Ellen: Sharing the Love Slot
Over the past 30 years, Ellen DeGeneres has risen from a fairly well-known stand-up comedian to the star of one of the most popular syndicated daytime television talk shows in the world. Widely seen as a positive, upbeat presence in the industry, she has hosted the Oscars, Grammy Awards, and Primetime Emmys, as well as starred in films and two televised sitcoms.
As such a popular performer with a warm reputation, this is one celebrity that is perfect for a welcoming and casual slot machine. Ellen: Sharing the Love by IGT was first unveiled at the 2016 Global Gaming Expo (G2E), and is just the latest example of a machine starring the beloved comedian and host. With plenty of free spins and special features up for grabs, this is a fun and engaging title that delivers plenty of enjoyment – even for those who don’t normally play slots.
Lights, Camera, Action
The Ellen: Sharing the Love video slot can be found in a variety of live casino venues. The machine uses a light, airy presentation theme: there’s a lot of empty space and the same kinds of fonts seen in her talk show, giving the whole thing a look that is both thoroughly modern and overwhelmingly friendly. To put it another way, this looks more like a game you might play for fun rather than a serious slot aimed at hardcore gamblers, and that’s absolutely by design. And while you can’t play this IGT slot for free, you'll find plenty of others in our free slots online library. What's more, the Ellen: Sharing the Love video slot is included in the category of penny slots, making it a quite affordable experience for the low limit players that are this game’s likely audience.
This machine features five reels of play, with 40 paylines over an expanded 5x4 layout. As in most machines, the object is simple: match symbols from left to right across your paylines, winning prizes that increase with the length of the combinations you make. The lowest value symbols are colorful representations of the four card game suits (hearts, diamonds, spades and clubs), while bigger wins are attached to various versions of the logo for the Ellen DeGeneres show. The biggest payouts of all are attached to a series of images of the star herself, featuring blue, red, and green backgrounds.
Everybody Gets a Bonus
One of the more enjoyable aspects of the Ellen: Sharing the Love video slot are the numerous bonuses and random features that can appear during play. For instance, on any spin, you might suddenly be given a couple of wild “Heads Up!” reels, named after the game she often plays on her talk show. Another random bonus is “Epic or Fail,” once again based on a popular show segment; players pick between two options, and earn a huge prize of coins if they guess right (along with a consolation prize if the player is wrong). Other potential special features include Dancing for Dough and Cat Week – which, as the game notes, comes with some great “meowtipliers.”
There’s also a free spins round that can be triggered if you hit three scatter symbols on the same spin. When this occurs, you’ll not only get some free games, but they’ll come with multipliers of up to 15x on all your wins, making them extremely lucrative. And, of course, there are the customary wild symbols that can be hit at all times during this game – they’re just a ticket that says “wild” on it, so you’ll never miss them.
The Closing Credits
We’re guessing that most serious gamblers won’t play Ellen: Sharing the Love. The cabinet just looks too casual and too geared towards fans of the show to grab someone who has lots of slots experience. But so what? We’re fans of games that know who their audience is, and this is a title that is absolutely geared towards Ellen’s audience, which means this game has a huge built-in base of players. We’re happy to report that for those who love her show, this game offers plenty of enjoyable clips, referencs, and artwork from the program that you’ll likely enjoy. The gameplay isn’t bad, either: a little low variance and gimmicky, but that’s exactly what you’d expect from a machine like this. If you’ve enjoyed previous titles in this series, of are just a big fan who normally wouldn’t play casino slot machines but is intrigued by this one, you’ll have a good time playing this cabinet.
