Breaking Bad Slots
A down on his luck school teacher with a fatal cancer diagnosis doesn’t seem like the premise of a TV show now regarded as one of the best of all time, it’s some achievement indeed considering its relative modernity, it takes years usually for a show to reach cult status on this scale. To break bad is a Southern US saying meaning to let loose or raise hell, when schoolteacher Walt and his former student Jesse start cooking up crystal meth in an old mobile home, I think the title becomes a little tame if anything!
Taking on the video slot game for a TV franchise this massive could only ever fall to IGT, they are known for this work, their existing television slots include the hit ‘House of cards’ and ‘Orange is the new black’ whilst their movie tie ups have covered everything from the Ghostbusters slot to Jurassic park! The question from fans of Breaking Bad will be – did they manage it?
Theme & Features
IGT clearly took the massive theme challenge seriously and literally, the case on this slot is truly huge! With a full size HD display above the main screen to playback the cut scenes from the show which feature on the slot, integrated lighting and generous size speakers for audio playback. The case itself is framed by two almost life size pictures of Walt and Jesse in their famous yellow chemist outfits. Unlike their licensed ‘Avatar’ slot you won’t find voiceovers from the actual actors which is a shame but other than that all the TV show key features are there.
I like clever design and any game that does away with A-9 playing card symbols and incorporates low pay icons into its theme is already ahead in my books. IGT accomplish that here by having chemical element symbols from the periodic table, complete with random trivia sound effects about each icon. I did say low pay, but although they have smaller value than the human character icons, these lower as a wild and will replace all symbols except the bonus trigger wherever the selected chemical icon appears on the screen.
The random wild is incredibly beneficial in the chemical reaction free spins bonus where 5 spins are awarded for the bonus trigger appearing on reels 1, 3 and 5. Strangely the second bonus round is also free spins based, although much more graphically enticing and appearing on the main HD screen above the slot. The ‘Heisenberg’ spins are engaged by collecting 5 golden moth symbols, which initiate 3 reels on the overhead screen. Collect more moths on the first ‘Mr White’ reel to engage the ‘Chemist pays’ reel, line up enough on that and you initiate the ‘Heisenberg pays’ reels which are the most rewarding of the 3, any wins on all three reels are totalled up at the end.
Summary
I personally found more wins in the base game with the chemical reactions spins than on the larger more publicised bonus round but that could just be a one off player experience. The game is good overall but I think it falls a little short of the epic tv slot title they were aiming for. That said it won’t stop fans of the show breaking bad on this cult classic tribute.