The first Iron Man movie was a surprising success, grossing over $318 million in the U.S. The bigger surprise is that the movie was actually good. Robert Downey, Jr. was charismatic, as usual, and fun to watch, as usual, and the script was decent enough that it didn’t take anything away from Downey’s character. I never saw the second movie and heard it wasn’t very good, though I do really want to see Scarlet Johansson in that catsuit.

I haven’t played the new Iron Man 2 slot, since it has not been launched yet for play, but it is reportedly ready to go at Playtech casinos. The game features symbols directly from the movie, so you will see photo still of the stars in their superhero costumes.

When the symbols are used in a winning combination, they become animated. Yes, that means you get to watch Scarlet Johansson as the Black Widow move. Yum…The game will feature bonuses of up to ten free spins as well as a multiplier bonus. On the free spins, you start with the winnings being doubled, but the multiplier increases by one on each spin.

The Iron Man 2 slot has a randomly triggered progressive jackpot. It is linked to the other slots in the Marvel Jackpot Network. There are four different levels of jackpots available: Power Jackpot, Extra Power Jackpot, Super Power Jackpot and Ultimate Power Jackpot.

The online slot, which will be available soon, has five reels and 25 paylines. Check your favorite Playtech online casinos for the game.

Anyway, to go along with the big game, I thought it would be fun to play the Fruit Bowl XXV slot. When the Super Bowl comes around, there are all kinds of tie-ins that people come up with. Animal Planet plays the Puppy Bowl, where you watch puppies go through an obstacle course. They used to have the awesome Bud Bowl, where Budweiser and Bud Light play football against each other. Best of all is the Lingerie Bowl. Models playing football in lingerie is hard to top.

This online slot can’t top that. No online slot can. But if the Lingerie Bowl isn’t on and you are waiting for the big game, you might want to play the Fruit Bowl XXV slot. I don’t even remember the first 24 Fruit Bowl slots, but I’m willing to let that slide.

Fruit Bowl XXV is a cartoon slot that combines sports and fruit. There is a blueberry cheerleader, a strawberry wide receiver going out for a pass, a football made of a lemon, a banana quarterback and cherry fans complete with a foam finger. The stadium is made of a cantaloupe.

It’s the kind of game that makes you crave food and sports at the same time. Actually, I usually crave food when I’m watching sports, whether it’s hot dogs, nachos or whatever. The Fruit Bowl XXV game has 25 paylines and a jackpot of 7,500 coins.

The online slot is designed by Realtime Gaming (RTG) and can be found at Rushmore Casino. To play the game, visit the casino today.

Dog Casher (get it?) is the name of the slot and it follows a dog named Cheri. That dog got bored at home, escaped from her owners’ mansion and was playing with other dogs when a dog catcher scooped her up and took her away.

The rest of the game takes place at the dog pound. The online slot features symbols of Cheri and other dogs who are lonely and homesick. There is also the dog catcher, who didn’t seem to get much rest the right before, because he’s seen taking a nap in his chair. If you take too long between spins, he even begins snoring.

The dog catcher is the wild symbol. Keys to the dog pens are the bonus symbols. Those are used to unlock free spin rounds. During those free spins, you have a chance to earn Cheri and the other dogs their freedom. You can also earn her some good food rather than that bad dog food served at the pound.

Dog Casher is a 3D slot (as in it uses three-dimensional polygons, not as in it pops out of the screen at you) designed by Rival Gaming. To play the new Dog Casher slot, visit Sloto’ Cash Casino.

That made 2009’s Star Trek update exactly what Trekkies should love: a movie that people won’t be ashamed to watch and enjoy. Considering how software developers love to cash in on successful franchises like that, it was only a matter of time before there was a new online slot based on that movie. Well, that slot is coming soon.

International Game Technology, which bought WagerWorks in 2005, is releasing a new Star Trek online slot soon. The game will be based on the 2009 movie and, like Microgaming’s exciting and popular Lord of the Rings-based slot of last year, the game will feature actual video clips from the movie.

Not a whole lot is known about the online slot at this point, but IGT says that it will feature 30 paylines. The game will have four different free spin bonuses. Captain Kirk will be one bonus symbol and because he’s played by the kid from the recent movie rather than by William Shatner, his acting shouldn’t annoy you. Mr. Spock will be the wild symbol, I guess because Spock was always such a wild character (yes, that’s sarcasm). Uhura is a scatter symbol and Scotty is a multiplier bonus.

