Table of Contents
- About NextGen Gaming
- Award Winners
- Features & Game Types
- Highest Return to Player Slots
- Our Top 5 Picks
- Our View
About NextGen Gaming
| NextGen Gaming | Info |
|---|---|
| Provider | NextGen Gaming |
| Established | 1999 |
| Number of Games | 100+ |
| Products | Slots |
| Headquarters | London |
| Website | https://www.lnw.com/ |
This company started producing slots just a few short years after the internet became available in people’s homes.
In the same year that everyone thought “the Millennium bug” would grind the online world to a halt, NextGen emerged. Any company who started in 1999 and is still around a quarter of a century later must be doing something right. But this company does a lot of things right!
NextGen Gaming was an Australian based independent company up until it merged with NYX Interactive in 2009. Both companies were then bought by Scientific Games. The company acquired many slot developers over the years with legendary Barcrest and Bally to name a couple.
In 2022, Scientific Games restructured and rebranded, to become Light & Wonder.
That’s great news if you love slots, because the company has streamlined by selling the Lotto half of the business in order to focus on iGaming developments.
If you’ve played slots for even a short time, you’ve probably already played a NextGen game. They have developed hundreds over the years and have a reputation for great gameplay and a very wide range of themes.
They’ve churned out some big name slots over the years including King Kong Fury and Gorilla Go Wilder.
NextGen games are also often sold to other slot providers and launched under these bigger brands such Aristocrats and Bally.
Because they have so many games,and because they’ve been in business for so long, some of the games do look a little dated compared to their newer ones.
Award Winners
As you’d expect from a company that’s been enjoying enormous success for more than two decades, NextGen has won plenty of plaudits and prizes.
Highlights include:
- RNG Casino Supplier of the Awards 2013,
- EGR B2B Special Award 2014,
- Digital Gaming Innovation Award at the 2016 Global Gaming Awards for the Witch Pickings video slot.
Licensing-wise, NextGen is part of the Light & Wonder, that means it can jump on the back of many of its licences, including the UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority and Alderney Gambling Control Commission.
Combine NextGen’s longevity in the iGaming sector with the global nature of Light & Wonder, plus quality licences and that all adds up to one very trustworthy operator distributing their slots in quality casinos.
Features & Game Types
NextGen slots are incredibly successful, and that’s in no small part due to the features of the games. You can enjoy free spins, scatter symbol payouts and bonus boards.
Their hugely popular Select-a-Play feature allows you to adjust free spins as well as the win multiplier function, meaning you can change the volatility of the feature.
If you love Live Casino or table games, you’ll need to look elsewhere. This is a company passionately devoted to slots.
Slots by NextGen include:
- Free Spins, Scatters and Select-a-Play features,
- A huge number games,
- Good graphics,
- Fantastic gameplay,
- Accessible at a large number of casinos.
Highest Return to Player Slots
Nobody plays slots to lose! That’s why the Return To Player percentage is so important when picking a game. A higher RTP increases, but doesn’t guarantee, more frequent payouts. The RTP is the average percentage payout of a game, normally calculated over 10,000 to 100,000 spins.
Here’s some of the highest RTP game’s for NextGen:
- Starmania – RTP 97.87%
- Wolfpack Pays – RTP 97.76%
- Golden Hen – RTP 97.22%
Overall, we’ve found the average RTP of NextGen games to be ever so slightly lower than the industry average of 96% – hovering around the 95% mark.
Our Top 5 Picks
- King Kong Fury – Based on the 2017 blockbuster movie this is one chest thumping ape of a slot. This slot has five-reels, four row format with 50 payout lines. If you seen the film then you’ve got a pretty good idea of what the graphics are like with the giant ape Kong as the wild and plenty of dinosaurs. This is a really well-designed game with plenty of gameplay. A random Kong’s Call feature can be triggered on any spin. You’’ hear the natives chanting to summon Kong then he adds up to 12 wild symbols. If the heroine, Anne Darrow, appears on reels one and five then the main feature King of Skull Island kicks in. You’ll then spin to reveal how many free spins you’re awarded. This is a classic NextGen game, easy on the eye and great to plat with an RTP of 97.7%.
- Gorillas Go Wild – It’s just a coincidence that our two top picks are ape based. They just happen to be two cracking games. This jungle themed slot has 25 paylines where Gary the Gorilla acts as the Wild. Graphically this game is a lot more basic than King Kong Fury, with cute little jungle critters serving as the symbols. But it’s the bonuses where this game truly comes alive. You’ll notice a row of bananas at the top of the screen – this is Gary’s Bonus Time banana. A randomly triggered round which rewards with prizes worth 50x up to 1000x. If Gary consumes all the bananas, you’ll find yourself in a new area of the jungle where Bonus Time happens more frequently. Scatter symbols in this game are Incan Temples. Three of those will land you on the Feature Kingdom Bonus where you have four rewards to choose from including free spins with doubled wins, free spins with sticky wilds, free spins with multipliers and free spins with random wilds. The RTP for this one is 96.5%.
- Starmania – One of the higher RTP games developed by NextGen and takes you on an interstellar journey. It has ten paylines set across five reels and features include free spins, scatters, pays both ways and wilds. Three bonus scatter symbols reward you with free spins and it has a max win of 200x total bet. Starmania, has neon graphics accompanied by high tempo music. It is very, very playable.
- Wolfpack Pays – This is another high RTP slot by NextGen Gaming. It has stunning graphics and offers 243 ways to win as part of its standard five reel, three row format. Inspired by the Wolf Pack, this wilderness slot adventure sees wins triggering the main feature. Four consecutive wins will reward you with free spins where five extra wolf wilds could be added. It only ends when you have three non winning free spins.
- Dragon Wins – Slots with Dragons in them are ten a penny but not many are as cute as in this game. There’s also some lovely animation touches for the four dragons that make up this slot. It’s also a slightly unusual five reel slot because the rows are all different amounts; some are three and some are four. Scatters when they appear in certain places act as multipliers but that’s not the only feature. Each time one of the four dragons complete a win line they breath fire into a shield. These sheilds are win meters which when full will offer you one of four free spin features. There are only three free spins in each feature but the reels are enhanced including changing symbols and re-trigger three more spins. This a wonderful game with an RTP of 95.5%.
Our View
It’s no wonder Light & Wonder wanted this company as part of their Empire, they’re epic.
Hugely productive, with fantastic features and quality graphics. They produce hugely popular games for quality casinos.
They have amassed a noteworthy collection of titles to suit all tastes with themes galore.
This is one of the great slot developers.