Top Gun Slots

Review of Top Gun Slots

Every mother in 1986 was basically held at gunpoint by their children and marched to the theater to see that year’s blockbuster, Top Gun. In a surprising plot twist, this movie appealed not only to both the young and old, but also to both boys and girls as well. Everyone simply loved this when they saw it.

Looking back through wiser eyes most of us will be able to agree that we were swept up in the fairy dust that was the 1980s and perhaps it wasn’t as good as we had originally thought. There are some pretty big plot holes and a ton of cheesy lines but it’s always going to have a special place in our hearts. Even if certain scenes are downright silly by today’s standards, anyone over 40 is going to smile when they think of this film.

So just like everyone else will be, I’m coming into this game with some prejudices. Tom Cruise was at his best, Kelly McGillis was the perfect girl next door, and powerful jet engines roaring will always fire up the soul. The film was actually first inspired by a real life article called “Top Guns” that was in the May 1983 issue of California, which is a magazine published by the University of California, Berkeley. It was a feature piece on U.S. fighter pilots at a naval base in San Diego that documented their day to day lives and it was just begging to be turned into a screenplay.

Sadly, this release doesn’t live up to it’s potential and has a few problems that many of you won’t be able to get past. Sure it’s “ok” but it’s not even close to what it could have been. This exclusive review of Top Gun Slots will probably break the hearts of many due to it’s findings. You’d better grab the tissue box.

Screenshots

This machine has a very sharp design that you can easily see by clicking on the screenshots below and enlarging them. There’s a perfect balance of characters with playing cards on the board and it’s easy to follow as the action unfolds. Sometimes movie-themed slots have symbols that are too similar to one another and it’s hard to see what’s falling as you go but everything is as clear as an azure sky with this one.

Storyline

Pete Mitchell has never liked rules. He’s a bad boy who marches to the beat of his own drum – so much so that it has earned him the nickname of “Maverick”. The fact that he has joined one of the strictest and most demanding militaries in the world is ironic, to say the least.

We start off with Maverick and his pals “Goose”, “Cougar”, and “Merlin” engaging some enemy jet fighters over the Indian Ocean with things almost going terribly wrong. They escape with their lives but everyone involved has been changed forever. Cougar retires but Goose and Maverick are sent to the best fighter jet pilot school in America: the Top Gun Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.

Once in Southern California Maverick’s reputation as a “wild child” grows while he meets his love interest Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood, an astrophysicist who works at the school. Many dramatic events then unfold as Maverick trains while butting heads with his superiors and peers. All of the main characters are pushed to their limits, with only the best of the best making it through.

Just like most gambling games based on movies, the storyline is the weakest part of Top Gun and it’s a weakness that cannot be ignored. There’s not even a bonus round to add to the plot and as a result we have to rely on the imagery and soundtrack to rekindle our memories. Weak.

Unique Symbols

In an omission that will surely enrage the gentlemen as much as the ladies, there are no Tom Cruise images anywhere to be found here. Just think of the moxie of Playtech! No Cruise? No problem! This release stands on its own without him!!

Is this your idea of fun, Mav?

It’s shocking, it’s sad, it’s downright wrong, and it’s hugely insulting to the movie’s legacy. That said, what’s done is done so let’s just move on.

The other missing symbol is of course Tom Skeritt’s character of CDR Mike “Viper” Metcalf, but when compared to the omission of Maverick, this is small potatoes.

• J (Jack)
• Q (Queen)
• K (King)
• A (Ace)
• Bomber Jacket
• Sunglasses on a Clipboard
• LCDR Rick “Jester” Heatherly (Michael Ironside)
• CDR Tom “Stinger” Jardian (James Tolkan)
• LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards)
• LT Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer)
• Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis)
• Top Gun Logo (Wild)
• F-14A Tomcat (Scatter)

As there’s no Maverick, the honor of being the top one was given to the Wild, which gives you 1,500 coins for 5 across the board. Next we have Charlie awarding 1,000 coins, with Iceman and Goose each giving 500 for five of a kind. Finally, we have Jester and Stinger rounding out the characters with 150x each for five.

Jackpots

Back in the ’80s it was Tom Cruise who took our breath away…but now in the new millennium it’s Playtech who took our jackpot away. As a result, there isn’t a big prize to be shot out of the sky in this one.

