Aristocrat Pokies

Aristocrat is an innovative Australian company founded in 1953. A few years later it revolutionized the industry by introducing the Clubmaster lineup of slot machines with scattered symbols. In 1958, the company put in place a poker machine featuring fully illuminated reels. In 1960’s the Australia-headquartered company began expansion to the European market. Aristocrat was established as a producer of mechanic slot machines and some of them are still found in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and other gambling destinations.

With the beginning of the digital era, Aristocrat shifted its focus on the online gaming segment and they have released over 80 online pokies as of writing this ¬– most of them replicate the existing games that can be found on the gaming floors across the globe. Today, Aristocrat is much better known as a top-performing developer of brilliant slot machines for land-based casinos rather than a vendor of virtual pokies to online casinos.

Peculiar features of Aristocrat pokies

Every software developer has a unique style and design that is manifested in many aspects. Just a quick glance at an online pokie enables a sophisticated gambler to recognize the company that has released that pokie. This principle is also applicable to Aristocrat games that do have some distinctive features:

• Aristocrat pokies can have either of the user interface variants: the first one has a triangular Spin button and very few buttons in total; the second UI has a square Spin button with green “+” and blue “-for bet settings
• Not a single pokie from this developer has multiple coin denominations. The only adjustable option, apart from the number of lines, is a line bet
• Virtually every pokie has a set of card icons. Moreover, they tend to be identical across the portfolio. For example, K (King) is depicted with a crown on the vertical bar, A (Ace) has a kind of a green gem in place of the vertical bar, and J (Jack) features a coat of arms on its leg. This paragraph is true for most pokies, except for some rare cases where these symbols are stylized to fit a certain game theme
• Many pokies are based on a 5x4 layout (Wild Panda, Miss Kitty, 50 Dragons, etc.)
• All pokies have 2D graphics and scarce animations
• Virtually every game has at least a wild and a scatter symbol. In addition to these features, many pokies have a moderate amount of free spins, expanding wilds and one second-screen bonus game (rarely, two)
• Aristocrat has no online pokies with a progressive jackpot, unlike their cabinet versions for land-based casinos. For example, the Buffalo pokie comes without a progressive but if you enter a brick-and-mortar casino and find the same-name cabinet, you will see the game has a progressive jackpot.

Reel Power and Xtra Reel Power pokies

Some pokies released by Aristocrat feature either of the titular playing structures. Reel Power is, in fact, a familiar 243 ways to win model and Xtra Reel Power has 1024 ways to create a combination. At the core of these systems is an option to change the number of active reels in play. By deactivating reels, the player reduces the area where combinations are formed, thus decreasing the potential number of winning combinations. The advantage for the player is that he pays less per spin and can still earn scatter wins and associated bonus events.