Superman The Movie Slots

Review of Superman The Movie Slots

Anyone over 40 knows that it was impossible to see Superman The Movie and not to fall in love with Christoper Reeve and his excellent portrayal of The Man of Steel. It was absolutely perfect to cast an actor who wasn’t too big, wasn’t too small, and could tug at our heart strings with a simple flash of his gentle smile.

It’s shocking to consider anyone but Reeve playing this role and it’s insane to look at the list of actors who came close to actually landing the part: Sylvester Stallone, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, James Caan and Christopher freakin’ Walken. Oh – they even looked at hiring the producer’s wife’s dentist for the role. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Thankfully, the casting went a little smoother for the villains of the film and we were treated to Gene Hackman and Ned Beatty who were both at the height of their careers. The two of them were fantastic and helped to create a “larger than life” feeling to the movie that was also aided by the few scenes that featured Marlon Brando.

I still remember heading downtown in 1978 to watch one of the first legitimate “blockbusters” to ever hit the silver screen. The theater was lined up around the corner and all of the showings were sold out so I got back into the car sadly headed home. I wasn’t able to get in to see it until weeks later but boy was I ever blown away once I did – superhero cinema had definitely turned a corner.

So will this review of Superman The Movie Slots be tainted by my decades-long love for both the film and Reeve? Absolutely, but thankfully it totally stands on its own and is actually one of the best releases of this year.

Screenshots

As you can see from the screenshots below, Playtech really spent a lot of time creating the space age design of the reels, user controls, and numerous backgrounds. They really committed to the intergalactic theme, which is a cool little twist on what we usually see in Superman-themed machines.

Everything looks fantastic from top to bottom so feel free to click on the images below to enlarge them and appreciate all of the hard work that went into it.

Storyline

Many people forget that Superman’s father was a scientist and even more probably forget that Jor-El was the only one sounding the alarm bell to the planet of Krypton that their home was about to blow up. Wanting to ensure the safety of his son, Kal-el, he placed him in a spaceship and shot him off to the planet of Earth. It was one of the last things he would ever do before Krypton was destroyed forever by its exploding sun.

On earth Kal-El was given the name of Clark Kent by his adoptive parents and grew up being a lot different than the other kids in his school. He could run faster than a speeding bullet and leap tall buildings in a single bound, as the legend has it. In his teens Clark was called to the Arctic where his strange crystal miraculously created the Fortress of Solitude, giving him the cool bachelor pad he’d always wanted.

In young adulthood Clark is hired as a reporter at the Daily Planet and starts falling for his coworker Lois Lane, while secretly protecting the citizens of Metropolis from criminals and natural disasters in his spare time. His biggest challenge arrives when his father’s old foes from Krypton, General Zod, Ursa, and Non, return from the Phantom Zone to unleash revenge on him simply because he is the son of Jor-El. The fearsome threesome is encouraged to destroy the “super man” by evildoer Lex Luthor who wants him out of the way so he can make his crooked fortunes with impunity. An epic battle ensues.

This release from Playtech touches on key plot points from the movie, such as the romance between Superman and Lois Lane, which are reinforced by its special features and images of the actors from the film. Many movie-themed slots don’t dive too deep into the source material from which they’re based but these guys did a great job of recreating the magic of the original film and the feelings that it invokes.

Unique Symbols

In a rare occurrence, we have pretty much zero complaints with this machine’s unique symbols. The designers simply did a great job of mixing playing card images with characters and scenes from the movie to create a fantastic set of reels.

Furthermore, Playtech should be praised for what might have been the greatest victory ever achieved in the history of movie-themed gambling games: they were able to get Gene Hackman to participate. This feat cannot be overstated and it’s a very big deal. With all do respect to those involved, we can safely assume that it wasn’t too hard for them to get Margo Kidder and Christopher Reeve to sign onto the project, but landing Gene Hackman?! That’s just shocking. Kudos to whoever made that happen.

