New at the Suncoast: Aruze Paradise Fishing

I was in LV last week on business and stayed at the Suncoast since SEMA/AAPEX jacked up the rates on the strip.

Anyway, mid-week they installed a new "community" slot machine set in the corner near the escalators to the parking garage...



Aside from having one of the BRIGHTEST displays on a slot machine I've ever seen, it has a unique feature which is the "fishing rod handle" on the buttonboard that you use during bonuses. Like many other slots, if 3 alike bonus symbols appear on a payline, you will be given the chance to "go fishing". If you can see in the picture, each slot machine has its own fisherman at the top of the main display who is holding a rod and reel with a hook on the line.

The other interesting feature is that it has a button to toggle the display language. I only saw that English and Chinese were available, which I find a bit odd because in my limited casino experience, I don't usually see Chinese people playing slots more than they play table games. Being Korean, I'm keen to the fact that many older Korean people are serious slot players and those are the ones I usually identify. It appears that Aruze is a Japanese based company, so the language option isn't just an artifact of the designer's origins. Maybe it's done this way for the growing Macau scene, though.

Anyway, I didn't hit big when I played my measly $10 on a dull Wednesday night at the Suncoast, but it's pretty entertaining. At random times, a very large school of fish will swim past your screen, which I guess does something, but it never did anything for me.

Forgot to mention: The bonus game cleverly hides the fact that the "fish" that your "fisherman" catches are proportional in size to your bet amount per line. The lady playing next to me was all in @ $2.00/spin and during the bonus rounds she was snagging larger fish, but we both ended up running out around the same time.

OH MY GOD, I love this game. I played it at the Silverton. One lady was going crazy with the rod and reel, waggling it like her life depended on it. Probably my favorite slot game ever. We hit a big community bonus and I came out ahead.

The graphics are so creative and realistic. It reminds me of the old 'fish' screensaver for Mac.

They have it at the Venetian as well, by the cashier.

Gold Coast has one too, always busy, even though I did not see real big payouts.

Quote: UCivan

Gold Coast has one too, always busy, even though I did not see real big payouts.

I played this game at the Venetian while at G2E. I really like the game, and I forgot to say anything on the forum before, but I think it may be possible to time the bonus based on the total amount of credits being wagered on the bank of machines.

One time I was there, there was one lady betting max (I think $3.00) and all of the other machines were full too. I started playing max as well and it seemed like the frequency of the bonuses was rather consistent. The other lady betting max kept getting all of the big fish and she was up about $600 in about 45 minutes. I never caught anything big and I lost about $120 in the same time. I would have assumed that she and I would split the big wins, but it never happened and I don't know if it was just plain old volatility or if the win is related to the proportion of money wagered on that machine compared to the bank.

Another time I was there, only about 2 or 3 players were playing and wagering 30 or 60 cents each. I joined in and played 30 cents and wanted to see how long it took to get a bonus. I played for about 10 minutes and we didn't hit the big community bonus at all.

This leads me to believe that the bonus is triggered based upon a total amount of coin in on the bank. So, I think that you could observe how many credits are being wagered by all the players on the bank, then estimate the amount of time to trigger the bonus. If you could somewhat accurately estimate when the bonus will hit, you can increase your wager when you think the bonus is ready to hit.

This was my favorite new game this year.

Quote: desertair

... it's pretty entertaining. At random times, a very large school of fish will swim past your screen, which I guess does something, but it never did anything for me.

I've never seen this machine, but I would assume that the school swimming on your screen is nothing more than an entertaining, adreniline pumping, attention grabber, to get you to play more and faster.

How does the bonus round work? Specifically what's the point of that fishing handle? There isn't a skill component here, is there?

Quote: sunrise089

How does the bonus round work? Specifically what's the point of that fishing handle? There isn't a skill component here, is there?

There is no skill. I was pretty certain of this when I first saw the game, then I confirmed it when I stopped by the Aruze booth at G2E.

The school of fish sometimes happens randomly, but often it happens to start a community bonus. It is also possible for a player to not be eligible for the bonus.

Quote: CrystalMath

There is no skill. I was pretty certain of this when I first saw the game, then I confirmed it when I stopped by the Aruze booth at G2E.

The school of fish sometimes happens randomly, but often it happens to start a community bonus. It is also possible for a player to not be eligible for the bonus.

I'm reviving this thread because I saw this game at the Primm Valley casino, and had no idea how the bonus round works. Apparently, the user can select the volatility of the game by choosing their "bait" when starting the game. Lots of small prizes (worm), some large and some small prizes (lure), less frequent but larger prizes (shrimp)
When the bonus round starts, the player uses the "reel" to move the bait higher or lower on the screen, and the crank on the reel to bring the fish on the line into the boat. The fish are worth different amounts, with the giant, "Amazon Guardian" apparently worth the most.
If the game is random, what happens if a player doesn't touch their reel during the bonus? Are they forced to win, pull tab machine style?

Quote: CrystalMath

I played this game at the Venetian while at G2E. I really like the game, and I forgot to say anything on the forum before, but I think it may be possible to time the bonus based on the total amount of credits being wagered on the bank of machines.

One time I was there, there was one lady betting max (I think $3.00) and all of the other machines were full too. I started playing max as well and it seemed like the frequency of the bonuses was rather consistent. The other lady betting max kept getting all of the big fish and she was up about $600 in about 45 minutes. I never caught anything big and I lost about $120 in the same time. I would have assumed that she and I would split the big wins, but it never happened and I don't know if it was just plain old volatility or if the win is related to the proportion of money wagered on that machine compared to the bank.

Another time I was there, only about 2 or 3 players were playing and wagering 30 or 60 cents each. I joined in and played 30 cents and wanted to see how long it took to get a bonus. I played for about 10 minutes and we didn't hit the big community bonus at all.

This leads me to believe that the bonus is triggered based upon a total amount of coin in on the bank. So, I think that you could observe how many credits are being wagered by all the players on the bank, then estimate the amount of time to trigger the bonus. If you could somewhat accurately estimate when the bonus will hit, you can increase your wager when you think the bonus is ready to hit.

This was my favorite new game this year.

That was the first thing I looked at when I seen this bank of machines, including some other community types (they have had slots in the past that you could AP using similar methods). I experimented a bit( late night alone) triggering it myself about 4 times. No consistency I noticed, granted 4 rounds isn't enough to really figure much out, but after a bit of thinking, I just figured they can't be that dumb(to many Drich guys out there now).

It may trigger due to coin in, however its not set to a consistent amount of coin in (or we would be rich). There may be an average amount that's needed, but if thats the case, they found a way to randomize that aspect. Possibly bonuses are somewhat based on how much previous bonus rounds have paid out, I think they even mix that up as well.
lest say you play for a long time without a bonus, you might think it should give out a large portion of the bonus pool during the next bonus. They probably make that random, as to what bonus round it decides to rewards larger amounts.

With enough time spent collecting data, you might be able to figure something out, however you would probably have to have someone there 24/7 watching everybody, tracking every bet they made and logging bonus amounts. At that point you could never leave the bank, quit tracking or you would have to restart each time.

You could try to estimate and assume it works on a certain premise however unless you were consistently winning at a high percentage you wouldn't know if you were just experiencing variance.

I experimented with Ebay slots(they seemed to have more predictability when the community bonus rounds came up) I won consistently over all, but it was only small amounts per day and conditions had to be just right, IMO. They began disappearing(are there any left?) I can't even be certain I didn't just get lucky. I would have felt more comfortable if I seen a few other slot APs attempting the same thing.