GOING BANANAS
Banana Bash is a fun example of the new quality of slots from Eclipse Gaming Systems
By Frank Legato
Big things are coming from Georgia-based slot supplier Eclipse Gaming Systems. Banana Bash is the first example of the entertaining new game style the slot-maker will deliver going forward.
Eclipse, a longtime supplier in the Class II Native American markets, recently upgraded its game development, bringing in Bally and Ainsworth veteran Mike Trask last year as chief product officer to create a new game development team. Trask brought years of experience in the development of traditional Class III casinos slot machines to the Class II electronic bingo genre, and he quickly assembled a team of talent from both game classifications.
“We brought on some behind-the-scenes players that have had some really big effects on the industry,” says Bree Cardona, marketing director for Eclipse Gaming Systems. “We’ve been really lucky to capture that talent, so we have a fresh feeling on the development side in the studio.”
“It’s been fun, because I’ve only been with Eclipse nine months, but it definitely has the feeling of a start-up,” says Peter Wasielewski, the new creative director for Eclipse. “The whole team has been really focused on trying to find a new sense of passion within the games and the ideas that we’re pitching.”
This year, Eclipse is rolling out the first suite of slot products developed exclusively by the new team. It started with a new cabinet, called the Callisto. It features an eye-grabbing 49- inch 4K floating glass display, full interactive edge lighting, a 13-inch LCD button deck, and dual bash buttons.
The new cabinet comes with a new game engine—the advanced computer system powering game design. Callisto enables advanced 3D graphics and animation, among other enhanced design elements.
“Our map tools have gone through a complete update since I’ve joined,” says mathematician and game designer Josh Ferrer. “The slot games that Eclipse used to make were very simple. For modern games that have overlapping pot features or multilevel progressives, we just didn’t have the tooling. So, we took a lot of care to rush out updates to our tooling so we can do things like expanding reels, respins and pot collection. We modernized our games to be more player-focused.”
The Eclipse engineers do their own personal research. “We play when we can in Las Vegas,” Ferrer says. “I know Class II is slightly different, but a lot of slot concepts and design translate. One of my favorite things about the company is that the people I work with are not just experts in their fields, but they’re actually players who speak the slot lingo. Every decision we make is for the players to have the most fun they can have.”
BANANA DEBUT
As the new game platform and cabinet were developed, games were being created specifically for the Callisto format. This month, the first of those games debuted at Washington’s Muckleshoot Casino. It’s called Banana Bash, with two funny base games featuring an animated monkey or gorilla, depending on the title.
The base game is a five-reel video slot, with 40 paylines in the lower denominations, 10 lines in the 25-cent version and five lines in the dollar version. In the primary game, the main game character—the monkey or the gorilla— randomly appears to throw five to 10 wild symbols to the reels to increase winning combinations.
The main characters in Banana Bash Monkey and Banana Bash Gorilla fill the game screen, fronted by three filler pots of banana dishes, marked “Flambe, “Pie” and “Split.” They grow larger every time a banana symbol lands on the reels. When one or more of the pots burst—or when six or more cash-on-reels symbols land—it triggers a hold-and- spin event.
During the feature, “Flambé” frames random locked cash-on-reels symbols, and increases their value with every spin for the remainder of the feature. “Split” splits a cash-on-reels symbol into two symbols of equal value, and you can also split the split for four cash awards in one reel spot. “Pie” triggers a feature within the feature. A pie with six slices appears on the screen, and a mini hold-and-spin round takes place. If you fill the pie slices with cash, it reveals a multiplier up to 10X that is applied to the total.
It is a normal three-spin cycle on the hold-and-spin, with lower-level jackpots and cash-on-reels symbols locking in place. Filling all 15 spots returns the Grand jackpot, a progressive resetting at $10,000.
“The idea started with just this banana symbol,” says Ferrer. “Then, if you’ve got to have a character in the game, you’ve got to have a monkey with bananas. For the three pots, bananas are food, so I went with desserts with bananas and a kitchen scene. The three banana desserts that come to mind most are banana splits, banana pie, and Bananas Foster, which we changed to Flambé.
“Mid-production, we decided to allow splits to go into multiple splits to quadruple the amount. The splitting mechanic’s been done in previous games, but we decided to go up to four, and it fit the theme pretty well.”
“One of the things that is the most fun about the game is that you can trigger any of those sub features within the hold-and-spin,” says Wasielewski. “So, if you get into the hold-and- spin at any point, you’re not locked out of the best configuration, which is really nice because I feel that’s been something that the industry has been lacking in a fair number of those games.
“We’re really trying to find ways to engage the player throughout the entire experience and keep it fun and lively—a monkey that’s wearing a chef’s coat and bouncing around just felt like a really lively personality. And then for the sister game, we went with a gorilla in a diner.”
The new team at Eclipse has been following trends closely as they relate to game mechanics like hold-and-spin and the pot-collection feature. “We’ve upgraded our platforms to allow for this more entertaining style, which is more interactive with the player,” says Cardona. “I think that’s really indicative of where Eclipse is going as a company. We are pushing on the gas there. We’re not stopping. We’ve re-released 10 games in the last six months, and that momentum is continuing to propel us forward.”
Muckleshoot held the launch event for Banana Bash on March 4. “Then, it is spreading like wildfire across the United States,” says Cardona. “Our tribal partners are really excited about this game series, as well as the beauty of the new Callisto cabinet.”
“It’s rare that a company of our size has a game where, before it’s ever released, we all are in a consensus that this is a full, complete game we can be very proud of,” says Ferrer. “This will represent our company well.”
Banana Bash will be followed by a parade of games from the new team and the advanced technology. Next up will be Gears of Wealth, the third game in the Spin Big series. The theme is Industrial Revolution machinery, with a two-level spinning wheel that fills the monitor behind a three-by-five reel set. When triggered, the inner wheel spins to a credit award or an “Upgrade” symbol that triggers the outer wheel, which includes large credit awards and each of the game’s four progressive jackpots.
This game’s ornate wheel is an Art Deco-inspired presentation that includes a “Buy-a-Spin Big Wheel Bonus,” in which the player can buy a spin on the lucrative outer wheel for $25 on the lowest denomination of the game.
The wheel bonus is augmented by a free-spin bonus and a pick feature that leads to one of the jackpots.
Big Spin Gears of Wealth will be in casinos within the next few months, but for now, Eclipse is concentrating on spreading the news about Banana Bash. “This is the first game that was completed 100 percent under the new leadership,” says Cardona. “It displays the full strength of Eclipse.
“This is that game that’s leading us into our new era.”
SLOT TYPE
Five-reel, five-line, 10-line or 40-line video slot; pot collection and hold-and-spin bonus events; .01, .02, .05, .10, .25 and 1.00 denominations
PAYBACK % RANGE
90%-96%
AVERAGE HIT FREQUENCY
Approximately 30%
TOP JACKPOT
Progressive; $10,000 reset