No release date has been announced yet, but when the online slot is launched, I will be right here to play and review it.

That is why I love the new game from Microgaming’s Sneak a Peak series. Doctor Doctor is a previous online slot in the series and it was a good one, featuring symbols of sexy nurses practically bursting out of their nurse’s uniforms, nurses putting on latex gloves for hopefully naughty reasons and doctors who seem to have received an M.D. from a modeling academy. I’m not entirely sure I’d like to have them operate on me, but they sure are fun to watch!

There is also the Hunky Heroes slot, which was part of the Sneak a Peak series aimed at women, featuring muscular firemen, soldiers, cops and more. The new release for this sexy series is called Planet Exotica and it is set in a strip club located somewhere in space.

To be honest, this wouldn’t be my first choice for a strip club. Instead, I hear there are some good ones in Las Vegas. As for this one, most of the strippers just aren’t my color….Now before you get offended, what I mean is that the strippers are blue or purple or green. They’re aliens. This resembles a strip club that George Lucas might imagine. Remember the bar scene from the first Star Wars? This would be the strip club those people go to after Han Solo screws things up by shooting up the place.

There is a rather good-looking alien woman with purple skin and blue hair. I’m not sure if she’s wearing clothes or if that’s her skin, though. Another stripper reminds me of the alien that was a slave to Jabba the Hut until he got mad and dropped her in the pit. In any case, the Planet Exotica slot features symbols of various alien strippers. There is also a large ghoul of a bouncer and a waiter who looks slimy and has only one eye. Again, this wouldn’t be my pick for a strip club, but it might be the best place to go in a galaxy far, far away. Oh, and one of the strippers is named Sooki. Isn’t that a character from True Blood?

Planet Exotica is a 5-reel, 15-payline slot with a jackpot of 12,000 coins. Players can bet between $0.01 and $2.25 per payline. When you win money, one of the strippers will give out the money to you, making it seem that much more special. There is no way to use some of the money to tip them, though. The slot game has a number of free spin and multiplier bonuses. There are also some fun bonus games.

Getting three or more of the lips symbols unlocks the Select-A-Smooch bonus game, which is exactly as it sounds. There is also another fun bonus game called the Sneak-A-Peak bonus. Again, this is pretty much like it sounds. If you unlock this bonus by getting the logo in reel 1 and one of the strippers on the same spot in reel 5, you will get a real strip tease. Sort of.

You are taken to a screen with the strippers and you must click on items in an attempt to match them. If you do, the strippers will disrobe for you. Adding danger to the mix, though, are bouncers who are trying to throw you out of the club. I don’t know why, since all you’re trying to do is get strippers to strip. Isn’t that in their job description?

Anyway, if you’re like me and you love strippers and slots, and especially if you’re some weird guy who is into alien erotica (not that I’m judging you), the Planet Exotica slot from Microgaming is definitely worth checking out.

The Witches Caldron online slot features symbols of stereotypical cartoon witches. You know the kind, with big noses and wards, black robes and a black cat. There are symbols of bubbling caldrons (“bubble bubble, toil and trouble”), a spell book, some type of potion and more. The game has an eerie background that looks like it is in a dungeon or creepy witches cave. There are also bats flying by while you play.

The Witches Caldron slot is a 5-reel, 20-payline video slot with a jackpot of 15,000 coins. Players can wager between $0.01 and $5 per payline. The jackpot is triggered by getting five of the witche’s mortar on any of the active paylines. The black cat is the wild symbol and it will substitute for anything except the scatter symbol and the bonus symbol. The scatter symbol is the spell book and it can be used to unlock up to 30 free spins. During those free spins, your winnings are doubled.

The bonus symbol is the witch herself. If you get three or more witches, that unlocks the second-screen bonus game. The bonus game is sort of a spell-casting experiment. You are taken to a bubbling caldron and there are a number of ingredients sitting on the shelves. To cast the correct spell, you must select the right ingredients for the potion. If you select the correct agreements, you win bonus points. If you do it wrong, I don’t know; maybe you blow yourself up or accidentally turn yourself into a newt or something. It happens.

If witches, black cats and the casting of spells is your thing, you might want to check out the Witches Caldron slot.

The online slot features symbols of a male cop with a big mustache, hat pulled over his eyes and holding a huge baton. There is also a female cop who is dressed in a white shirt (?) that is way too tight (!). Other symbols include a robber, gavel-banging judge with the classic wig, a police car, police dog, bank and more.

