Game on – it’s an expression sometimes used to start a sporting occasion or competition (with Sherlock Holmes, it was “Come on Watson, the game’s afoot!”).
Online video slot software developer Microgaming has its own Game On, and you can play it right now. Start with good sound effects: Noises of the wild as the reels spin, a suspiciously soccer crowd cheers on a win. (In case you're wondering about a "Goooooooooal" reference, the exclamation runs among those cheesy digital-font messages running atop the reels.)

The bonus round is a short-and-sweet bit of tomfoolery: The casino player chooses between one of three animals to kick a goal; I bent it like Beckham in employing zebra to take the free kick, bagging $375 on a $5 spin. The ultimate bonus slots multiplier can score a 4,000x jackpot.

You takes yer chances at these games and in gambling in general… Same for Microgaming, which has had to endure some internet debate as to whether the company is still a winner. “Blinkyroast” wrote: “There was a while there where they were releasing some really great games on a month to month but seems like the quality of their games has dropped quite a bit and although they have a vast library of games for me to choose from and play still they need to start getting back to where they were. I haven't seen a game like Hitman or Tombraider Secret of the Sword released in quite some time and it would be really great to see some more awesome games like this in their suite soon.”

While we leave Blinky to get his/her breath back, “Silmondo” observes: “I've noticed the same thing about MGS and the games that they've been releasing as of the past several months. I think that the last game they released that I really liked was the Great Galaxy Grab video slot which was a great new concept that they had introduced to their library of games. It's when they keep releasing games that use the same features and bonus concepts that things just start to get boring and stagnate.”