The Mega Moolah themes that led us to the Mega Vault Millionaire slot
The forthcoming release of the Casino Rewards-exclusive Mega Vault Millionaire slot, powered by Mega Moolah, has sparked real excitement within the large community of players that love progressive jackpot slots.
This is the first new Mega Moolah slot game for many years and its arrival is already eagerly anticipated by the millions that are part of the Casino Rewards program.
But how has this come about? What are the different themes that have been a part of the Mega Moolah network of slots over the years? What does the history of the game tell us, if anything, about what this brand new title will be about?
Unlike a standard slot game that has just one iteration (or at most a couple, if the game has been updated or upgraded in some way, like recent Microgaming re-releases the Mega Moolah slot has a rich and interesting history since it's first release and in this article, we are going to take a look at how the network has changed and developed over the years.
And that all begins with the release of the original Mega Moolah slot.
- Mega Moolah Original
The first release in the Mega Moolah network was the original African-themed 5x3 reel, 25-pay line slot game. This is still the most played form of the game and as a standard slot, the game has plenty that will appeal to punters, including a Free Spins bonus, high-paying Wild symbol wins and the chance to win a jackpot of 75,000 coins in the base game that increases to 225,000 in the Free Spins bonus round.
However, Microgaming's reasons for releasing the original Mega Moolah were far more than simply offering players another progressive jackpot slot to play. Some of the main reasons why the company released the slot were:
- Providing a progressive jackpot slot game that offers a cash prize that is guaranteed to be worth at least 1 million dollars (or pounds, or euro).
- Providing the ability for players to win one of four progressive jackpot prizes, ranging in value from the Mini to Minor to Major to the Mega jackpot prize.
- To offer customers in Europe, Asian and North and South American players a chance to play a slot game based on an African theme as these games have historically proven to be popular with slot players.
- The game would be the first Microgaming slot to offer multiple tiered progressive jackpot pay-outs, rather than a single progressive prize.
- To design a game which contained humorous and entertaining elements alongside the large jackpot prizes and progressive jackpots available to ensure that it would be popular with slot players.
There is absolutely no doubt that since its release, the original Mega Moolah slot has delivered on all those counts and it remains one of the most famous, popular and played slot games every month of the year.
However, Microgaming didn't want to rest on their laurels and while they recognised that the original Mega Moolah slot boasted some incredible features, they would still like to offer yet more features and options to their customers.
And the way that the company would do that, would be with a sequence of games released within a few months of each other, all of which would be tied to the same Mega Moolah progressive jackpot fund and so the Mega Moolah progressive, then became the Mega Moolah progressive network, with the release of the first of these games.
- Mega Moolah 5 Reel Drive
When this game was first released, Microgaming still accepted players from most of the states of the USA and as such, it seemed fitting that the Mega Moolah 5 Reel Drive Americana-themed slot would be the second game to be part of the Mega Moolah network.
The game also saw a first as it was very different to the original Mega Moolah slot, offering a smaller top standard jackpot prize, but it did also offer the chance to play a Free Spins bonus game that came with a potential 5x multiplier attached to the wins.
This new addition to the network was joined a very short time later by the next in the series of games.
- Mega Moolah Summertime
Mega Moolah Summertime was released just a month or so after 5 Reel Drive and its simple, summery theme was aimed to appeal to players that enjoyed bright, cheerful and enjoyable slot game.
The game had more in common with 5-Reel Drive in terms of a free spins bonus and smaller standard jackpot prize but it offered players a different experience to playing than the second slot in the series, all while being radically different to the original Mega Moolah, yet still offered players a chance of those four progressive jackpot prizes.
A few months passed before the next game in the network was released.
- Mega Moolah Isis
This fabulous Egyptian-god themed version of the slot gave the existing slot games a little bit of a face-lift with some exciting new graphics. The structure of the Mega Moolah Isis game in terms of the number of reels, free spins bonuses and jackpot size, was in line with what 5-Reel Drive and Summertime offered, rather than the original game.
Since then, while the original Mega Moolah slot has been the most popular game, you have been able to land the Mega Moolah jackpot playing any of the other trio of games too. However of that trio, there have only been winners confirmed on the 5 Reel Drive version of the slot for the massive progressive jackpot prize. Of course there could be winners who have opted to not speak out of their win or which theme of the Mega Moolah they played.
All four of these games are still available today, but the Mega Moolah progressive network doesn't end there. As there have been two other games that have been part of the network, albeit briefly and both due to the same reason.
- Mega Moolah Lord of the Rings and Mega Moolah the Dark Knight Slots
A few years after the trio of next-generation games were released as part of the Mega Moolah network, Microgaming released the short-lived Mega Moolah Lord of the Rings slot. This game was based on the famous Tolkien story and Peter Jackson film series of the same name. However, within 12-months or so, due to issues surrounding the licensing of the game, Microgaming withdrew it from their casinos.
It was replaced with an exciting slot called The Dark Knight, based on the fantastic Christopher Nolan film of the same name, featuring Heath Ledger as the Joker and Christian Bale as Batman. This game proved very popular (and spawned one lucky big jackpot winner too) but once again, due to a change in the licensing agreement between the studio and Microgaming, the slot was withdrawn from play once again in 2016.
Although short-lived, the popularity of both of these slots clearly demonstrated to Microgaming that there was still a huge amount of interest in a potential new Mega Moolah progressive jackpot network slot, and after teasing a new release for some time prior, this brings us round to today and the imminent release of the new game.
- Mega Vault Millionaire
So, what do we know about the new Mega Vault Millionaire slot? Well, we do know that it will be exclusive to Casino Rewards network casinos. Which means that if you play at a casino not part of the group, then you won't be able to play the slot.
We also do have a little more information about the game now and we also know that rather than use the same Jackpot Bonus game as in the other version of Mega Moolah, the Mega Vault Millionaire slot will use a slightly different bonus wheel game.
It will be a 5x3 reel slot which has 25 pay lines in play and to stand a chance of winning the jackpot prize, your minimum bet must be 0.25. The game will also have a Wild symbol, which acts as a substitute and also offers a 2x multiplier on any win that the game is part of.
Furthermore, there is also a Scatter symbol, which will trigger 15 Free Spins if you land three or more across the reels. You will also land a cash prize depending on the number of Scatters you land across the reels.
During the Free Spins part of the game, all wins will be subject to a 3x multiplier, which can radically increase the value of your win.
The theme of the game will be wealth and the life of a millionaire and at the top of the five reels, the four Mega Moolah progressive jackpots, Mini, Minor, Major and Mega will be displayed.
The new Jackpot Bonus game still features a wheel, but this game is slightly different, rather than simply spinning one wheel and landing the jackpot prize that the pointer lands on for that spin, the new Jackpot Bonus game, called the Bonus Vault, opens the first reel. This comprises of green and bronze coloured segments, the green containing a silver key.
If you spin this first wheel and land on a bronze segment, you win the smallest progressive jackpot prize (mini). Land on the green segment with the key and you move onto the next stage of the Bonus Vault game,
This is a new wheel which has just three green sections on (with a gold key) and large silver sections. Land on the silver section and you win the Minor jackpot prize, but land on one of the green sections and you move on to the Mega Vault.
This is the final wheel and it contains just one green section with a blue sector in it. Land on any part of the reel that is gold coloured and you win the Major progressive prize, but land on that single blue sector and you will win the Mega jackpot prize, which as you know will be guaranteed to be at least 1 million dollars and potentially considerably more.
It is going to be hugely interesting to see just how popular this brand new Mega Moolah-powered slot game is when it is released into Casino Rewards casinos very shortly. There is a real sense of anticipation for this new slot and like many, yours truly is very much looking forward to enjoying a few spins on the first new Mega Moolah slot game for over seven years.
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