If you’ve ever come across a slot game that seems to pack a bit extra in the presentation department, chances are that it’s a Konami slot machine. Konami is a top producer of slot titles around the world, and its games are denoted by a vibrant color palette and display.
However, to label Konami as merely a producer of pretty slot games would be to sell the international game powerhouse extremely short. Konami has a decades-long history of excellence in both the gambling and video game markets.
Nearly everyone across the US, including in Michigan, can dive into the world of Konami either at an online casino site or by visiting a local casino.
Building on the success, Konomi opened a second facility in Las Vegas in 2015. Konami’s unique features. While Konami is known for its striking visual design, the company has introduced some software innovations to offer exciting updates to the classic slot machine design. Its development takes full advantage of the ability to modify digital. Aside from games and gyms, Konami produces pachinko and slot machine games. Gambling is big business for the Japanese company. A large Konami Gaming building resides in Las Vegas, close to the.
Read on for how to play, where to find Konami titles, and what makes this stalwart of the industry tick. Casinos offering Konami slots include BetMGM, DraftKings and PokerStars.
Most popular Konami slot machine games
Unless you are a die-hard fan, you may not be able to name any Konami games off the top of your head. With so many slot titles available right now, they can blend if you’re not looking for them.
However, Konami slots tend to have a signature look, and you can usually guess which games are products from the game producer once you know what to consider. Konami games are identifiable mostly by the following traits:
- Game themes involve delightfully cartoonish characters in bright, vibrant themes
- Game operation is silky smooth, with reels turning more like a video slot than a mechanical slot
- Enhancements to standard gameplay can result in huge payouts, rather than the player necessarily needing to trigger a bonus game to generate outsized wins
Those traits are on full display in the list of top Konami slot games below. You can find these titles as standalone cabinets in live casinos and soon to be Michigan online casinos. You can also find them in Konami’s free-to-play social app.
1. China Shores
The China Shores slot machine is quite possibly Konami’s signature game in the slot title world. The Asian-themed title is both popular and instantly recognizable because of its benevolent panda motif.
However, China Shores is not just about peace and beautiful colors. Its idyllic setting is underwritten by the opportunity to win huge prizes, both through the game’s 30 paylines and its panda-inspired bonus games.
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2. Lion Festival: Boosted Celebration
Lion Festival: Boosted Celebration is another great slot title deeply rooted in its traditional Asian theme. The five-reel game invites players to perform their version of the Lion Dance, a ceremonial movement for good luck, and frighten away evil spirits.
Like China Shores, players on this game can win a heavy dose of free games if the reels roll their way. In a similar mechanic, you can choose either to spin out the balance of your free spins or win a randomly-determined prize amount at the Balance of Fortune scales.
3. Solstice Celebration
The Solstice Celebration slot transports players to a sun-kissed meadow to seek their fortunes. Like other games on the Konami roster, Solstice Celebration presents an enchanting and calming mix of colors and sounds.
As you play, you will want to watch out for the game’s Sparkle feature when it pops up across the reels. It can mean extra wins, stacked reels, and even bonus spins for you to win big.
4. Chili Chili Fire
Where many of Konami’s games hearken to the developer’s roots in eastern Asia, Chili Chili Fire takes a decidedly different approach. Any subtlety is cast aside in favor of the fiery colors and flavors associated with Mexico’s cultural past.
The Chili Chili Fire slot machine is one of Konami’s newest online casino releases, and its newness shines through in terms of its vibrant presentation. The splashes of color, the animations of its various reel characters, and its exciting stacked bonus game make it worth a stop for any serious player.
5. Castlevania
Konami is not simply a slot title producer. One of Konami’s signature titles in its video game library is the Castlevania slot machine series, which depicts a vampire hunter seeking to shift the balance away from the bloodsucking monsters.
The Castlevania slot gives you five reels and 30 paylines to continue the fight begun by the series’ Belmont family. Should you make it to Dracula’s castle, you can choose your enemy, a skeleton, a wyvern, or Dracula, as the vector for huge payouts.
Key features on Konami slot machine games
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Konami prides itself on infusing both standard and bonus gameplay with many opportunities to win big. As such, there are several features that you will find on Konami slots that are rare for titles from other developers. Some of the more prominent variations include the following features below.
Stacked symbols
Nearly all real money slot games are all about aligning symbols on paylines, of course. One of the more difficult tasks for a slot player is to maximize these alignments with multiple patterns of the same symbol.
