Little Green Men Slots
Little Green Men was part of a large batch of slot machines that International Game Technology, IGT, released in 1999. While many of these slots were revolutionary for the time, Little Green Men somehow gained more prominence and popularity than the rest.
So just what is it that made this slot stand out above other IGT slots from the same era? Moreover, how does Little Green Men stack up to the modern slots that we see today?
We'll answer both of these questions, but let's first look at the original Little Green Men slot machine, its bonus round, newer versions, and this game's surprising absence from online casinos.
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Original Little Green Men Slots
The original Little Green Men features 5 reels and 9 pay lines. You can also bet 5 coins per pay line, making the max spin bet worth 45 credits.
This was one of IGT's first "EZ Pay" slots, meaning you use tickets instead of coins to play. While cashless slot machines are rather common today, this was seen as a revolutionary convenience in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Besides EZ Pay, another aspect that makes / made Little Green Men stand out is its rich, cartoonish graphics. Fruits, which have always been common in slots, are fashioned into planets in this game.
A couple examples include a watermelon symbol with a Saturn like ring around it, and a lime that's in the shape of a crescent moon. While these may be nothing special today, remember that "BAR," cherries and 7s were about as inventive as slots got before this game's inception.
Some important symbols that you'll want to look for include the Laughing Moon wild, Keep Out sign scatter, green alien bonus, and the Abducted newspaper bonus. Keep Out signs multiply your payouts by 2x with 2 symbols, 10x with 3 symbols, 25x with 4 symbols, and 200x with five symbols, when they appear anywhere on the reels.
The theme of this game, as well as other versions of Little Green Men, is your standard rural, desert abduction scenario. This theme is further pushed through an eerie, outer-space jingle that plays every time you spin the reels.
The animations in Little Green Men are actually quite advanced for a late 90s slot machine. The Laughing Moon lets out a hearty laugh when it appears in winning combinations, the alien waves a fist full of cash, and Keep Out signs spin around.
Bonus Rounds
Another factor that helped Little Green Men slots rise to prominence was the inclusion of a second screen bonus round. This was yet another revolutionary element when IGT released this slot machine and others in the initial EZ Pay batch.
As for the inaugural Little Green Men bonus round, you're shown two flying saucers, and you must choose the right one to win a bonus. Pick the correct saucer and you continue playing for more prizes; choose the wrong saucer and the bonus round ends.
IGT eventually released an upgraded version of Little Green Men slots that includes two bonus rounds.
You trigger one bonus round by landing three alien symbols anywhere on the reels. You're then taken to a night time screen where you're shown 10 flying saucers.
The goal is to continue picking saucers with prizes, and you receive anywhere from 75 to 500 coins for every correct pick. Only one of the saucers ends the round, but even if you select the wrong one you'll receive 10 consolation credits for each remaining saucer on the screen.
Bonus Round 2The other bonus round is unlocked when you land three or more Abducted newspapers on the reels. This takes you to a bus stop, where a dog, old cowboy, young girl, hillbilly, and diner waitress are seated.
You select one of the humans / dog, and an alien ship will come and beam them up.
The inventive aspect of this bonus round is that your prize is revealed through a small newspaper article about the abduction. For example, the diner waitress would be pictured on the front page with "500 credits" listed under the headline.
As you'd expect from an older slot, both of Little Green Men's bonus rounds are merely random and there's no skill involved. But the fact that you can access two second screen bonus rounds is nice, even by today's standards.
Other Games in the Series
Fueled by the popularity of the original slot machine, IGT has since released several games in this series. We'll start with Little Green Men Family Reunion because this is among the best of the bunch.
Featuring 5 reels and 20 pay lines, Family Reunion brings together all the characters from the Little Green Men series. The original alien, grandpa alien, Ms. Little Green Men, and Junior make an appearance in this slot along with a "Family Album' symbol and the different fruits.
One very important symbol is the Little Green Men Family Tree symbol. This tree is an expanding wild, and it fills the entire reel that it appears in to improve your chances of getting winning combinations.
The song "We are Family" plays whenever you spin the reels in Little Green Men Family Reunion, and the background is completely blue, contrasting the completely white background in the original game.
