Contest SLOT OF THE YEAR 2018! RESULTS!

[dunover]

OK, thanks everyone for your selections, there's been a record number of slots released between Dec 1 2017 and Nov 30 2018 so a huge list to choose from. We have had an unprecedented number of participants in the poll here so it's taken ages to collate the information and therefore the results are a bit more conclusive than in previous years. The original 2018 slot poll was here, if you need to see the list that was supplied or want to see for yourself the source of this information and voting:

Question - SLOT OF THE YEAR 2018! We need YOUR choices!

Winner 2016 - Book Of Dead by Novomatic Play'n Go.
Winner 2017 - Bonanza by Big Time Gaming

Drum roll......brm brm brm brm

Winner 2018 - Napoleon Rise of an Empire by Blueprint Gaming!!! 26/6/86

Ok, I have made a legend for each slot that looks like a date i.e. for the winner it was 26/6/86. These 3 figures are: Firstly, the number of choices the slot had, secondly the number of top choices for 5 points it received and thirdly and most importantly, the overall total.

So the Winner had 26 voters nominate it, of which 6 had it as their top choice and the overall score was a total of 86 points. Remember, the top 5 you chose were given 5 points down to 1 point.

#2. Jammin' Jars by Push Gaming 19/3/57
#3. Genie Jackpots Megaways by Blueprint Gaming 17/5/51
#4. Legacy of Egypt by Play'n Go 15/2/51 (Fourth by virtue of less top choices)
#5. Extra Chilli by Big Time Gaming 13/5/48
#6. Diamond Mine Megaways by Blueprint Gaming 11/5/39
#7. Vikings by Netent 15/3/36
#8. Buffalo Rising Megaways by Blueprint Gaming 8/5/35
#9. Donuts by Big Time Gaming 15/2/35 (Ninth by virtue of less top choices)
#10. Madame Destiny by Pragmatic Play 8/4/33
#11. Rise Of Olympus by Play'n Go 7/3/30
#12. Primal Megaways by Blueprint Gaming 7/3/26
#13. Peking Luck by Pragmatic Play 10/2/26
#14. Wild Heist at Peacock Manor by Thunderkick 10/0/25
#15. The Goonies by Blueprint Gaming 7/1/24
#16. Da Vincis Treasure by Pragmatic Play 6/3/21
#17. Halloween Jack by Netent 10/0/21 (Seventeenth by virtue of less top choices)
#18. Eastern Emeralds by Quickspin 6/2/20
#19. The Falcon Huntress by Thunderkick 6/1/19
#20. Lost Relics by Netent 6/1/17

The TOSSER! The Overwhelmingly Shittiest Slot Ever Released!

Winner 2018: Book of Gods by Big Time Gaming is apparently utterly terrible. NOT ONE POINT but a huge and record amount of TOSSER nominations = 11!!

Never seen a slot so reviled. Usually HV games are marmite, with fans and critics but the BoG has really been flushed here! :axeman2:

#2. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by Big Time Gaming - the spins structure and gamble is despised by many. TOSSER nominations = 5
#3. Jumanji by Netent. A turd of a game, waste of a licenced theme. TOSSER nominations = 4
#4= Playboy Gold by Microgaming. Ultimate proof the sequel is invariably more crap than the original. TOSSER nominations = 2
#4= Donuts by Big Time Gaming. TOSSER nominations = 2
#4= Rise Of Olympus by Play'n Go. TOSSER nominations = 2
#4= Vikings by Netent. TOSSER nominations = 2
#4= Jingle Spins by Netent. TOSSER nominations = 2
#4= Kronos Unleashed by WMS. Utter garbage. TOSSER nominations = 2

Other brilliant dunover insights:

This poll result demonstrates that players, well at CM anyway, like to see some potential in their slots, a bit of excitement and belief. This is why some volatile slots get praised by some yet others lambast them hence a top-20 game can also see TOSSER choices. It demonstrates equally as strongly that Megaways remains God at present. It's a concept that's hit a chord with players, although I hope we don't see the market saturated with the bastards in 2019 - there is room for other ideas too!

So now we can rate the top developers by total points gained in this poll and I can add a little comment to each.