Cops N Robbers is a 5-reel, 20-payline online slot with a jackpot of 10,000 coins. The symbols become animated when used in a winning combinations, such as the judge banging his gavel. There is also a fun second-screen bonus game, called the Hot Pursuit. In that bonus game, the robber is trying to make a getaway with cash and he is being pursued by a cop. Rolls of dice determine where the two characters end up on a game board, with points being accrued as long as the robber is free. Once he is caught, though, you are taken to a lineup, with several characters shown for identification. The bonus you get is determined by on which character you stop.

In addition to the Hot Pursuit bonus game, there are other bonuses as well. Players can win up to 100 free spins, which are unlocked by the police light symbol. There is also a Safe Cracker bonus, where you are shown multiple safes and you must pick one. A secret bonus is inside each safe.

Considering that slot machines are sometimes called the one-armed bandit, this Cops N Robbers game is rather fitting. Not only that, it’s also fun.

The Reel Party Platinum game can be found at Aladdin’s Gold Casino and it is an update of the earlier Reel Party game. This new online slot has a party theme, specifically a New Year’s Eve party. It features symbols of a hot girl who will definitely not be at my place on New Year’s, some guy that would steal her away anyway, a champagne bottle, champagne glasses being toasted, a Happy New Year top hat, fireworks, and the ball dropping.

Reel Party Platinum is a 5-reel, 15-payline video slot. The game carries a jackpot of 5,000 coins. In addition to the regular game, there is also a second-screen bonus game. In that game, you are told that the party needs more champagne. You then go to the wine cellar to get more. There are dozens of bottles, but you can only open three of them. Once you open a bottle, you get whatever secret bonus is contained inside.

Overall, this is a fun game and I guess it’s better to play this than to get drunk at a party and then drive home. I’ve never been a big fan of the holiday, but if you love New Year’s Eve, you might want to check out this new online slot at Aladdin’s Gold Casino.

Retro Reels Diamond Glitz is a game that is made to recreate the classic slot machines. It is a 5-reel, 25-payline slot that is made to look like the old one-armed bandits we used to find at taverns and casinos. The game is said to have a free spin bonus as well as a re-spin feature.

Hot Ink is an online slot with a tattoo theme. The slot features a variety of body art and instead of having paylines, the game offers 1024 different ways to win. Since I can’t easily count that high, I’ll take their word for it. The reels on this game look like someone’s skin and the symbols look like tattoos on that skin. It’s slightly creepy, to be honest.

Private Eye is an online slot with a detective theme, like those great old film noirs starring people like Humphrey Bogart. This is a five-reel slot that has 243 ways to win. The game features symbols of a fedora and trench coat-wearing detective, femme fatale, camera, crime scene, criminal, badge, handcuffs and more.

Perhaps the most exciting new game is the Monkey King slot. This is based on the popular Chinese story that has been turned into a number of films and plays and an upcoming 3-D blockbuster action film starring Chow Yun-fat. The slot game features a number of Chinese warriors. Some of them are human and some are animals, such as the Money King of the title.

Though the new games are not yet available, be sure to check your favorite Microgaming online casinos in early January. Until then, there should be plenty of slot tournament action to keep you busy.

Anyway, late or not, the online slot is here now and it can be found at Cherry Red Casino. The game is called Count Spectacular, and it’s based on Count Dracula, but they never exactly say that, probably out of fear of being sued by the Bram Stoker estate.

In the Count Spectacular slot, players see symbols of the vampire count, a bat, a girl who is a victim of the vampire, a coffin, a mirror (odd choice, since vampires don’t have a reflection), the count’s castle and more. The game is a 5-reel, 25-payline slot with a jackpot of up to 50,000 coins.

In the online slot, the Count serves as the wild symbol, substituting for other symbols to form a winning combination. He also laughs eerily and stares at you with his hypnotic eyes when there are three Counts in a row. The only thing I wish he would do that he doesn’t is actually count and laugh like the Count from Sesame Street (“One, ah ah ah!”).

The Count also unlocks a bonus when there is one on the first and fifth reel at the same time. For the bonus, players can choose between a free spin and a re-spin. For the re-spins, the Counts remain locked on the first and fifth reels while the other three reels spin. Players receive four re-spins and the payout is normal. For the free spins, all five of the reels spin and your payouts are tripled on winning combinations. Players receive 12 free spins if they choose that option.

If you haven’t had enough of vampires already and you like that kind of thing, be sure to check out the Count Spectacular slot at Cherry Red Casino. It has the fun of the Dracula series without the weird Transylvanian accents.