Moving to the bonus round, you unlock this by landing two Family Album symbols on reels 1 and 5. This takes you to a second screen, where you're shown five rows, each containing six mystery squares.
You select one box in every row, and you'll either be awarded a prize or reveal the government agent, who ends the bonus round. Every time that you successfully pick a prize, you'll move up to the next level.
The ultimate goal is to make it through all five levels to the security clearance doors at the top. You open the security doors and reveal your prize.
If you're going to play another game in the Little Green Men series, Family Reunion is an excellent choice because it has noticeable differences from the original while still retaining the same elements that characterize this series.
IGT designed a couple of 3 reel games in this series, including Little Green Men Invaders. This plays like any 3 reel slots game, but Invaders does have a couple of notable differences from other titles in the series.
First off, the graphics are far better than the other Little Green Men slots. This looks more like a modern arcade game than it does a slot machine.
The other major change is the bonus round, which is a touchscreen wheel. Once you swipe the wheel, it spins around before stopping on your bonus prize.
Little Green Men Invaders is a newer slot machine, and you can definitely tell this from the graphics and touchscreen bonus round.
This is the other 3 reel machine, and it also features high quality graphics along with a unique bonus round. The bonus round sees you fly through space and try to blast as many aliens as you can for credits. If you hit enough aliens, you'll advance to the "Next Wave" and have the chance to shoot for more prizes.
One thing to really love is that this is a skill based bonus game, where your winnings are directly affected by how well you aim the joystick. Aside from this, the graphics are excellent for a slots bonus round.
If you enjoy slots bonus games, note that Little Green Men Cosmic Blasters features the best one in the series.
IGT released a female version of Little Green Men, which is mostly the same, aside from the fact that the alien is a woman rather than a man. You're still dealing with 5 reels, 9 pay lines as well as the exact same animations, music and bonus rounds.
The one major difference is that Ms. Little Green men feature both a video slot screen up top and mechanical reels at the bottom. Although more of a nostalgic novelty, some players might appreciate the machine setup.
Really, though, we see no reason to go out of your way to find Ms. Little Green Men if Family Reunion, Cosmic Blasters, and / or Invaders are available.
We won't spend much time on this game because, like the slot above, Little Green Men Jr. is a close spinoff of the original. The main difference is that a younger alien is the main character, and there are some nuances in the symbols and background.
Again, this isn't really a slot that you should look too hard for if you already have access to another Little Green Men machine.
Little Green Men CD-ROM
In 2008, IGT released a CD-ROM of some of its most-popular slots, including Double Diamond 2000, Dragon's Gold, Rich Girl, Texas Tea, and Uncle Sam. However, the feature game on the cover art is Little Green Men, which really speaks to its popularity.
This CD-ROM features the original version of Little Green Men with the updated bonus rounds that we discussed before.
On the downside, CD-ROMs full of slots games are a bit dated, to say the least. And if you want to play slots through your PC, you can just visit online casinos and play other alien themed games for free or real money.
Is Little Green Men available Online?
The CD-ROM might become a little more attractive when you consider that online casinos don't offer Little Green Men. This is somewhat strange when you consider that other IGT slots from the same era like Cleopatra, Coyote Moon, Double Diamond, Rich Girl, and Wolf Era can be found at online casinos.
Perhaps it's a licensing agreement or some other form of red tape that keeps Little Green Men relegated to land based casinos and a near ancient CD-ROM disc. But in any case, you won't be able to play it online or through your mobile device.
Little Green Men was ahead of its time when it was released in 1999. This game's graphics, animations, sound effects and second screen bonus round placed it at another level when compared to slot machines of the same era.
Even today, the original Little Green Men, especially the updated versions, stacks up well against some of the slots that are in land based and online casinos.
Of course, the gaming industry has changed greatly since the late 90s. So it's nice to see that IGT is helping Little Green Men evolve by offering the 3D Cosmic Blasters and Invaders games.
We suggest that you try the original or Family Reunion because they're nice introductions to the series. However, Little Green Men Cosmic Blasters and Invaders will probably keep you more captivated and entertained.