One of Yahoo!'s most popular free online games is Slingo, a unique combination of bingo and slots in which players have 20 spins to match all the numbers on their board. Slingo is a one-player game, and the free version includes three different levels. Players can download a limited trial to play offline, as well. The downloadable version features different gameplay options, customizable backgrounds, and more. Players will need a Yahoo! ID to both play the free version and to download the trial version
How to Play Slingo
Slingo is set up like a traditional bingo board: players have a grid of five rows and five columns, and the goal is to match all 25 numbers in 20 turns. Each turn, players will have ten seconds to click on the red "Start Spin" button. This will cause the slots to spin and stop on five different numbers. Players then check to see if they have any of those numbers on their cards, and if they do, they click the number to cover it. Players receive points for each number covered, plus bonus points when they cover five numbers in a row either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
But it's not quite as simple as just covering all the numbers. Slingo adds a few more extras to make the game interesting. First of all, to advance to the next level, players don't necessarily have to cover all 25 numbers. Instead, they have to cover the numbers that are highlighted in blue. These numbers form a pattern, such as a question mark, and players have to complete this pattern if they want to continue playing. As the game progresses, the patterns become larger and larger, requiring players to match more and more numbers in order to move on.
Special Tiles
There are the four special tiles that players may receive when spinning. They include jokers, gold coins, free spins, and the devil.
Jokers
There's the joker, which counts as a wild card. Players can use him as any number in the column that he appears in. In Yahoo's Slingo, there's also a super joker. Super jokers have a green background and can be used to cover any number on the board regardless of which column it's in. Super jokers rarely show up, however. In addition to covering spaces, players will receive bonus points if they get three or more jokers in a single spin.
Gold Coins
Another helpful tile is the gold coin. Gold coins give players an extra 1,000 points, which is helpful for players aiming for a high score. The downside to gold coins is that they replace a number for that spin, meaning they can be annoying if they keep showing up in that one column that has numbers left.
Free Spins
Free spins are also useful. The last four spins of a Slingo level deduct points from the player's score. Spin 17 takes 500 points, spin 18 requires 1,000, spin 19 needs 1,500, and spin 20 takes away a whopping 2,000 points from the player's score. That's 5,000 points gone if players need all 20 spins to cover the board. Free spins, though, allow the player to take one of these spins for free. Players can decide when to use them, so they can either hoard it to use on the last spin or use it on spin 17 if they think they will get that last number. Players can gather up to four free spins per level, making the last four spins completely free.
The Devil and The Angel
Finally, the last special tile is the devil. This tile is not at all helpful to players. Besides taking up one spot on the bar each time he comes up, he also takes away half of the player's total score! However, each time the devil tile appears, there's a random chance that it will change to the angel tile. The angel shoots the devil in the butt with his arrow, causing him to run away and leaving the player with their score intact.
Slingo Gameplay
The graphics of Slingo are adequate but aren't too flashy. The spin tile lights up when players need to click it, as do the covered tiles when players score five in a row. The sound effects of Slingo include the slots rolling, a money sound when the gold coin appears, and the devil laughing evilly when he steals away points. There's also a count-down beeper if players take too long to click on the spin button.
Slingo is a fun game to play if you're bored and looking for something that doesn't require a lot of thinking. The only downside to the free version at Yahoo! is that it only has three different patterns to match, so players will go through the game pretty quickly, and then it can get kind of dull matching the same three patterns (question mark, division sign, and flying bird) over and over. Despite this, players looking for something to keep them busy for a little while will find Slingo is a great way to pass the time.
