Wheel of Fortune on Tour Slots
Wheel of Fortune on Tour is a brand-new interactive video slot from software firm IGT. Unveiled at the biggest gaming exhibition of the year, the ICE Totally Gaming Conference in London, the title is one of some 200 variants of Wheel of Fortune, the brand having long occupied a special place in the hearts of gamers. While some prefer Wheel of Fortune Double Diamond 3D, others regard Wheel of Fortune New Orleans as their favourite.
Wheel of Fortune on Tour differentiates itself from its namesakes by favouring the Level Up Plus mechanism, which rewards players with additional game features and payback boosts as play continues. The 5-reel video slot, which has 30 fixed paylines, urges you to load up the Winnebago and take to the road – the question is, will you find a pot of gold at the end of your journey?
Wheel Good Fun
Wheel of Fortune takes place on five transparent reels set against a highly stylised backdrop showing jewel-like stars and palm trees. The title has a very modern look, with each symbol standing out on the reels in an almost three-dimensional style. The title appears in gold above the grid, and the control panel is situated along the bottom of the screen.
Because we are ‘on tour’ – driving from coast to coast then clocking up some air miles as we venture further afield – the symbols represent our migration. They include a Route 66 road sign, a set of car keys, an old-fashioned roadmap (how archaic!), the Hollywood star, Mount Rushmore, a building in front of the Puerto Rican flag, the Statue of Liberty and the image of a European spire, in front of which is a golden bell. There’s also a Wheel of Fortune bonus symbol (represented by a yellow bus) and a Level Up On Tour bonus (represented by a fuel gauge). Lastly, there is a Wheel of Fortune logo.
The Wheel of Fortune logo is the base game’s best-paying, granting 2,500 for five and 500 for four. Line wins pay left to right, with all wins multiplied by the preassigned coin value. The game’s best-paying symbol is also wild, substituting for all icons except the yellow bus scatter.
Three yellow bus bonuses, in any position, trigger the Bonus Wheel. Simply hit Spin to rotate the varicoloured wheel. When it stops, the winning outcome is indicated by the pointer. As features are unlocked, value wedges on the wheel are replaced by special wedges that trigger features.
Bonuses Galore
The Wheelmobile Wilds Feature is triggered at random.When it activates, all occurrences of up to four randomly chosen symbols transform to wilds, increasing your odds of winning an exceptionally large payout.
Moreover, as you level up via Level Up Plus, you’ll unlock up to five new slices on the On Tour Bonus Wheel, which in turn will unlock exciting new features. Gamers earn a new fuel notch with every non-triggering yellow bus bonus symbol. When you’ve won ten fuel notches, the gauge will top out, awarding a whole tank. With a whole tank, the Wheelmobile moves one space along the map.
The Level Up awards are virtually endless. You can win Free Play Free Spins bonuses (which come with the added incentive of multiple wilds), payback boosts, Expanded Top Awards (tripling your chance of hitting the top prize) and a Letter Board Picker. You can also win multiplier values, from two to five, to be applied to the values on the Bonus Wheel.
The Letter Board Picker bonus is quite interesting. Three picks are awarded at the start of the bonus, and the multiplier is set to one. All you need to do is pick a letter to reveal an award value between 50 and 500 or a multiplier tile. You could win up to seven picks with 5x multipliers!
At the conclusion of the LBP, the bonus awards the sum of the revealed values, which is multiplied both by the triggering coin value and the revealed multipliers.
Lost in the Dream
Wheel of Fortune on Tour is a bedazzling and bombastic video slot. Some slot developers don’t make provisions for bonus features, but IGT cannot be accused of such malpractice when it comes to this title – the bonuses come thick and fast, and what’s more, they result in some very attractive pay-outs. The gameplay, meanwhile, is superb, with cool sound effects and animations. If you’re looking for a hot new game to play in 2016, you can’t go wrong with Wheel of Fortune on Tour.