Bonus Rounds

Seasoned players were probably already assuming that there wasn’t going to be a bonus round in this game due to the number of paylines offered and that assumption is 100% correct. This of course is the main issue that many people have with 243 line machines – they blow their wads by paying out for so many line combinations that there’s nothing left in the bank to offer a decent special feature.

It’s a small consolation but there is a random reel event in Top Gun that can arrive in both the regular and free spins modes. It’s called “Dog Fight Wilds” and is only applied to one spin once it’s triggered. It will re-spin the reels and randomly add Wilds across the board, with a maximum of 15 appearing. It can give your bankroll a nice little boost but it obviously doesn’t replace a proper feature.

Free Spins

The “Danger Zone Free Games” are triggered by a F-14A Tomcat Scatter falling on reels #1, #3, and #5 in a result, and the same combination re-triggers it if you hit it while you’re freerolling. You’ll get a straight up 8 each time and this cannot be increased no matter how many Scatters you hit to access the feature. On the bright side, there is no maximum on how many times you can re-trigger it.

The machine claims that during the free spins mode it has “enhanced” Dog Fight Wilds that will come more liberally on the board than in the regular mode. This should obviously lead to extra cash but it’s hard to determine exactly what the math on this is.

Graphics

As you would expect with a newer release that’s based on an action movie, Top Gun has some pretty nice graphics. The highlight of course is the F-14A Tomcat that swoops and dives all over the screen as it shoots the board, with the visual effects on the resulting explosions being of a very high quality.

An uncluttered panel for the user controls makes the overall design clean but Playtech could have spiced them up a bit and had them look like the controls in a jet fighter cockpit. At its core, this is all about cool jets so why not have as many references to them as possible?

There really aren’t any other moving pieces in this one to comment on and everything is pretty straight forward.

Audio & Soundtrack

Whenever you launch this machine you’ll probably have the urge to let it roll on auto spin so the melody from “Take My Breath Away” rolls without any interruptions. This is because if you’re manually pressing the buttons the song will stop after every result. The tune is also muted if you play manually on Turbo Mode so the choice on whether to listen to the soundtrack or not is yours to make.

Between Berlin’s beautiful song and the gorgeous sky background, this game is quite relaxing. That is of course until the Dogfight Wilds get triggered and Kenny Loggins blasts in with “Danger Zone“. It’s absolutely fantastic that Playtech secured the rights to the two best songs in the movie and these additions certainly take things up a notch.

The original soundtrack was one of the most popular ones ever released and it was certified globally as 9 times Platinum, which means that it has sold a whopping 9,000,000 copies around the world. Talk to me, Goose!

The other audios of the reels stopping and wins being added to your balance are unobtrusive and there’s nothing to really comment on there.

Lastly, during Dogfight Wilds there is a constant dialogue between the fighter pilot and home base which definitely adds a little flavor to the action.

Conclusion

It’s hard not to play this title strictly for nostalgic reasons, which is usually how you’ll get sucked back in each time. This is obviously a fine reason to choose it and you’ll always enjoy yourself for at least a little while before getting angry again about Tom not being included.

Also, we here at Queen of Online Slots aren’t big fans of 243 payline machines because we prefer intricate special features instead of increased ways to win. So if your attention span isn’t the greatest either you might get bored quickly, but Charlie would obviously counter that with, You’re not going to be happy unless you’re going Mach 2 with your hair on fire.

This aside, Top Gun Slots does have the perfect soundtrack and most of the original cast members as symbols so there is a lot to like here. It’s just going to boil down to how long you like it for. The free spins mode and wild features are cool but the background and reels never change so it all starts to feel a little monotonous after a while.

However, if you want to team up on a few quick missions every month to enjoy the nostalgia and graphics, to quote the legendary Iceman, You can be my wingman any time.

Random Video of Top Gun

Well it’s pretty hard not to end this review with the beautiful song that is synonymous with the movie, Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away“. Many people forget that this tune actually won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards that year, (and rightfully so).

Instead of giving you the version you’ve heard a thousand times, here’s a live version in Japan from 1987. Check out the hair on the band members…the ’80s were totally outrageous!