The world of online casino gaming hasn't been around for long in Pennsylvania, relatively speaking, but it has already made a significant impact. Much of that success is thanks to the quality of the gaming experience. When major brands entered the market toward the end of the last decade, they could have taken a slow and measured approach - offering a limited selection of games and expanding gradually with existing titles.
Instead, platform landed and brought with them all the latest and greatest games that players had come to enjoy in long-regulated markets, like those dotted across Europe. It’s because of this approach that the latest innovation to expand the range of iGaming has landed and taken off so quickly in Pennsylvania. That innovation is the new game type, crash games, which actually has its origins in classic browser gaming.
Before mobile apps and cloud gaming, Adobe Flash was the backbone of casual online games. Its ability to support interactive content and smooth animations gave rise to a wave of creativity. Indie developers flooded the web with free browser games, forming a vibrant and experimental gaming community.
Among these creations were early versions of what we now call crash games. The core idea or mechanic of these games was to guide a character across a launch pad, down a track, or off a cliff and see how far they go before crashing. Sometimes the game was based around getting a make-shift plane into the air. Other times, it'd be a notoriously flightless penguin trying to soar away from its ice sheet.
Each run earned a small amount of in-game currency based on distance. That currency was reinvested into upgrades - stronger gear, better vehicles, or enhanced launch power - to go further next time. Players enjoyed the mix of challenge and progress and just seeing how far they could go after each tweak.
To adapt these games for casino play, all that’s removed is the upgrade cycle. In what’s seen as one of the originators of this game type, Aviator, you bet, the biplane sets off, and you need to cash out before it crashes, and as it flies, the return on the cash-out increases. The clear-cut game loop has made the new creations very popular, leading the jackpot casino to include as many of the top-rated crash games as it can.
Aviator sees a biplane get the propellers spinning and then soar into the sky before, eventually, plummeting out of the sky. FlyX and its spinoffs are all about a stickman with a rocket seeking to fly as high as he can. Then, there’s Spaceman and its little cosmic explorer trying to soar through space. The Big Bass series has also dived in with Big Bass Crash. Then, there’s the game that brings in the famed god of Norse mythology, Thor, in Thunderstruck FlyX.
Crash games have classic origins, and it’s the straightforward nature of those classic games that’s helped to build an incredibly popular new form of casino game right here in Pennsylvania.
