Branded slots, to give people context, are when casino studios go to a big brand out there and say “Hey, wassup. Wanna lend me your images and stuff and I’ll make a cool slot game?”
The most famous ones are games like NetEnt’s Guns n’ Roses or Microgaming Playboy Gold slot.
The big guys tend to bring one big game a year. Yggdrasil, up until now, has been happy to release their own creations, but no more.
They are bringing out their first co-produced game, and it’s… an unusual choice? But, in our opinion, might just be more exciting than you first think. Here’s why.
Explain to me what is the Nitro Circus slot game about?
You know what, sometimes it’s easier to see it than to explain it. Thankfully we have a YouTube video to give you an idea.
Granted, this is a 2-minute movie, so if you can’t be bothered to watch it, don’t worry. We’ve done the research for you.
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Because up until now we had no idea what the Nitro Circus was. Maybe we’re just not in the extreme sports circle.
Maybe this is way more popular and famous than our limited knowledge allows.
But we are going to assume that this is niche enough that it might need explaining to our readers – if you know everything there is to know about the Nitro Circus feel free to skip ahead.
Nitro Circus was an MTV TV series starting in 2009
Random we know, but apparently it “aired in 60+ countries over 2 seasons and was one of MTV’s most popular series of all time.” Said the official site. So you know what? This might be pretty big after all.
Especially as, beyond the TV series, the Nitro Circus Live has grown into a massive global brand, selling out at some of the biggest venues around the world.
The appeal is easy to see: Travis Pastrana. This whole thing was his brainchild and he’s not just the face, but the pull of the show.
An American professional motor sports competitor and stunt performer, he’s won multiple championships and 5 X Games gold medals and broken several records; most notably being the first person in the world to land a double backflip on a motorcycle.
Is this going to be an exciting Yggdrasil slot?
We have no idea what the gameplay is going to look like. All we’ve got from Yggdrasil is the press release telling us that this new Nitro Circus slot is coming on November 23rd, 2018.
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But there are some exciting elements about this partnership that might surprise even the most cynical of slot critics.
And we’ll admit. When we first read this, that was us. Mostly because we know nothing about Nitro Circus and so we felt like it wasn’t really ‘big’ news for us.
However, we thought about it some more, and here are our three reasons we think this will be a good fit.
1. A new type of sports slot theme
Currently, we are being swamped with football slots because of a certain world cup coming next months.
And if that’s showing us anything, it’s the lack of imagination when it comes to sport themed slot machine. They all look very generic; there’s only so much you can do with a sport if you don’t have a famous face to go with it.
Whether that’s the new Top Strike Championship slot or even old games like the Ice Hockey game Break Away. Take a look at them for a second and, whilst neither are bad games, neither will win any animation and graphics awards.
This Nitro Circus slot, on the other hand, will have some exciting action-packed images to bring to the screen – including Travis Pastrana. It will be unique. It will stand out.
Nitro Circus president Andy Edwards said: “We are working closely with the Yggdrasil team and are looking forward to unveiling a game that delivers all the excitement our fans have come to expect from Nitro Circus.”
Will they use live action shots? Maybe. But even if they don’t, an extreme sports online slot will almost certainly be visually interesting, if nothing else.
2. Two young brands that can help each other out
Yggdrasil is probably one of the most exciting slot game providers out there, and it might surprise you to hear that they only signed their first casino back 2013.
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Which isn’t that long when you consider that IGT have been around since the 1970s and Microgaming since the 1990s.
And sure, the Nitro Circus and Travis might be known in some extreme sports circles, but he’s not Ronaldo and this isn’t football. It’s a show that would like to get some more eyeballs.
“This slot will introduce Nitro Circus fans to the thrills of online casino, and similarly bring the high-octane action of the arena to casino players. We are excited to team up with them and take the world by storm with this ground-breaking new release coming later this year.” stated Yggdrasil Gaming CEO Fredrik Elmqvist
It’s also no coincidence that the launch of the Nitro Circus slot game will coincide with Nitro Circus’ all-new You Got This tour, coming to Europe later this year.
The slot is due out on November 23rd, whilst the You Got This Tour is coming to six different countries in Europe between 20th November and 9th December.
Yggdrasil games are particularly popular at European and UK casino sites. Just saying. It’s a partnership that works for both companies.
3. Yggdrasil are good at creating surprising casino games
Say what you will, but Yggdrasil slots are good. We had a look bad at all their slot reviews, and we only gave one slot 2 stars – every single one is 3, mostly 4 stars.
Meaning you can search for Yggdrasil slots and mostly play a good game (other than Robotnik game… shudder).
So just based on that, we are going to have to get excited about this November new slot game release. Why wouldn’t we? They’ve rarely let us down so far.
In fact, if you are already a fan, then you’ve probably been playing their Vikings Go To Hell slot recently. If you’re not, then there’s plenty of great games to introduce you to the genre.
Some old classics we love are Wicked Circus and Cyrus the Virus. Newer games to try would include video slots like Gem Rocks or even the multi-bonus Jungle Books.
Give them a go today, and you’ll see why we’re looking forward to Yggdrasil first array into branded slots; because they’ll have to pull something special out of this partnership.