Software Developer: Microgaming Review

Introduction

Microgaming is a giant in the online gambling slot-design industry, and their slots are capable of paying massive amounts of money, which explains their popularity with players. In this post, we cover some of the company’s main games – and we’ll look at what devices they can be played from.

Microgaming are one of the major names in the online gambling world, and while their slots were initially a little dated, and ‘out of touch’ with player-expectations, the software provider has flourished over the past decade, and they today, offer some of the most exciting video slots in the world, with many of them featuring staggering win-potential.

Notable titles include Immortal Romance, Thunderstruck II, Dragonz, Game of Thrones, and Jurassic Park. We’ll look more at specific titles a little later on in this post.

Before we visit Microgaming slots, let’s take a look at the company itself, and a brief history of how they got to where they are today.

About Microgaming

First founded in 2004, Microgaming began by focusing on casino-powered technology – something many of the big brands seem to have in common.

While Microgaming ran successful white-label software solutions (some of which are still in use today), the software provider soon realized that game creation was a more profitable venture, and 1998 saw the release of their first video slot; “Cash Splash”.

The game was a huge success, with thousands of players spinning in the first day of launch alone, and it was a unique release, as it offered the world’s first progressive jackpot too. Again, we’ll look at progressive jackpot games offered by Microgaming later on in this post, so stay tuned.

243-ways-to-win: One of the biggest attraction of many of Microgaming’s slots, is the 243-ways-to-win payline format, and this has been a big hit with players, as it offers far-greater win potential than most games. 243-ways-to-win simply means there are no set paylines – and it’s possible to make a maximum of 243 paylines, by landing a full screen of the same symbol.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at Microgaming slots – and what some of the most popular games they’ve released are:

Microgaming Slots

Immortal Romance:

Without a doubt Microgaming’s most popular slot, Immortal Romance is a vampire-themed slot (with a clear Twilight theme throughout), and two exciting bonuses make the game one of the most-played slots in the world; one, the “Wild Desire” feature can award up to 5 wild reels… and thanks to the 243-ways-to-win format, this allows for HUGE wins.

Game of Thrones:

Available in a 15-line and a 243-ways-to-win variation, Microgaming’s Game of Thrones slot is yet another of their “hit titles”, largely thanks to the stupendous win-potential that can be found in both the base-game and free-spins. The bonus allows you to “pick your own bonus”, and the 8 free-spins with a 5X multiplier is where the most potential lies.

Thunderstruck II:

While almost identical in nature to Immortal Romance, Thunderstruck II has become yet another hit title for Microgaming, and one of the things players like best about this game, is the musical soundtrack; it’s a great example of just what Microgaming are capable of, and it’s one of their most popular releases in history for a reason; it looks great, offers players great chances of hitting a big win, and it also sounds great!

Jurassic Park:

Modelled around the film of the same name, Jurassic Park was one of Microgaming’s first slots to incorporate HTML5 technology, and this allowed players to enjoy the action from their mobile phones and tablet devices. Jurassic Park features 6 different features – along with a random base-game feature – and this is one of the reasons it’s gone down as a top Microgaming slot; there’s variety… and it’s fun to play!

Six Acrobats:

Strangely, Microgaming opted to ditch the 243-ways-to-win format for one of their latest releases, and while players initially found themselves asking “why”, it soon became clear; Six Acrobats offers truly monstrous potential, with a free-spins bonus-round that can see winning paylines multiplied by 25X, when a win is made using a wild symbol. This Asian-inspired slot is both enjoyable to play, and relatively medium-volatility, so it’s not hard to see why it’s risen to become one of the best slots of all time.

One of the important things to remember about Microgaming’s slots, is that they – in general – tend to be quite high-variance. This means they don’t pay wins all that often, but when they do pay wins, they’re generally a lot higher than most other providers.

For example, compare Microgaming slots to, say, Quickspin slots. Quickspin slots have a hit rate of around one in three (meaning you’ll hit a win once in every three spins), whereas Microgaming slots have an average of around a one in five hit rate. That may not sound like a lot, but when you consider that the typical playing session consists of hundreds of spins, you start to see where the difference lies.

This means Microgaming’s slots are ideally suited for players looking for big, 1,000X stake hits – but they do offer some low-variance games as well, with Dragonz being one of the most well-known.

Progressive Jackpot Slots

Microgaming were a pioneer in developing jackpot slots, and many of their games feature progressive jackpots and localized jackpots.

Below, we’re going to look at some of the software providers most popular progressive jackpot slots.

Mega Moolah is easily Microgaming’s most popular progressive jackpot slot, and it’s also the one featuring the biggest jackpot amount. While it varies greatly, dependant on when it was last won, Mega Moolah has paid out a whopping $16 Million jackpot before… and apparently, the player who won the life-changing payout was spinning at just $0.50 per spin!

Due to the success of Mega Moolah, Microgaming released a follow-on called Mega Moolah ISIS, and while it’s not proved to be as successful as the first, it too offers multi-million-dollar jackpots, and it’s worth a play if you fancy winning life-changing sums of money.

Other popular progressive jackpot games from Microgaming include Fruit Fiesta (with a jackpot that averages around $500,000), Treasure Nile, and Cash Splash.

Microgaming’s Software

Microgaming used to offer their games in download-format only, and while this was great for a while (as it meant game images and graphics were stored locally on your computer, rather than on a server), it soon became redundant as players looked to enjoy the ease of playing games through their mobile Internet Browsers instead.

For that reason, Microgaming “ported” the majority of their games over to Flash and HTML5, and today, only a couple of Microgaming download casinos still exist.

The slots themselves typically run very smoothly, and the newer games – those built using HTML5 technology – are impressively fluid, with lag, delay, or glitching rarely experienced by those playing.

Mobile Gaming

Microgaming were surprisingly one of the last software providers to take mobile gaming seriously (many at first thought players would never want to play slots from their mobile devices), and while Microgaming were a little ‘late to the party’, today, the vast majority of their slots are mobile-optimized, and this ensures you can enjoy their games from your mobile phone and tablet devices.

There’s no definitive list of which games are available for mobiles or not, as different online casinos feature different versions of the game – so the best bet, if you want to know if a game is available to play from your mobile devices, is to simply log in at your favourite online casino, and search the game; if it appears, you’re good to go!

Final Verdict

Microgaming have a fantastic range of slots, and their games are extremely enjoyable, well-made, and exciting to play – meaning you’re unlikely to have a bad experience if you opt to play one of the many Microgaming slots available.

Check out one of the games we talked about above, or browse the titles; there are hundreds of games developed by Microgaming,

While the software provider has taken a little longer than most software providers to transfer their games from Flash to HTML5, most titles are now available to mobile users – and this will only continue as more of their games are ported over, so stay tuned if your favourite Microgaming slot isn’t yet available.