#1. BLUEPRINT GAMING: 244 points, 2 TOSSER choices.
Says that Megaways works, but bizarrely they won the 2018 competition with a bog-standard game of their own creation!

#2. PLAY'N GO: 132 points, 3 TOSSER choices.
As usual many releases which include some big boys.

#3. PUSH GAMING: 97 points, 0 TOSSER choices.
Only 6 games, 5 have been noticed, with one monster! Great new entry, pound-for-pound easily the best developer of 2018!!

#4. BTG: 94 points, 18 TOSSER choices
Wow. Controversial slots and it certainly shows here! An unprecedented 18 TOSSER choices yet still managed 94 points for just 4 releases so they still hit the mark - and don't forget their licensed Megaways games are responsible for the majority of Blueprint's chart-topping here. Book Of Gods exceptionally hated.

#5. PRAGMATIC PLAY: 92 points, 3 TOSSER choices.
Well, a significant new entry into the charts, many anonymous slots but have hit with a few biggies. Have made an impact and broken through in 2018 with some memorable and volatile slots. Very promising.

#6. NETENT: 87 points, 10 TOSSER choices.
Well, after a dreadful 2017 it looks like our favourite Swedes are climbing back up the greasy pole and have done relatively well. Still too much unexciting dross and TOSSER votes but are starting to drop in some better games and players are noticing them again. Keep it up!

(The remaining developers have all got less than 50 points, so we'll just keep it quick! You get a points figure and a TOSSER amount i.e. 36/1 accompanied by an acidic comment. )

THUNDERKICK: 47/0
Pretty Usual, 2 noticeable games.
RED TIGER: 34/2
A lot of slots, some interest. Laser Fruit only noticeable game.
QUICKSPIN: 35/2
Pretty normal, 3 noticeable slots.
YGGDRASIL: 31/1
Few points for a lot of games, Baron Samedi notable.
RED RAKE: 11/0
Gaining a presence.
LEANDER: 8/0
Anonymous despite numerous slots - thanks @Simmo! for the fact you got all 8 of Leander's score with AI!!
PLAYTECH: 5/0
Most prolific releaser of slots at 6 a month on average! Totally anonymous with just one mention but a 5-pointer from one voter for The Dark Knight slot. Pretty crap performance, but not the worst believe it or not!
ELK STUDIOS: 9/0
Pretty much unnoticed.
ISOFTBET: 5/0
Pretty anonymous, despite some good slots. Odd.
IGT: 3/0
Anonymous, still off the radar - one slot mentioned 3 pts. for IGT overall.
MERKUR: 3/0
Anonymous, one game noticed.
NOVOMATIC: 0/1
Anonymous, no votes yet 1 TOSSER selection!
ENDORPHINA: 0/1
Anonymous, one TOSSER choice.
FOXIUM: 0/0
Anonymous
NEXTGEN: 0/0
Wow! Lots of releases and totally ignored, like in 2017!
STAKE LOGIC: 0/0
Anonymous. No interest.
IRON DOG STUDIOS: 0/0
Where are you all?
KONAMI: 0/0
Where are you too?

OK, I have saved the most execrable and diabolical crap until last. This is such shocking shit I can barely bring myself to type it.

WMS: 0/4
Yes, you're reading this right - not ONE point for any of their many 2018 releases yet 4 TOSSER choices. This is a developer who has seriously lost their mojo, cannot transpose their land-based success to online, a-la IGT and Bally. Unplayable tripe, no excitement and resting on past glories. A huge kick up the jacksie required. If you think this is bad...…

MICROGAMING: 1/6
Yes. One player gave you one point for a game you didn't even develop, but an in-house team did it for you. Yet 6 TOSSER nominations came your way for the banal, tedious drivel you have sent out masquerading as slot games in 2018. I cannot believe they've fell even further from last year, 'cos there wasn't much further to fall. But congratulations, you've some how managed it.

THE WORST SLOT DEVELOPER OF 2018 - MICROGROANING

Thanks for reading people, looking forward to your comments!

