Cluedo Slots

Reel Symbols

The reel symbols for this game were easy to produce. The characters in the murder mystery act as reel icons: Professor Plum, Miss Scarlett, Mrs. Peacock, Reverend Green, Mrs. White, and everyone's favorite, Colonel Mustard. Some of the rooms in the house also make it into the game design. So do the murder weapons.

Kudos to IGT for doing away with the boring standard playing card designs. Instead, the face cards use the potential murder weapons from the board game. The revolver is found on the Ace card. The hammer is used for the King card. The candle holder is used for the Queen card. The rope is used on the Jack card. The dagger is used for the 10-card, while the lead pipe is used for the 9-card.

The following special symbols are also included on the reels.

The basic multiplier for 3 scatters is 15x the initial bet. If you receive 5 scatters, this triggers a 100x betting multiplier. The bonus game has 15 free spins. During the course of the free mode, the player can trigger up to 180 free spins.

Video Graphics

The graphics on the game are effective, though 2-dimensional and hardly innovative. While Cluedo characters like Miss Scarlett and Colonel Mustard are famous, they have no speaking lines or personalities beyond the pictures shown of them. Thus, the graphics are depictions of those found in the board game.

We would have preferred to see the actual pictures from the board game used, instead of the animated icons. Many depictions of the characters have been done over the years and these are not our favorite. It would have been easier to program the original character designs into the game, so we take points off for aesthetics.

Coin Denominations

That being said, the essentials of Cluedo Slots are good. The coin denominations for Cluedo Slots are as follows.

In the United Kingdom, the machines offer wagers between 1p and £30. The game has 5 reels and a max bet of 15.

The land-based Cluedo slot machine has a payout of 2,250 on the bonus. The max number of credits a player can win is a 25,000 fixed jackpot. These are fairly low for the games we've reviewed, but the low fixed jackpot usually means a higher payout percentage.

96% Payout Percentage

Clue Slots does not have as many game features as many of the other IGT licensed slots produced in the last 5 years. It has something even better: a high payout percentage. While it is hard to get accurate information on Internet slot machines' expected return statistics, several sources note the payout percentage on Cluedo Slots is 96%.

If so, that makes Cluedo one of the best bargains on slots row. The industry average in Las Vegas is 93%, while some online casinos offer worse odds than that. Many Microgaming casinos offer a 95% payouts, but Cluedo is well above average.

About Cluedo

"Cluedo" is the murder mystery game known in North America as "Clue". In the United States, the movie "Clue" was based on the same board game property. The game was created by an English musician by the name of Anthony E. Pratt in 1944, but the gaming product is marketed by the American toy company, Hasbro.

Anthony Pratt and his wife, Elva Pratt, are said to have invented the game in the bomb shelters. People stayed the night in bomb shelters. Stories say the people of London would sing songs and tell stories for entertainment, so a board game would have been invaluable to pass the time. By 1944, the Blitz was over, but the V1 and V2 rockets were raining down on England, so people still had to be in air shelters.

After the war, Anthony Pratt showed the game to a Waddington's executive, who bought the game immediately. That executive, Norman Watson, renamed the game "Cluedo". It is a portmanteau of the word "clue" and "ludo", a Spanish word which means "I play". The game was patented in 1947, but not marketed until 1949.

Parker Brothers received a license to distribute the game in the United States. The company changed the name to Clue. That is not the only difference between the UK and US versions of the game. For instance, the murder victim in the United Kingdom is Dr. Black. In North America, it is Mr. Boddy.

Hasbro bought Parker Brothers in 1991, so Hasbro produces and distributes the game in North America now.

How the Game Is Played

In Cluedo, a murder has happened. Three to six players try to determine who committed the murder, where the murder happened, and what weapon was used to commit the murder. Characters, rooms, and murder weapons are represented by cards with depictions of each. One card is draw from each of the three decks, then placed inside a sealed packet or otherwise hidden from sight.

To win, a player has to guess all three parts of the murder correctly. If they fail, they are eliminated from play and lose the game. Since there are 6 suspects, 6 potential murder weapons, and 9 rooms, players have to eliminate possibilities before guessing. They are able to go around the board collecting clues. They are given a scorecard to keep track of which clues they have seen.

Through process of elimination, the player is able to narrow the possibilities. Incorrect guesses by other players can provide clues, too. The player must deduce the answer before another player successfully guesses, which adds a time component to the game.

The following characters are the same in both Cluedo and the North American version Clue.

• Professor Plum
• Miss Scarlet
• Mrs. Peacock
• Mrs. White
• Colonel Mustard

The other character is Reverend Green (Cluedo) or Mr Green (Clue).

Murder Weapons

In Cluedo, the murder weapons are as follows:

• Revolver
• Candlestick
• Dagger
• Lead Piping
• Rope
• Spanner

In Clue, the spanner is called the wrench or the monkey wrench.

Rooms in Cluedo

The 9 rooms in either version of the game are the Ballroom, the Conservatory, the Kitchen, the Dining Room, The Lounge, The Hall, The Study, The Library, and the Billiard Room. A tenth room, the Cellar, is in the center of the board, but this holds the envelope.

Cluedo: Discover the Secrets

In 2008, Hasbro released a "reinvention" of the game called Cluedo: Discover the Secrets. This was an updated version with more contemporary versions of the characters and new pictures. Miss Scarlet became Kasandra Scarlet. Colonel Mustard became Jack Mustard. Professor Plum became Victor Plum, a billionaire video game designer.

Hasbro wanted to update the game, which it considered outdated. Instead, fans were critical of the new version. The original version outsells the updated game. In 2012, Hasbro returned to the original with the release of Cluedo: The Classic Mystery Game. This game has game options and variations, but was the Pratt version.

Clue: The Movie

Cluedo was adapted into a movie in 1985. The mystery comedy starred Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Martin Mull, Michael McKean, and Lesley Ann Warren. The film grossed $14 million and was considered a bomb, though it gained a cult following later.

The screenplay was co-written by John Landis (and Jonathan Lynn). John Landis is known for directing films like "An American Werewolf in London", "The Blues Brothers", "National Lampoon's Animal House", and "Trading Places". He also directed the most famous music video ever: Michael Jackson's Thriller.

OOne interesting aspect of the film is the fact it had 3 separate endings. Two of them had a single murderer from the cast of characters, while a third had a ludicrously complicated set of murderers. A fourth ending was filmed, but never shown in theaters.

Conclusion

Cluedo Slots strikes us as a natural franchise to be converted into a slot machine. It's a popular and enduring board game, but there are plenty of those. Unlike most other older board games, it has lots of characters and the sense of a storyline. That translates well to slots.

We like the artistic design on Clue Slots. We never much like the staid old decision to put playing cards on a slot machine. We give points to IGT Interactive's game designers for adding Clue's murder weapons to the cards, which was a nice touch.

The bottom line is this: Cluedo Slots offers a 96% expected return. This is an excellent game for beginners, because it offers a high return and therefore longer play sessions. The slot machine also has basic features like wilds and scatters, but doesn't overwhelm the senses with too many bonus features. This game is good for old-timers, too, because of the high payout. We recommend Cluedo Slots to any gambler.