gold (5c, 10c), and Shogun Returns (20c, 50c, $1).
Game Features: The features vary depending on the game in this pack as expected, and they remain unchanged from the original versions that are still working successfully on many gaming floors. Particularly popular among the growing group of female 50+ regular players is ‘Oriental Treasures’ (the “Cat Game” to those who love it) with a 10, 15 or 25 free games feature with double pays available to win. In this game, the bigger punters are looking for 5 of a kind wins, which trigger the on-screen jackpots.
The original ‘Pot of Gold’ included a 3-5 trigger scatter where players won 10, 15 or 25 free games in which all their prizes were tripled. The players knew there was a good chance of a solid win. But the real drawcard for this game, is the high chance of a retrigger in the feature of a further 5, 10, 15 or 25 free games. This feature is the reason this game is still ranked above the average in many clubs after over 10 years in the market.
SAP Profile: There are two jackpot level choices available with a Grand Jackpot of $5000 or $6000, which keeps the liability on the lower end of the scale for the club. With all of these games, the players are generally chasing the second level Maxi Jackpot ($1500 or $2500 depending on the configuration) which the players see as a manageable target for a play session. Particularly on ‘Oriental Treasures’ the 5 X ‘fortune cats’ achieve this Maxi Jackpot win, which is where the game gets its nickname among the players. The mini jackpot ($400 or $750) keeps these players in the game for longer.
Volatility: This varies according to the game being played but these games, as high and mid denomination games, are fairly volatile to suit a bigger punter playing style. This is what the high denom players like because it gives them an opportunity to achieve some larger wins if they are prepared to invest time and increase their bet.
Floor Position: This multigame is best positioned in the high/mid denomination area, away from high traffic areas. There are games in this pack that are favoured by both male and female players. Choosing a low-ish game RTP% gives the club manager an opportunity to add it to a high denom in-house link with a good hold percentage.
Performance: Performance for the original games in this pack is still very strong as individual standalone games. In particular ‘Oriental Treasures’ and ‘Pot of Gold’ are still operating around or above average on denom to ratio in Maxgaming’s performance charts (NSW Clubs – April 2017) with large numbers of the machines in the market:
Oriental Treasures 20c at 1.32
Oriental Treasures 10c at 1.10
Oriental Treasures 5c at 1.54
Pot of Gold 10c at 0.91
Pot of Gold 5c at 0.93
Clovers and Gold 5c at 0.96
Clovers and Gold 10c at 1.66
Shogun Returns $1 at 1.17
Despite these strong results, the machines themselves, for Pot of Gold and Oriental Treasures, are now well over 10 years old, with the other games almost that age. MS All Stars is a great opportunity to replace the old Bluechip machines for a Crystal cabinet, with much more graphic and ergonomic appeal for the players, and no math change from the original games.