 

[steveh35]

Not sure what the hatred for Book Of Gods is it takes the boring original of Book Of Ra and Dead and adds a nice addition in the extra symbol in the base game at least it didn't add the respin version of Book Of Oz if anything Book Of Oz should have won this award.

 

[animator]

Seems alright by me

 

[deanparkr]

Very insightful indeed. Thanks for putting this all together Dunover!

 

[dunover]

Not sure what the hatred for Book Of Gods is it takes the boring original of Book Of Ra and Dead and adds a nice addition in the extra symbol in the base game at least it didn't add the respin version of Book Of Oz if anything Book Of Oz should have won this award.

Book of Oz will be in next year's poll as it was released after 1st. Dec 2018

 

[Chipkin9]

Not sure what the hatred for Book Of Gods is it takes the boring original of Book Of Ra and Dead and adds a nice addition in the extra symbol in the base game at least it didn't add the respin version of Book Of Oz if anything Book Of Oz should have won this award.

Tbf to Microgaming Book of Oz is a great game. It's the only memorable and decent slot they've made the past 2 years; but it's a clone of others. I'm not a fan of respin or buy features, but when I played it at VS I always got the single book needed inside no more than 4 spins...Not something I would do more than. So just to say it's far from a tosser imho

 

[dunover]

Tbf to Microgaming Book of Oz is a great game. It's the only memorable and decent slot they've made the past 2 years; but it's a clone of others. I'm not a fan of respin or buy features, but when I played it at VS I always got the single book needed inside no more than 4 spins...Not something I would do more than. So just to say it's far from a tosser imho

Yes, I have a feeling that next year Book Of Oz and Holy Diver will figure prominently in the poll.

 

[shadow123]

Call me weird( a lot of people do) but I dont mind book of gods mainly due to winning £450 for a 10p stake
just after release,Think i must must have been the chosen one.

Think Millionare is a far more worthy contenter, last session took hundreds
of games to get the feature, chose 83% on the gamble, 3% was the winner , pathetic

 

[Jono777]

Nice work Mate

Some surprises in the results and some not so.......

 

[dunover]

Call me weird( a lot of people do) but I dont mind book of gods mainly due to winning £450 for a 10p stake
just after release,Think i must must have been the chosen one.

LOL...why didn't you vote for it then?

 

[goatwack]

There you have it. The voting is rigged

 

[shadow123]

LOL...why didn't you vote for it then?

Stop being picky , told you i was weird, I cant remember what crock of shit I voted for but that was before a series
of diabolical gambles on milliionare, I got to go and find out what i voted for now

Ok checked, i voted for a 3 year old game as you kindly pointed out

Got to get that dementia assesment brought forwards

 

[Red Rake Gaming]

Thanks for Dunover and the people who voted, and congrats to the winners!

To be honest I'm quite happy with our own results given the fact we are pretty new and we aren't available for the UK audience yet (and many CM users are from UK).

That's about to change so hopefully we gain some hearts between the CM user base in 2019 and go higher in next year contest

 

[smart_croatia]

Thanks for Dunover and the people who voted, and congrats to the winners!

To be honest I'm quite happy with our own results given the fact we are pretty new and we aren't available for the UK audience yet (and many CM users are from UK).

That's about to change so hopefully we gain some hearts between the CM user base in 2019 and go higher in next year contest

I voted for Mystic mirror its rly great slot for me atleast, lot of very decent bonuses and pls if you can turn for me that full screen of ladies in bonus so i can post pic here hehe

 

[09237653]

I quite like book of gods, in hindsight I should have stuck it in my top 5, can probably name 100 other slots I consider to be worse (including every other BTG game, Holy diver looks good though)

 

[lotusch]

Well done Dunover.
Great to see all the results in and they are close to my own thoughts.

Still surprised Blueprint smashed the competition, thought it would be a bit closer in the end results with other slot providers.
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them.
It can take so bloody long before you land a good hit on them and the bonus rounds are super hard to trigger organically, like they just force you to buy features for 100x bet.
It takes sometimes way longer than that to trigger a bonus, for example on Genie Wild.

