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Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Anything – that’s the mantra for plenty of slot developers these days. For some reason, games with time-worn epochs tend to set pulses racing, both in design studios and home-based gambling dens. And so it goes with branded slot games too. Officially licensed slots can spell big business for slot game creators – or at least those with enough financial clout to haggle with major movie studios, record labels and mass media conglomerates. This applies to pretty much all genres, music included. So with this happily in mind, we present to you five of the best music themed slots released over the past couple of years.
Guns N’ Roses
NetEnt are one of the most revered slot developers in all of iGaming. To date, they’ve released a small but hugely successful collection of musically-themed slots. Guns N’ Roses is by far the most popular among players. Inspired by the legendary rock band that only really produced one truly memorable album (hint: it wasn’t Use Your Illusion I or II), this five reel slot includes and an assortment of bonus features. Although their 2020 North American tour was rescheduled, so you can’t hear them live at the moment, you can enjoy numerous hits such as Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City and November Rain when you play the slot. Some of the original band members make an appearance too including William Bruce Bailey himself.
Jimi Hendrix
Influential guitarist and songwriter, Jimi Hendrix remains very much in the public psyche even today thanks to his amazing music. To cement his reputation even further, NetEnt decided in 2017 to create an online slot in his name. Like many of its best slots, this highly polished five reel game features well-choreographed reel animations. There are 20 pay-lines, a pick and click bonus game and a pretty decent max win potential of 400x your stake. Needless to say, the soundtrack is pretty decent too with classics like Cross-Town Traffic playing in the background.
Michael Jackson King of Pop
This one was released by Bally back in 2016 as an officially licensed tribute to the King of Pop. Whether or not said King deserves any sort of tribute is another thing altogether. Anyway, this particular slot is a five reel effort with 25 pay-lines and an assortment of base game elements such as stacked wilds. The standout features here though are the Wheel Bonus feature and a Beat It free games round that awards up to 10 free spins. The game looks great and features five of MJ’s biggest hits: Beat It, Billie Jean, Bad, Dirty Diana and, um, Smooth Criminal.
Saxon
Play’n Go unleashed its own musically-themed slot game to an unsuspecting general public in 2020. It’s based on legendary heavy metal band Saxon (us neither) and comprises a 5 x 3 layout. Much like the heavy metal genre itself, the bonus rounds aren’t terribly sophisticated (just kidding!!). The base game includes stacked wilds – ok, for those of you not in the know about wilds, they’re basically symbols that can replace others on a slot game’s reels to form winning combinations. So they’re a pretty sought after feature. Should you land lead singer Biff Byford, aka Peter Rodney, along with an electric guitar, you’ll unlock the free spins round. Rock on…
The Phantom of the Opera
Yes, this is actually a thing. Phantom of the Opera was released by Microgaming and is of course inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical. Sadly, ALW doesn’t cavort across the reels in haughty high dudgeon. No. Instead the reels are decorated with some of the main characters from the production as well as the odd theatrical knick-knack. Wilds and scatters are in play during the base game (this is a good thing) and there’s a special, randomly triggered Chandelier Bonus feature that turns two entire reels wild. There’s also a Masquerade Pick Me Bonus feature that doles out various cash prizes.
