MARIACHI TIME
AGS celebrates Mexican culture with the rollout of Mariachi Fortunes Trio
By Frank Legato
On July 22, slot supplier AGS pulled off a new game launch like no other. The game Mariachi Fortunes Trio made its world premiere with celebrations at two different properties, in two different states.
The celebrations at Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in California and the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas were similar—live mariachi bands played in areas decorated as Mexico-style plazas complete with folklorico dancers, decorated street carts and larger-than-life visuals.
Both casinos are owned by the San Manuel Nation, formerly the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, its reservation in San Bernardino County the home of Yaamava’. (The tribe bought a shuttered Palms in 2021 and reopened it in 2022.) At the dual parties, members of Club Serrano, the player’s club shared by both properties, were given Mexican-themed gifts.
The parties and the first-of-its-kind dual-state launch were celebrating a new game family themed as a nod to the Mexican Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday. Each of the two properties hosted a first spin on one of the two inaugural Mariachi Fortunes Trio base games—Fiesta De Los Vivos (“festival of the living”) at Yaamava’ and Fiesta De Las Calacas (“festival of the skeletons”) at the Palms.
The only difference between the two games is thematic—Los Vivos is a daytime theme and Las Calacas is a nighttime theme. Each game is hosted by an animated mariachi band, with human musicians in the festival of the living version and calacas, the skeleton figures used as decorations to celebrate the Dia de los Muertos holiday, manning the horn, guitar and maracas in the band for the festival of the skeletons.
HAT POTS
Here, the musicians also serve as the three collection pots—well, more specifically, their hats. During base-game play on the five-reel, 30-line (1- cent or 2-cent) or 15-line (5-cent or 10-cent) video slot, green, red or blue cash-on-reels coin symbols send coins up to the like-colored hats of the mariachi musicians. In a funny bit of animation, the pile of coins atop each hat grows larger, appearing to weigh down the musicians as they play until one or more bursts to trigger an enhanced hold-and-spin feature.
According to Ben Kongpipattanakarn, product manager at AGS, the theme was intended as a follow-up to the Piñata Pays game family, which scored hits with the Mexican theme in base games Mariachi Party and Lucha Champions. “We wanted to build on the original concept of Piñata Pays, but how do we do the next big thing, and what [new] themes and concepts do we use?” Kongpipattanakarn says.
“There are a variety of themes in the U.S. market, so we thought we’d lean into a theme that lends itself to vibrant graphics and colorful characters. That’s how we landed on Day of the Living and Day of the Dead for Mariachi Fortunes Trio.”
The new game also brings a fresh presentation of the most popular game features of the day, the pot-collection and hold-and-spin features. “There are always going to be pots nowadays,” Kongpipattanakarn says. “It used to be the original pot filling up with gold that attracted players, but as things evolved, we decided to make this more interactive for the player, so coins filling up on top of the sombrero hats really plays into the theme of the mariachi characters dancing and singing traditional music.”
Each hat adds an enhancement to the hold-and-spin round, so the goal is to trigger all three hats. The game helps you out here—each cash-on-reels coin landing in the hold- and-spin round still sends coins up to the top display, so even if the bonus was triggered by a single hat, it’s possible to trigger the other two enhancements during the feature.
The green hat, marked “Extra Coins,” adds green cash-on-reels symbols to the reels that can split up to three times, potentially filling three reel spots with coins on a single spin. The red hat, marked “More Reels,” unlocks additional three-reel sets to the screen when accumulating seven, 21 and 37 cash-on-reels coins, respectively, adding to the accumulated bonus.
The blue hat, marked “Collect All,” collects and awards the sum of the cash-on-reels values on the screen each time a blue coin lands during the feature.
The hold-and-spin bonus proceeds in the usual way, on a three-spin cycle, returning the spin meter to three when each additional cash-on-reels coin appears and ending when there are three spins without a coin. The three lower jackpots, static awards of $50 (Mini) and $250 (Minor)—they are scalable with the denomination selected—and a progressive resetting at $800 (Major), can also appear during the hold-and-spin feature. The top Grand, a progressive resetting at $8,000, is triggered by filling all 15 spots on the main reel array with coins and/or jackpots.
There also is a “Nudge Save” symbol that awards a cash-on-reels coin to keep the feature going after three spins without a coin.
“The nudge is a bit of a hidden Easter egg in the game,” says Kongpipattanakarn. “There are no conditions for it to be activated; it’s purely random. You could already have 14 cash-on-reels symbols in the hold-and-spin round, and be on your last spin, figuring you’re not winning the Grand, and this gives you another chance for that to happen.
“We thought of it as a way of giving back to the players. When you finish your three spins and you’re out of the game, there is no form of nudge save in traditional versions. We wanted that to be a surprise for the player, to get them back into the game and potentially win the Grand as well.”
MORE TO COME
Kongpipattanakarn says the strength of Mariachi Fortunes Trio is the sum of its parts. “When you build a game, the three key things that make a game great are the art, the math and the sound, which has to be tied closely to the art and the animations. When we create these intricacies of the game, we want to keep everything relatable to the player and to the theme.”
He says the game will soon be making its way across several U.S. markets. And according to Nikki Davis, vice president of marketing for AGS, there will be more launch parties like the ones at Yaamava’ and the Palms.
“Some titles naturally lend themselves to fun player events, and this was definitely one of them,” Davis says. “Yaamava’ was the perfect setting for a daytime launch of Fiesta De Los Vivos. At the Palms, we really wanted to lean into the darker theme with a nighttime launch [of Fiesta De Las Calacas]. Both of the events were a great way to showcase the game’s personality, and it was exciting to see the response from players and operators who attended.”
AGS is calling the campaign “The Fiesta Never Ends, and the launch celebrations are ongoing. In August, it was at the Downstream Casino in Oklahoma, followed a week later at Michigan’s Gun Lake Casino. Davis says there will be a launch party at Mohegan Sun in September, followed by more during fall.
They may even do a few states at once. Here come the Mariachis.
SLOT TYPE
Five-reel, 15-line or 30-line video slot; pot-collection and hold-and-spin bonus events; .01, .02, .05 and .10 denominations
PAYBACK % RANGE
86.32%-92.45%
AVERAGE HIT FREQUENCY
34.73%
TOP JACKPOT
Progressive; $8,000 reset
The Fiesta Never Ends
Get ready to feel the music and spin into the fun—Mariachi Fortunes Trio has arrived!
Mariachi Fortunes Trio, made its debut July 22 with a two-part launch: Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in Southern California hosted a colorful daytime Fiesta de los Vivos, while Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas lit up the night with Fiesta de las Calacas.
The rollout continued in August with events at Downstream Casino Resort in Oklahoma and Gun Lake Casino in Michigan. Next on the tour: Mohegan Sun and more properties this fall.
Wherever it goes, Mariachi Fortunes Trio delivers vibrant visuals, festive music, and high-energy play.