WMS I think everyone agreed on, not so long ago, 2016 I believe voted as one of the best slots providers and from then it just went downwards with them. Sad to see and no idea what happened at their development HQ.
In landbased casinos WMS still has very exciting slots but online I only play their older suite of games.

Anyway thanks again Dunover, well written and explained!

 

[KasinoKing]

Massive thanks to Dunover for putting a HUGE amount of work into this!

Great to see the results... and shame I've never even played half of them - including the #1

Oh well... it will give me something to do over Christmas...

KK

 

[mina1929]

Yeah great work Dunover

The number one game I can't play but it does look like a winner as I have seen a few people have great hits on them

 

[Nicola]

Thanks for all the hard work that went into this Dunover. Well done to Blueprint, they have been inspiring with their output this year.

Once again NetEnt promised decent slots at ICE and Amsterdam. Apart from Vikings which showed they are still half capable, another poor show in 2018.

Has the Big Time Gaming bubble finally burst?

 

[robby811]

Thanks for Dunover and the people who voted, and congrats to the winners!

To be honest I'm quite happy with our own results given the fact we are pretty new and we aren't available for the UK audience yet (and many CM users are from UK).

That's about to change so hopefully we gain some hearts between the CM user base in 2019 and go higher in next year contest

My vote was also for Mystic Mirror <3

 

[sledge13]

I demand a best out of five vote like our politicians!

 

[robby811]

There you have it. The voting is rigged

Rigggeeed be carful with the Word you know what happend to me in the VS chat

 

[L&L-Jan]

well done Blueprint. Although they drop so many megaways slot, players choice is Napoleon. And they have so many good games. The Goonies, Jungle Jackpot, Wish upon a Jackpot, El Jackpotto and much more.
Napoleon is def my favourite of the year and runner up would be Vikings Unleashed. Well done and keep up the good work!

 

[dunover]

There you have it. The voting is rigged

Yeah, BoG is an odd one. I thought it was OK when I reviewed it earlier in the year, I liked the idea of expanding scatters being applied to a 243-way slot, but somehow it just didn't work in the eyes of players. I am really surprised that it avoided any votes at all....

 

[Betreels Casino & Sports]

Great work Dunover! Thank you for putting it together for the community.

 

[goatwack]

Who knew that Jammin' Jars would take Runner-up spot after all that controversy. No doubt aided by Chopley's constant lauding it on the boards

If I voted for Napoleon I must have been high because after extensive playthroughs it is a shocking game, no idea how it could win. I've seen HV and I admire Dave's majestic wonder-hit on it but there's nothing to praise about it.

Hard to believe so many symbols can fail to align, that goes beyond credibility and disbelief, and it's terribly produced. Like you want to get on to the next spin after one or two scatters have shown up and if you click to get rid of it it'll give you the result of the next spin instantly etc

Plus what's with the awful wailing during spins and sub- Playstation 1 'cutscenes' Bit overhyped and not worthy of top spot, at all

Wild Heist & Falcon Huntress not even breaking the Top 10 is another mystery

 

[dunover]

Who knew that Jammin' Jars would take Runner-up spot after all that controversy. No doubt aided by Chopley's constant lauding it on the boards

If I voted for Napoleon I must have been high because after extensive playthroughs it is a shocking game, no idea how it could win. I've seen HV and I admire Dave's majestic wonder-hit on it but there's nothing to praise about it.

Hard to believe so many symbols can fail to align, that goes beyond credibility and disbelief, and it's terribly produced. Like you want to get on to the next spin after one or two scatters have shown up and if you click to get rid of it it'll give you the result of the next spin instantly etc

Plus what's with the awful wailing during spins and sub- Playstation 1 'cutscenes' Bit overhyped and not worthy of top spot, at all

Wild Heist & Falcon Huntress not even breaking the Top 10 is another mystery

Wild Heist at Bigcock Manor and Falcon Huntress did actually get a first choice and 44 points between them so were a couple of the better-performing games to be fair. Just seems everything pales into insignificance amidst the onslaught of Megaways and other HV stuff.