Even though the unique symbols shatter expectations, some pickier fans of the movie will argue that Marlon Brando’s character of Jor-El should have found it’s way onto the board somehow, or perhaps even Terence Stamp as the evil General Zod. Regardless of where you stand on that debate, all of us can agree that it would have been great to see Ned Beatty’s bumbling Otis make an appearance, but let’s not get too greedy. After all, we do get Valerie Perrine as Lex Luthor’s girlfriend, Eve Teschmacher in a brief cameo.

No one should be missing Daily Planet employees Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen or Jackie Cooper as Perry White, so lets just go ahead and give Playtech a 9.5/10 for this category and move on.

• J (Jack)
• Q (Queen)
• K (King)
• A (Ace)
• Kryptonite Necklace
• Daily Planet Globe
• Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman)
• Lois Lane (Margot Kidder)
• Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve)
• Superman
• Superman “S” Logo (Wild)
• Nuclear Missile (Free Games)
• Fortress of Solitude (Bonus)

Superman is obviously the strongest to be found, dishing out 500 coins for a result of five. This is followed by Clark and Lois with 250 each for 5 of a Kind, and Lex begrudgingly coughing over 150 for five across the board.

You should note that Superman is one of those weird machines where the minimum wager of 60¢ covers all 100 paylines and you must play exactly 100 lines each time. Also, as you increase your bet it changes the coin values on each line and doesn’t go up evenly, which obviously makes things even more confusing. Therefore, it’s probably easiest for most people to focus solely on the total wager amount.

Jackpots

Look up in the sky! It’s the Man of Steel swooping in with a big payday that could change your life forever! Superman The Movie Slots is linked to the “DC Super Heroes Jackpot“, which is eerily similar to the old “Marvel Mystery Jackpot” because it has four different ones on offer: Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand, and you are always guaranteed to snag one of them. The prizes are seeded by the online casinos across their network who have participating DC titles.

It will come at random and can be triggered at any point in the action. Once activated you will be brought to a board of 20 hexagons that you will flip over until you fill up the icons on one of the prizes, and if you want to get the biggest one you’re going to have to work hard for it.

This is because you’ll only need 2 icons to win the Mini and then 3 icons for the Minor, 4 for the Major, and 5 for the Grand. Obviously it’s going to be very hard to avoid all of the icons for the smaller amounts on your journey but it’s certainly be done before.

This feature makes the familiar claim of, “the more you wager, the higher your chances are of triggering it,” but as per usual they don’t offer any math on how this works. Open the books, guys.

Bonus Rounds

You’ll want to see the crystals of the Fortress of Solitude glistening brightly because three of them on reels #2, #3, and #4 will trigger the “Crystal Bonus” that will whisk you to the Arctic and give you 14 crystals to choose from. They’re hiding all sorts of goodies like sacks of cash, multipliers, and much more. There are even interesting video clips that are occasionally projected onto the ice wall in the background: it’s basically the most beautiful and fun Pick Em’ style area you’ll ever see.

You select crystals one at a time to reveal what’s underneath and you really have a great opportunity to stack up some decent loot due to the 2x and 5x multipliers that are hidden amongst the other prizes. The multipliers will be applied to your total amount at the end of everything.

If you reveal the Reset Button it will “rebuild” all of the crystals and the feature will start over again to give you the opportunity to enjoy even more extra money. This can happen indefinitely and rebuilding really improves your odds of winning because the number of crystals is reset to 14 each time so you therefore have a mathematically greater chance of selecting a bag of cash.

But be careful, as soon as you’ve selected the Kryptonite your round is over and your funds are added to your balance, and you are then returned to the regular mode. However, if you select a crystal that’s hiding the Superman “S” logo it will float above the crystals and remove 1 of the 2 Kryptonites, with the 2nd “S” removing the other Kryptonite if you can find that one as well.

It obviously feels amazing to pick the rest of the crystals without the fear of hitting that ugly green rod! To maximize the opportunity, make sure that you try to dodge the rebuild crystal for as long as possible when finishing your selections.

