While seasonally themed slots have been around for a while, the tradition for most of the major players in the online slots market to create a new Halloween game every year is a more recent development. To some, this is not surprising; along with Christmas-themed slots, games based around Halloween imagery continue to be popular with players of all ages and from most of the world’s countries.
How to Create a Halloween Themed Slot Machine
Online slot developers do not consider experience in creating ghostly imagery as being a necessary pre-requisite for creating this seasonal slot machines. The widely held belief is that the industry has already matured to the point where programmers have a near-infinite source of inspiration from which to borrow (and occasionally expand upon) the advanced techniques that made those games so popular.
Sometimes developers are often far too busy with their next AAA+ title to assign large numbers of workers to the creation of a brand-new seasonal slot machine, yet dismissing the idea entirely ensures that their competitors will receive 100% of the profits generated by such seasonal games. Unsurprisingly, the clever programmers who were creating these games came up with two methods to bypass the issue:
Reskins & Reworks
Whilst there are undoubtedly some earlier examples of this, one of the first to truly capture the minds of both players and viewers was NetEnt’s Jack and the Beanstalk clone “Halloween Jack”. This slot even includes a built-in dark theme, which is all the rage right now. It’s not just a “fashionable” thing though – the darker style and backgrounds give it an attractive, modern aesthetic too.
The developers of Halloween Jack created new Halloween-themed symbols and reel strips to fill the 5×3 play area, and the game features the same 20 payline setup, as well as an identical RTP of 96.28%. Eerie sounds and moody backing music complete the package – a “brand new” Halloween themed game that took relatively little time to create“
When a developer is too busy to create a whole new game from scratch, they will often repurpose one of their older slots with Halloween-themed symbols & reel strips, eerie sounds, and moody backing music. This is a fast, rough-and-ready method of taking part in the Halloween festivities with the minimum possible capital expenditure, and many slot players do not even notice anyway!
We’ve been browsing the best slot collection at America’s fastest growing legal online casinos, some of which offer free spins on registration, to see which games are proving most popular amongst those who enjoy taking part in seasonal slotting fun and games. They’re far too many choices to list here, so without further ado, we present our favourites for 2021:
Helloween (Play’N’Go)
Power metal fans will do a double take when they see the name of this slot whilst browsing the library of slots at online casinos. That’s because Halloween is dedicated to one of their favorite genres most popular bands, and even includes a couple of their best hits in its soundtrack – much like the Guns ’n’ Roses and Jimi Hendrix slots that came before it.
There are eight special features in this fully original release from Play’N’Go – there’s been no quick and dirty reskinning happening here. With an RTP of 96.20%, full compatibility with android and Apple smartphones, and a maximum win of 5,000x your stake, this could possibly be the best Halloween game of 2021.
Halloween Jack (NetEnt)
This is a reskin of one of NetEnt’s oldest successful online slots – Jack and the Beanstalk. The paytable and mechanics of Halloween Jack are identical to the older game, leaving some players who were hoping for a true sequel to the 2011 smash-hit game feeling a underwhelmed and even disappointed.
Nevertheless, Halloween Jack undoubtedly attracted many players to try the game despite having shunned the original due to it being based on a children’s story. That’s a great thing, as this version of Jack is still a fantastic slot that has huge potential for big wins in its bonus round. The maximum win is 3,000x your stake per spin, though the sticky wilds in the bonus round make it possible to win much more than this on occasion.
Bloodsuckers 2 (NetEnt)
The original was an all-time classic and remains one of the highest paying slots on the web, with an RTP of 98%! For this reason, that game was often excluded from all types of bonus play. NetEnt have lowered the RTP to a more average 96.94% this time around, but that is still well above the mean average of 96% which most online slots feature.
The game plays very similarly to the original, but the graphics and sound are much improved and provide a much more immersive experience for the player. This is the game most likely to give you a real spook, as you choose coffins during the bonus round which may contain mummies – or something much worse…
Bloodsuckers 2 sticks with the traditional five by three layout, with 25 paylines, much like the original. The maximum win is stated as $250,000, but this assumes you are playing the frankly obscene maximum bet of $250 per spin – as this is a low variance slot, you might survive for a while if you deposit $25k. In reality, very few players will play this game this way – the maximum win is, in reality, 1,000x your stake. Don’t let that put you off though as this is a truly fantastic Halloween slot.
Immortal Romance (Microgaming)
This game was quickly associated with the “Twilight” series of books and movies upon release. There’s some obvious homage to those films on display, and I doubt Microgaming could deny this. If they did, the appearance of vampires, werewolves, witches, and zombies mean they would surely be fighting a losing battle.
The music is appropriately spooky, although the upbeat music in one or two of the bonus rounds seems somewhat out of place given the look and feel of the rest of the slot. Even so, this is a 243 ways game with truly enormous payout potential, and the random stacked wilds feature with a top payout of 8,100x your stake make this a truly exciting game to play.
More Halloween Games to Try
Are the above games not to your liking? There are dozens more, so don’t worry! Here’s a few more spooky slots for you to try: Happy Halloween, The Witch’s Moon, Curse of the Werewolf, Wolf Hunters, Lucky Halloween, Happy Halloween… the list goes on. Now go get yourself some Halloween spins! It only comes around once a year, after all.