 

[samikk]

Napoleon can be brutal (like all HV games) but I can see why it was the winner of this year contest. When it's hot there's a good chance to get those wild/high paying symbol wins and then it's very exciting slot IMHO. Usually you don't get any big wins but basegame can suprise you and pay big sometimes. All HV slots pays bad most of the time. IMO, you have to judge it when it's hotter and pays better to see the potential and excitement. Otherwise most of these HV games are utter sh*t and many of them could be the tosser of the year.

 

[lotusch]

Who knew that Jammin' Jars would take Runner-up spot after all that controversy. No doubt aided by Chopley's constant lauding it on the boards

If I voted for Napoleon I must have been high because after extensive playthroughs it is a shocking game, no idea how it could win. I've seen HV and I admire Dave's majestic wonder-hit on it but there's nothing to praise about it.

Hard to believe so many symbols can fail to align, that goes beyond credibility and disbelief, and it's terribly produced. Like you want to get on to the next spin after one or two scatters have shown up and if you click to get rid of it it'll give you the result of the next spin instantly etc

Plus what's with the awful wailing during spins and sub- Playstation 1 'cutscenes' Bit overhyped and not worthy of top spot, at all

Wild Heist & Falcon Huntress not even breaking the Top 10 is another mystery

For me it was a confirmation that you don't need a gazillion megaway slots to actually hit big.
Napoleon is defo not the most exciting game graphic wise and play wise but I have had some good wins on it topping with a 900x in FS.
And it can do much better as seen on screenshots posted here.

Capable of some serious hits but when it is cold it is cold, agreed on that.

Glad not some stupid megaways slot won!

And yeah forgot to mention I was very surprised about jammin jars high rank too..Tried it a few times,not my cup of tea.

 

[GoldenGhoul]

Nice to see Napoleon win, I do agree it can be too cold sometimes but I like the high pays, something that looks like it would pay 10x can turn out to be massive here as even a small amount of high paying symbols and wilds can be great, though that those wins are so hard to hit is another thing. Still, it is nice to have such a clear-cut HV slot, just get a good amount of wilds and it goes massive, no megaways, elaborate features e.t.c., solid free spins, some random stuff and a good paytable. I wonder if anyone knows about the actual potential here, can we theoretically line up those stacked wilds for multiple wild lines or is it just smoke and mirrors?

BTW @dunover maybe you could think about making a nice long real play video with some of the various slots chosen here with perhaps some old favorites too, I enjoy your Bonanza sessions but I (and probably not only me ) am not that enamored with that slot and would certainly enjoy seeing you play some different slots. Could be a lowrolling session as well, just to get some playtime and so that you could go through more different slots.

In any case though, thanks for compiling the list and have a nice Christmas

 

[lockinlove]

Great job!!

Even though I am one the biggest trash talkers in regards to BTG, they make phenomenal slots. The graphics and ideas of slots like bonanza and white rabbit are absolute genius. Yeah they have a couple stinkers especially book of gods but they changed the look of slots entirely. I think they need to go back to just their megaways and regular slots and enough with the bonus buy and gamble features. Its fine if you had one like white rabbit and then chili for the gambles to add some variety into your library but I truly hope they stop that nonsense. I dont find having to gamble my bonus fun at all and I feel like it causes alot of negativity.

Fair is fair. When BTG does well they get praised on here all the time. So when they make some duds they deserve that too and both slots nominated absolutely deserved the hate they got!

Off to drink some rum and eggnog.

Merry Christmas!!!

 

[robby811]

Off to drink some rum and eggnog.

Merry Christmas!!!

Cheers

 

[JGslots]

Thanks Dunover Microgaming used to be my favourite manufacturer, but they’ve seriously lost their way.

For me Pragmatic, Novomatic and BTG are releasing the most fun slots now, I just don’t like the Blueprint slots, they always ‘feel’ impossible to get big hits on for me.

Looking forward to many more releases in 2019 and hopefully Microgaming can get back on track.

Also what’s happened to SG/WMS? They need to let WMS release more of their old school slots, their current bunch have been boring dull and too confusing.

Rob

 

[bonustreak]

Great work Dunover!

 

[Broke]

Napoleon... Really? Under 96% RTP. It's a good game and would be a great one be the RTP over 96, but I don't think it's the best one of 2018.