Free Spins

The “Save The Day Free Games” are triggered by the Missile symbol with “Free Games” written on it falling on reels #1, #3, and #5 together and it’ll give you 10 spins each time. This is not your average freeroll though since Superman himself will fly around the Earth to turn back time and give you a full do-over on your 10 spins, so technically you are awarded a juicy 20 gratis tries each time it’s triggered.

Just like in the bonus round, Superman “S” Logos are special and if they fall on the board they’ll lock into place for the duration of the mode, including the extra 10. They act as Wilds and always give your bankroll a little boost with extra payline wins.

This feature is a ton of fun and occurs in a totally different setting from the regular mode so if you don’t want the surprises ruined for you, please skip the section below.

Graphics

The graphics were very well done and there certainly isn’t much to complain about. The reels are perfectly balanced with glowing playing card symbols mixed with extremely detailed character images. The user controls are very cool and the button layout is highly intuitive and easy to use.

The backgrounds are breathtaking, with the one of planet Earth being absolutely stunning – it makes you feel like you’re floating in space waiting for Superman to come along and scoop you up to fly you back home. Also, the one in “The Crystal Bonus” of The Fortress of Solitude was designed with beautiful ice crystals that will give you a chill down your spine.

There are lots of great details too, like the awesome blue swirls of light behind the Superman logo at the top of the board. The way the big red missile launch button falls on the reels is almost too lifelike and it will make you jump every time. This button of course launches the free spins where the graphics really go up a notch, like the clip from the movie of Superman freaking out over the corpse of Lois Lane and turning back time. In addition, the way Superman flies onto the screen to chase the rockets to kick off the action is simply fantastic.

Once in the dam area the canyon is the perfect background, with the details again being impeccable. The water squirts out of the cracks in the dam and fires rage in the distance. The water moving at the bottom of the screen looks so realistic that you’ll want to dive in and go for a swim every time you see it. Not to mention that the movie clip that the feature ends on will melt your heart.

Audio & Soundtrack

Fans will be ecstatic to hear that we have the original soundtrack from the movie written by John Williams and that it continues throughout the action. It’s not just a quick clip of it either, it’s the full length version that builds up with the ominous string section and it will definitely pump you up for some fun. However, Playtech made the excellent decision to not include the main chorus that we all hum along to and instead saved it solely for big wins and the free spins mode.

The audios of the reels stopping and payline wins being added to your balance are excellent because they are simple musical blasts from various instruments and not annoying bells or alarms like many other machines have. All of the other sound effects blend perfectly into the soundtrack, like when the rockets blast off or something exciting is triggered.

The only small complaint in the audio department could be that there isn’t one line of dialogue from the movie. It’s reasonable to assume that most fans will come in expecting some of the classic quotes from the film, or maybe just wanting to hear the voices of Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman. Perhaps we should assume that there was an issue with securing the rights to their voices, so let’s just be happy with what we have.

Conclusion

Fans of the original movie will agree that Playtech did a wonderful job of giving the legacy of Superman the proper respect that he’s due, while still ensuring that Christoper Reeve was the star of the show. People of all ages will be blown away and younger players who’ve never even seen the movie before should easily get sucked into this awesome machine.

It’s actually pretty crazy that this game was even made in the first place due to the fact that there have been so many other incarnations of The Man of Steel over the last 40 years. Maybe they were just targeting the older demographic with this version and most of them will certainly be happy that they did. It immediately transports you to the first time you watched the movie in the theater and all of the great feelings that went along with it.

There’s a unique free spins area, a super cool bonus round, and all of your favorite characters from the film: Playtech packed a ton of action into this one. Furthermore, the soundtrack is perfect and all of the audios are pleasant to the ear so it really delivers on every level. Stated simply, Superman The Movie Slots is one of the best releases that you’ll find out there today.

Maybe we’re biased – what do you think Miss Teschmacher? It’s too good to be true! He’s 6-4, has black hair, blue eyes, doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, and tells the truth!

Well there you go… he sounds like a catch to me!

Random Video of Superman The Movie

Here’s a fantastic behind the scenes look at the making of Superman The Movie in 1978. It has tons of great footage and interesting nuggets of information. It’s a must-watch for any fan of the classic film. Enjoy!