Online casino highlights and the best slots of 2017 in a nutshell!

Online casino highlights and the best slots of 2017 in a nutshell!

Published by Thisbe Savva, 7 January 2018

2017 was a rather spectacular year for casino games and slot games on our most popular and most loved online casinos in the UK. We were lucky enough to have an abundance of casino games to play and explore from every single theme you could ever wish for. Casino game providers such as Yggdrasil, Quickspin, Microgaming and NetEnt had given us players and casino enthusiasts something to look forward to from the very start of 2017 in January, right till the very end.

That is what you call pure dedication!

It takes a team of well oiled machines (or people) to come up with the dazzling game ideas which our providers come up with, and as you can imagine it takes a lot of time, imagination, and creativity to put together slots such as Jungle Books, Leprechaun Hills, Jungle Jim, and Starburst. This sort of talent does not just happen overnight.

Let’s take this opportunity of it being a new year to go through some of the best slot game releases of 2017, it is of course very hard to choose out of the massive portfolio of games, but we can list some of the most popular ones! There will be everything from adventure to thrillers, to sci-fi, so it doesn’t matter which genre you are more partial to because we will aim to cover them all! Let’s start with the first most popular games of 2017 which really took gaming to a whole new level, and gave us players something to really look forward to playing. Yes, it will definitely be difficult to choose, so we won’t be going in any specific order!

The Phantom of the Opera turned slot game

First up we have the very famous thriller turned slot game The Phantom of the Opera created by the masterminds at Microgaming. This game was highly in demand and we really looked forward to giving it a go, especially knowing how much of a success the initial play and novel were. We could only expect the very best to shine through in a video slot, and it did. With the variety of in-game features and fun animations, The Phantom of the Opera did not disappoint at all.

Some of the best elements of this game include the Chandelier Bonus where you will experience the Phantom at his best

Just as it is in the movie, he will cut down the big crystal chandelier and it will then fall down as the Phantom begins to laugh in a very taunting way. Despite it being a little bit of a scary Bonus feature, don’t fear because during this, two or three of the reels on your game will turn Wild leading to further winnings. Microgaming is one of the leading game providers, and 2017 was definitely a big year for them, it was difficult to select just one slot game to add in this article, but you can take a peek at all of their other casino games by reading our reviews by clicking here.

Phantom of the Opera slot

NetEnt enters the Planet of the Apes

Next on our 2017 breakdown is a slot game coming from another favourite provider in the casino industry. The one and only NetEnt, it really is better gaming when you think of NetEnt. Their innovative minds and non-cliche choice of themes, they could never be described as being vanilla that’s for sure. One of the greatest things to have come out of 2017 is the Planet of the Apes slot game by NetEnt. This is a branded game as you probably suspect and know, but with the grand element of added NetEnt magic, this becomes way more than just your ordinary slot game. Planet of the Apes has had an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from casino players.

We just can’t seem to get enough of it and there are many reasons why.

The first thing being the fact that it is a branded and well known movie loved by millions, and the second thing being that the in-game features come at an abundance! A few examples of the Bonus features and Special features in this magnificent slot is the Rise Bonus Feature, and the Dawn Bonus Feature. Basically, if you have the magic touch and end up triggering these separately, you will end up winning some very exciting Free Spins whilst filling up the Planet of the Apes Wild Meter.

This is definitely one of our favourite elements of the game because not only are you triggering a feature, but you are also taken to a new scene. Everything from the music, to the sound effects is just put together so well. Good going NetEnt, we at Top Casino Sites UK thoroughly approve!

Planet of the Apes slot

Leprechaun luck and rock from Yggdrasil

Our list of the best slot games of 2017 just keeps getting more exciting, next up we have a game from the innovative online slots provider, Yggdrasil Gaming. This year may have actually been ‘the’ year of Yggdrasil, and we think that many of you can thoroughly agree with this statement. There has been release, after release, month after month and we really hope this never ends because we can’t get enough of Yggdrasil lately. Although it is hard to choose a specific game of the year, we decided to go with the little leprechaun who is ready to rock, Rainbow Ryan!

When you think of leprechauns you tend to think of cute little fellas jumping over rainbows and discovering pots of gold

However what makes Rainbow Ryan our favourite slot from 2017 by Yggdrasil, is the fact that this isn’t your usual run-of-the-mill leprechaun. Rainbow Ryan holds a mean beat on his electric guitar, and shows us how to have a good time with the multiple bonus features in the game. The Rainbow Reels have to be the best feature, these will trigger randomly during the base game.

Once they have triggered, a random rainbow will cover 2-6 of the reels on your grid, and when these reels land they will land with the exact same symbols which leaves us players in for a chance to win a big pot of gold coins!

Rainbow Ryan slot

Quickspin explores the wild west

Quickspin also had quite the year, 2017 seems to have been an innovative year for all our top providers. One of the highlights of our year at Top Casino Sites UK was actually getting to interview Quickspin, it was a very exciting interview where we managed to get some scoop on from the inside world of casino games. Why not have a read of our interview with Quickspin. It was yet again very difficult to select a slot game of choice, but we ended up agreeing on Sticky Bandits. This adventurous wild west slot game was released in August 2017 and was highly anticipated by us players.

We were promised some fantastic bonus features, and that is exactly what we got

The Massive Wild symbol is our favourite, and if you have not yet played Sticky Bandits then it’s about time you did so. The Massive Wild symbol feature appears only on reels 2 and 4, covering adjacent reel positions to the right.

These symbols have two jobs, they act both as a Wild symbol, and also Bonus symbol, so trigger these babies and you have got yourself a sweet win. If you’re a player who enjoys adventure and the burning smell of gunpowder, then this is the casino game for you. Quickspin did a fine job of producing a slot game worth playing, and we can only imagine what’s to come for 2018.

Sticky Bandits slot 1

It’s been an overwhelmingly great year for us casino enthusiasts, we can only keep our ears and eyes open of what's to come next. But one thing we can know for sure is the fact that it’s bound to be good because 2017 has been real proof of what sort of new game mechanics and game structures can be accomplished with a great team. For example Quickspin’s Achievement Races and NetEnt upgrading their casino games to HTML5 which you can read about by clicking here.

There's so much more to come in 2018 we can just feel it!

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