The ad I took after the T2 success in France (Bruno Chatelin)
Movies and casinos have a special relationship. On one hand, there are all those movies with casinos as their environment - think Indecent Proposal, Honeymoon in Vegas - or their topic - the most famous being Martin Scorsese's Casino, with Robert De Niro in the leading role.
The relationship goes both ways, though. For one, casinos have movies to thank for a good share of their popularity. Popular characters, like James Bond for example, spend quite some time gambling in such establishments, adding to the flair and glitter of the activity. Besides, casinos have a number of games - mostly slot machines - inspired by popular movies.
Unlike other video games released in various movie franchises, movie based slot machines are not created to promote the movies themselves, but the contrary - they are "riding" the popularity of the movies, attracting more visitors to the casinos.
The best such titles I know - mostly released by my favorite developer, Microgaming - are always launched years after the movies themselves. This year the developer has launched two such slots, that best demonstrates the theory above. Jurassic Park (the movie) was released in 1993, and the Microgaming slot was launched this summer. The same goes for Terminator 2 Judgement Day - the 1991 movie was licensed and adapted as a slot machine by Microgaming this year.
The difference between the release of the games and the movies does not make them less attractive, though. These movie based slots, and the ones released before by the developer, are played by gamers old and young, both fans of free slot games and those hoping for a big win.
The reason why players like these slot machines is obvious - they are inspired by successful movies, and have superior graphics and sounds. Besides, they feature cut scenes from the movies themselves, and animations that make the game more enjoyable.
Let's stick with the above example - Jurassic Park. The movie - directed by Steven Spielberg - featured the most popular prehistoric animals of our times, dinosaurs. The game features five reptilian species on its reels, and each one of them comes with its own Free Spins feature for additional wins. Besides, the reels also feature a series of less popular, but much more human characters from the movie: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and the late Sir Richard Attemborough. Plus a random T-Rex attack, to make players get much more into the atmosphere.
Movie based slot machines are among the most popular games at today's online gaming outlets. They are inspired by the big ones, the most popular ones, bringing back memories for some, and giving great ideas for a movie night to others.