China Shores is the first of many new releases slated to come from Konami, with the renowned land based developer having already laid out plans for an aggressive schedule. You can see what it is all about with real cash and bonuses up for grabs by heading over to the casinos featured at the top of this review, which are among the biggest.
Repairing jukeboxes in the backstreets of Tokyo, to producing slots with huge progressive jackpots to line the aisles of casinos from Vegas to Australia – this is the amazing journey Konami corporation has taken over the years. This company is probably better known for video games than for slots. They have produced some of the best loved video games for successive generations. These include the iconic ‘Frogger’ and Scrabble.
Many of the slots which were originally created by Konami for live casino use are now also available to play online. These can be enjoyed without a download, via your browser on a PC or mobile device. Not all of the slots created have made this transition, with many of the 3 reel electromechanical games not available online.
This page gives you an overview of Konami Gaming and their slots. First of all you will find a quick history of the company, with the major milestones in their journey highlighted. After that some more information on their slots – what makes them unique, and the best titles to get started with can be found.
Play Konami Slot Machines
Konami Gaming – Quick History
The name Konami means ‘small waves’ and is created from using the first 2 letters of the family names of the 3 creators. They started off repairing jukeboxes in Japan back in 1969. A mere 4 years later they expanded out into creating amusement machines for their native country, which were rolled out from 1978 onwards. This is where things started to gain momentum, with many hit video games appearing at this time.
The 1980’s saw Konami enter the console business via their ‘family entertainment center’ product – though by the early 1990’s they were producing many famous games for the Sega Mega-Drive instead.
It was not until the year 2000 that Konami set up an office in Nevada and began to create slot machines for the live arena. Early models included Bruce Lee branded slots. This move would prove to be a success and lead to the large manufacturing plant in Nevada that still produces slots today.
For a company which has been at the cutting edge of gaming technology for much of its history, Konami has been slower to bring their portfolio of free slots online. Fortunately, the move to no-download games which play in your browser window has allowed many casinos to start offering their games.
Overview of Konami Slot Machines
While these games are smooth playing and professional – Konami are not making games which are packed with features and break out bonus games. What you will find is some unusual reel shapes. Many are 4-5-5-5-4 symbols deep over the 5 reels, which gives a diamond like shape. One game uses the even more unusual 4-5-4-5-4 configuration with hexagon shaped symbols.
Some of the slots come in themes – for example African Diamond and Full Moon Diamond share wild (substitute) symbols as glittering diamonds which have a distinctive design compared to the other symbols in play. These games both have free spins bonus rounds which can include a lot of extra wilds. When you play Konami slots live you will have the chance of scooping progressive jackpots. Online these are not in play; instead there will be one or more bigger wins available for lining up the top symbols.
Graphics are on the plain side compared to many slots today. What is really starting to get behind the times is the library of sound effects – especially the tunes which play when you hit a win. These could have been created for a 1980’s arcade game, and are a succession of beeps making up a cheerful tune!
Even with the lack of features and bad sounds, these slots do have an appeal. The chance of some big wins and all round solid game-play make up for a lot of minor niggles.
Check out These Konami Slots First
If you’d like to get a flavor of what Konami has to offer, then check out the titles below online.
Free Casino Slots China Shores
China Shores: This is a reasonably generic Asian themed slot, though there are a couple of reasons you might want to play. First is the slightly dizzying Panda, which changes from full-face to looping around when involved in a win (this is a wild symbol too). Second, this is the only slot I have ever come across which lets you choose to take your free spins or swap them for a cash prize instead.
Konami Slot Machines Free Play
African Diamond: I’m going to set aside the fact that the toucan bird symbol is a native to South American jungles and not African ones. The stand out feature is the free spins round, where you will enjoy stacked symbols which change to all of one type – adding significant wins.