Better Off Ed Slot Machine
Bally launched their new Better off Ed slot on their new V32 cabinet right on Halloween, no surprise really as despite being marketed as a Zombie apocalypse slot this is a pure creepy Halloween slot game at its very finest.
The title is a play on words involving the main character of the game, a grinning animated luminous green zombie named Ed. Unlike the roamers in ‘The Walking Dead or the various protagonists of the the ‘Resident Evil’ series, this is one zombie you will be happy to see regularly as he can trigger you some serious cash wins.
Whilst it may not really be the end of the world, it could be the end of boredom as this is an entertaining video slot to play, offering you free spins, pick win bonuses and up to three progressive slot game jackpots to keep your heart pumping with Ed’s wheel bonus.
Theme
The game takes place on a haunted hilltop with a craggy tree and full moon sky, complete with cartoonish rendered graphics on both the background and reels and a pop beat style backing track which has enough creepy fun overtones to be a jazzed up replacement for ‘The Munsters’ theme song.
The new cabinet is nice, with a cracking audio system and full screen layout which runs from the controls all the way to the top of the machine, beware the touchscreen controls though, they are very sensitive indeed and could do with a little software adjustment!
Low pay symbols on the game are, of course, the traditional slot staple of playing card symbols, Bally have dressed these up in vibrant colours and added some creepy cobwebs to keep them in theme with the rest of the games graphics and tone. Higher pay icons range from a severed eyeball, graveyard and a ‘caution zombies’ road sign.
Gameplay & Features
Whilst this is a 30 pay line penny slot title at heart, with a max bet of only 3 dollars, the variance is surprisingly high, the base game really lacks punch even with the occasional animated pumping heart wild coming in to play. Your big wins are to be found hunting down one of the games two bonus features, both have potential to pay out well, albeit in slightly different ways.
The most common bonus round to be triggered seems to be the pick win graveyard bonus, 3 images of Ed appearing anywhere on the reels will grant you 3 picks from a number of headstones, here you will get a credit win of up to 10x your bet, with the possibility of an extra pick or if you are very lucky the jackpot bonus wheel. Land the latter and a spin will grant you an instant credit prize or one of the games three progressive jackpots. You really need both a pick win and the wheel for this round to be worthwhile, however, on the occasions you get both, scary sized wins are possible.
Free spins pay out well on almost every game, and, on Better Off Ed, they are the real key to monster wins, almost entirely due to the included locked or sticky wilds, represented by a beating heart on the reels. Three free games symbols triggers this round for you, as each spin goes by any wild which appears is locked on place on the reels, so by the time you get to the end of your spins, you can have a screen half full of wilds, with the potential to land several five of a kind combo’s for you at once. Re-trigger the spins and it is almost certain you will be in for a simply huge cash win.
Summary
Whether or not you like this game is largely going to be about whether you are playing for entertainment or heavy cash prizes. As the base game is pretty weak and the bonuses are hard to come by, fun players are likely to find themselves wandering away to a sponsored slot such as Caddyshack or Ellen. However, if you are looking for that elusive big win, then the high variance and relatively low max bet gives you a decent shot at jackpot wins in the long term, try not to become zombified whilst you wait!