 

[Lemon]

In fairness to Blueprint, most of their points were from their BTG-licensed 'Megaways' slots, and Napoleon was made by Reel Time Gaming (Eye of Horus / Fishin' Frenzy etc) if I'm not mistaken, so it's not quite a runaway victory. Strip all of those titles out and you're left with stuff like The Goonies which is akin to all of the games they've been doing for the last 3 or 4 years.

Play 'n GO have done well this year and have knocked out a lot of new titles, but their best one is just a clone of Montezuma. Some of their original stuff is pretty good though

There's a dearth of creativity and innovation this year, and a lack of originality. Could it be that a lot of studios are feeling the saturation-point closing in on a crowded market and are going for 'quick wins'? Financially it makes sense but for the player it leaves them starved of something new. The number of Book of Ra clones this year has been truly embarrassing, but if they take money and are quick to develop, why wouldn't you?

I think Push Gaming have come along with some decent new slots this year, to their credit, many of which have depth to them. Yggdrasil and NetEnt are also trying new stuff as always, and fair play to them for that, because if it wasn't for these guys I'd still be firing up slots from 3 or 4 years ago all the time. I suppose every studio has to do a mixture of games; safe ones and easy-to-develop ones just to pay the bills, and then some different ideas that have risk involved but will pay off handsomely if they work.

Most of the WMS stuff consists of Vegas-style 'short-term entertainment' offerings converted to online, and for the most part they simply are not what online players want profile-wise.

Been an interesting and enjoyable year's slotting overall - Happy New Year to everyone

 

[dunover]

In fairness to Blueprint, most of their points were from their BTG-licensed 'Megaways' slots, and Napoleon was made by Reel Time Gaming (Eye of Horus / Fishin' Frenzy etc) if I'm not mistaken, so it's not quite a runaway victory. Strip all of those titles out and you're left with stuff like The Goonies which is akin to all of the games they've been doing for the last 3 or 4 years.

Play 'n GO have done well this year and have knocked out a lot of new titles, but their best one is just a clone of Montezuma. Some of their original stuff is pretty good though

There's a dearth of creativity and innovation this year, and a lack of originality. Could it be that a lot of studios are feeling the saturation-point closing in on a crowded market and are going for 'quick wins'? Financially it makes sense but for the player it leaves them starved of something new. The number of Book of Ra clones this year has been truly embarrassing, but if they take money and are quick to develop, why wouldn't you?

I think Push Gaming have come along with some decent new slots this year, to their credit, many of which have depth to them. Yggdrasil and NetEnt are also trying new stuff as always, and fair play to them for that, because if it wasn't for these guys I'd still be firing up slots from 3 or 4 years ago all the time. I suppose every studio has to do a mixture of games; safe ones and easy-to-develop ones just to pay the bills, and then some different ideas that have risk involved but will pay off handsomely if they work.

Most of the WMS stuff consists of Vegas-style 'short-term entertainment' offerings converted to online, and for the most part they simply are not what online players want profile-wise.

Been an interesting and enjoyable year's slotting overall - Happy New Year to everyone

Eye Of Horus is known as a Merkur game, as is Fishin' Frenzy but yes, they are using Reel Time like Novo use Red7 etc. Reel time actually have some standalone games, like Convertus Aurum which uses the Blueprint Interface too. Napoleon Rise Of An Empire is actually available through the SG interface as well. I think they're Australian but interact with other developers mainly through the supply of those multi-game cabinets you see nowadays. All very incestuous. I did mention that although BTG weren't the best developer this year, they were responsible for much of Blueprint's overall score, but surely the biggest travesty was Play'n Go's Bitch Child Book Of Dead winning in 2016; should this occur next year with that bloody Book Of Oz I'll ditch the poll thereafter.

 

[samikk]

This is a good example what Napoleon can offer you when it's hot.

 

[Lemon]

Good Jesus, that's a nice hit!

 

[TheresNoDInBonanza]

Cool... can't play any of them

Stupid government.

 

[johnnybagel]

Some brutal comments in there haha. I know what you mean about WMS, i'm not actually sure they care anymore.

Thanks for doing the scores etc, v interesting reading.