Palm Desert, California-based game supplier Synergy Blue announced the placement of its first certified skill-based games, Zombie$ and Safari March, at California’s Augustine Casino.
Featuring Synergy Blue’s patented HAWG (Hybrid Arcade Wager-based Gaming) platform, the machines are Class III, GLI11-certified, and will be joining approximately 800 slot machines on the Augustine’s gaming floor.
“We’re excited to be able to offer our guests these new arcade-style, skill-based games, giving them a new and entertaining experience,” Augustine Casino General Manager Jeff Bauer said, praising the games’ ability to give “gaming experiences (that) span multiple generations.”
Synergy Blue CEO Georg Washington, who grew up in the arcades, told CDC Gaming Reports, “When we set out to develop skill-based games, I thought it was really important to capture the same excitement I felt walking into the arcades of my youth.”
According to the company, while the games provide the typical RTP that casino operators expect from traditional slot machines, even in skill-based mode, the games also offer a more engaging playing experience. “It is Synergy Blue’s hope that the games will help bring a new generation of gamblers into the casino, particularly gamers like Georg that have similar memories of feeding quarter after quarter into games that provide a superior gaming experience to home gaming systems,” the company said in a press release.
Zombie$ is a first-person shooter game in which the player takes the role of a mercenary hired to clear out a grotesque zombie infestation and uncover its root cause. Rather than utilize a touch-screen for gameplay, Synergy Blue opted for a more reactive and immersive gun controller, like one you might see on SEGA’s House of the Dead or Atari’s Area 51 in the mid ’90s.
Each time the player shoots, a wager is placed, so precision and patience are rewarded.
Washington noted that Zombie$ was the first game Synergy Blue developed. “We took a hybrid approach, combing traditional arcade-style play, a familiar input device and wagering. Nothing like it had been done for the gambling world.” He added that he gets a real kick out of watching people play their games. “Everyone who plays Zombie$ loves it. It’s the fun in our Zombie$ game that makes it contagious.”
Safari Match is a match-three puzzle game and, with its precise touch controller, is designed to appeal to a wide range of gamers. Basic game play is simple to learn, but the game greatly rewards players that are skilled enough to match five, six or seven tiles in a single move. Matching more than three tiles activates a bonus wheel; the more tiles the player has matched, the better the bonus wheel. Players that match seven or more activate the double wheel bonus which for up to 250 times the player’s bet.