Konami helps the player accomplish this task with its stacked symbols feature. The game(s) will randomly choose one reel symbol to encompass an entire section of the display. With any fortune, this stacking leads to multiple opportunities for wins on the same spin.
Dynamic reels
Along with the stacking of symbols, Konami games also feature dynamic reels that do not necessarily remain the value that you achieved during your spin. Instead, you may find that new wild symbols will spontaneously populate your paylines. Or, low-value characters might disappear and be replaced with higher-value symbols that portend larger wins.
Dynamic reels take away one of the biggest disappointments for players who see the outcome of their spins as the final word on their bet. The ability to see reels change for the better after the spin means that every player can remain hopeful that they might salvage a winner, even if the initial reel stoppage says otherwise.
Balance of fortune
The balance of fortune is a feature of some of Konami’s top games. However, it is a functionality that pops up multiple places and can mean a big takedown for the player.
One of the problems with receiving a free spin bonus is that, in theory, one could receive nothing. Even though you’re getting free rotations of the reels, there’s no explicit guarantee that they’ll pan out as a win.
The balance of fortune allows you to exchange your spins for a randomly determined prize. The prize amount can feature a range of outcomes. In some cases, you’d have been better off taking your chances with your spins.
The prize is sometimes as rich or richer than the payout your free spins would have reasonably generated. Couple that possibility with the fact that you’re guaranteed to win something, and it’s easy to see why the balance of fortune is an attractive decision tree feature for Konami to have.
Mirror reels bonus feature
A bonus round is always a good thing. Konami takes things a step further with its mirror reels feature.
Mirror reels cause the rollers on the right and left edges of the field to mirror one another. As a result, it is far easier to get bigger rows of symbols aligned and win big.
Progressive jackpots
Konami’s approach to progressive jackpots is found in their traditional single-machine and community-linked progressive games that you can play.
These jackpots can even extend to machines in different casinos. But, in the last few years, the company has begun experimenting with alternative ways to reward players on linked machines in the same location.
So, for instance, Konami unveiled the Crystal Cyclone, which is a common roulette wheel bonus feature that ties together some of the company’s older machines. Players are rewarded based upon where the bonus balls land, and since all the machines are tied, there is a heavy social element involved with the feature.
Where can I play Konami slot machines?
Hopefully, the descriptions above have you excited to try Konami’s roster of games. Naturally, you may be wondering where you can find these games.
The first place to look is in brick-and-mortar casinos across the US. Whether you’re in Detroit or Las Vegas, you are extremely likely to encounter a Konami game if you are looking for one.
Michigan casinos allow you to play China Shores, Lotus Land, and any of the top Konami slot games from the comfort of your own home.
Both states are home to multiple online casinos, and casino operators are not usually stingy about providing as many options for slot play as they can. So, Konami has quite the representation in both locations, and you can find opportunities to sample the products with a minimum of effort.
Finally, you can access the games themselves through Konami’s free-to-play casino site, MyKonami Games. This free site is available for both major types of mobile devices.
In addition to having great gameplay, MyKonami also allows you to participate in MGM’s MyVegas rewards program. You can earn vouchers for real-world perks and benefits merely for the time that you put into the site.
Of course, your gameplay amounts to a trial run on Konami’s games. So, while you’re enjoying the benefits of your play, you might see games at MGM properties that look quite familiar.
A brief history of Konami
Konami Holding Corporation began its service in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair service in Osaka, Japan. The name of the company derives from the first two letters of its founders’ last names.
Over the next three decades, the company evolved into a top producer of video games. Some of its video game franchises, such as Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Frogger, Contra, and Dance Dance Revolution, are well-known and respected within the video gaming community.
One of the most famous cheat codes/easter eggs in all of gaming originated with the company when developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto installed a button sequence into the 1986 game Gradius, which made it easier for him to acquire a full set of powerups. This code, now commonly known as the KonamiCode, has appeared as an activation key in more than one hundred video games since then. Most hardcore gamers can recite the code like scripture: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start.
Konami began expanding into the gambling industry in 1992. Its first entry involved releases into Japan’s pachinko machine market, and the company built on that success throughout the 1990s by expanding into other Asian countries and Australia.
Konami’s North American debut occurred in 2000, and the company has been a staple of the American gaming market ever since. With such recognizable properties, there’s no reason to assume that the company is going anywhere but up.