If you’ve played and enjoyed games like Coin Combo, Prancing Pigs, Rising Fortunes, Double Blessings, Dancing Drums, Tree of Wealth or 5 Treasures, it all basically comes back to the original Shuffle Master game 88 Fortunes. The game’s enduring popularity sees it thriving on modern casino floors many years after its original introduction.
The game’s paytable is quite simple, enough so that it fully appears on the cabinet graphics or top screen, depending on format.
A lot of the key elements that feature in those games began their history with 88 Fortunes, and many have survived and evolved in the successor games since. The games consistently have an all ways pays structure and bets that end in 8 or 88.
A common thread is the four-progressive structure and predetermined picking bonus that is triggered when a wild symbol appears and closes the pot. 12 coins appear and a player picks until three matching coins are revealed. The Mini and, to a lesser extent, the Minor, are by far the most likely outcomes, but that occasional Major or Grand will come out too.
Another is the two-tier bet structure that I previously walked through on my Dancing Drums article. The top row lets you establish how many gold symbols you wish to wager – the more gold symbols, the more upgraded pays you receive for line hits on those symbols, along with how many progressives you’re playing for. The second row is your bet multiplier.
The free games bonus are about as simple as it gets. The trigger is the same as others in the series, at least three bonus symbols on consecutive reels starting from the leftmost one. 10 free spins is your reward, with the poker symbols taken out of play, making for a better chance at bigger wins during the spins. You can also retrigger for more spins.
The newer games add new bells and whistles, but 88 Fortunes is where it all started, and the gameplay holds up quite well all these years later.
88 Fortunes Slot Videos
RandomSlots features more of the pay table screens as well as a live play session:
All Casino Action (formerly Slotlady) featured a max bet session with a free games bonus:
