Will we see more Microgaming re-releases of their classic slots?

If you take a look at the current list of Microgaming releases, then you would be forgiven for thinking that you have passed back through time to a few years ago.

Sure, we have had some brand new slot games released of late such as Banana Odyssey, Aurora Wilds, Relic Seekers, Tiki Vikings and Queen of the Crystal Rays to name but a few, but in amongst that we have had a number of "new" releases that feature some very familiar names.

You can probably trace this trend back to March 2019 when Stormcraft Studios released their sequel to the popular Agent Jane Blonde slot, Agent Jane Blonde Returns. This exciting new game was a worthy sequel, offering much more enhanced graphics and features, while keeping in with the fun and cheeky persona of the original game.

Then in May 2019, the latest slot in the Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft Temples and Tombs was released in conjunction with Triple Edge Studios. This was the third slot in a series of games following on from the hugely successful Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider - Secrets of the Sword slots of a few years back.

However, both these slots were standalone sequels to original games. Their only links to the original was that they shared some of the characters from the original games. To all intents and purposes, these were completely different standalone slots, capable of being played by any player regardless of whether they had played the games preceding them or not.

However in July 2019, Microgaming threw us something of a curved ball, or perhaps that should be an ice hockey puck with the release of the Break Away Deluxe slot.

Break Away is one of a series of Microgaming slot games based on spots, which have very similar characteristics, chief amongst them being 243-ways to win, a sizeable jackpot prize (which is over 1 million coins on most games in the series), and bonus features that are linked in with the sporting theme of the slot. Break Away was one of the first in this series and it was based on Ice Hockey.

Stormcraft Studios however had reworked the original game and released Break Away Deluxe this year. This new version of the game maintained many features of the original, but was also different in a number of ways.

Firstly, the number of pay lines could range between 18 and 88, the jackpot had been scaled down somewhat to 140,000 coins and the size of the reels had changed from a 5x3 reel set to a larger 5x5 reel set.

The main difference was the enhancement of the base game randomly triggered bonus, the Smashing Wild which now saw the middle three reels able to turn completely Wild and the ability to freeze in place for a number of subsequent spins of the reels.

Barely a month later and Break Da Bank Again Respins featuring the new Hyperspins game mode then hit Microgaming casinos. Released as part of their agreement with Microgaming by Gameburger Studios, this 5 reel, 9 pay line slot offered a jackpot of 144,000 coins and built upon the original Break Da Bank Again original game by adding a new re-spins element to the slot.

This is the ability for players to view the outcome of a spin and then, for a stated fee, spin just one selected reel to try and turn the spin into a win, or a bigger value win. This has made the game more volatile than the original, the series of which is one of Microgaming's most popular slot franchises and as such, it has attracted a number of new players to give the slot a try.

Then in the same month, Microgaming surprised us all with a re-release of one of their older games, Rabbit in the Hat. This release caught us a little by surprise as not only was it somewhat unheralded, but it was also a simple reworking of a game that was originally released many years ago. Microgaming had simply given the slot a bit of a shine and polish, tweaked a few items here and there and then re-released it back into casinos in August 2019.

Add to this the new Scratchcard games based on two classic slots, Lucky Leprechaun and Immortal Romance, not to mention a number of recent casino game releases that have updated and upgraded the casino game offering from the company, and it certainly appears as if Microgaming are taking inspiration in designing the games of tomorrow, by looking at their back catalogue of slot and casino games from yesteryear.

Of course, Microgaming and their partners are not simply re-doing older games. There has also been a slew of brand-new releases over the same period of time that are completely standalone games and have not been seen in casinos previously.

Does this mean we may see more sequels, remakes and similar in future from Microgaming?

I think the likelihood is that we will certainly see more sequel slot games. We already know that a new Jungle Jim themed slot is on the way and slot gamers will be keen to see that and we also know that Microgaming has signed at least one partnership with a company to produce scratchcard versions of their popular slots. We have already seen two of these released in August 2019 and I strongly feel that there will be a number of other scratchcard games set to come over the next few months.

I also think that we may see slightly modified versions of classic slot games being released too, similar to the Break Da Bank Again Respins and Break Away Deluxe slots.

More intriguing will bet the slots that Microgaming decide to update and upgrade for 2019 and beyond from their extensive back collection. The Rabbit in the Hat re-release caught many people by surprise, and it may well be the case that the success, or relative failure of that slot, may determine whether Microgaming pursue re-releasing tweaked and updated versions of older slots in future.

With Microgaming now having so many partnership deals with third-party providers to produce slots and other games for them, maybe their own in-house team can revisit some of their early releases and give them a fresh new look as they did with the Rabbit in the Hat slot. That is an exciting prospect for slot fans who have enjoyed some past classics from Microgaming but who have stopped playing them due to them starting to age a little in comparison to fresher, newer games.