Are There Any Bingo Games That Look Specifically 80s?

11:51 14 April 2021

As time has passed, there’s been a continued reappraisal of the 80s and the rise of MTV, popstars like Madonna, classic movies such as Back To The Future and The Breakfast Club, as well as some questionable fashion choices. Since then, more and more things have been taking on tropes of 80s culture, and it’s highly plausible that online bingo games have included some staple features usually more reserved for the arcade. 

 

To understand whether there are such features, it’s worth gaining an understanding of the current situation when it comes to online bingo. The game in its current form is one that has plenty of games inspired and based on all sorts of real movies and television shows such as Rocky, Britain’s Got Talent or Deal Or No Deal, as it's possible to see at one of the most fun bingo sites, Paddy Power. In using them as a case study, it is possible to see the different imagery that bingo can use, ranging from the Irish-inspired Rainbow Riches - also an example of one of those hybrid games - or Centurion. The latter makes use of the historic portrayals of ancient Rome, referring to a specific rank of Roman soldier. Of course, Roman-inspired games aren’t just limited to bingo, but here we see how bingo has thrown itself into taking it on.

 

Another themed bingo option is a game entitled Galactic Girls. The fact that it’s got a space theme is arguably inspired by the successes of sci-fi games and movies in the 80s such as the classic Space Invaders. It also draws inspiration from further back in history to the golden age of sci-fi with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes. This also helps to demonstrate the practically timeless nature of such productions, especially given the latter has had a series of modern reboots. 

 

Something else that comes within the bingo sphere is a classic arcade game born in the 80s that incorporated a bingo element into one of its offerings. Space Invaders Extreme 2, released worldwide for the Nintendo DS back in 2009 built on the success of the first game and added in it a bingo card in the corner which gets filled in according to the color of the aliens that are hit. If the player manages to fill a line in, for instance, it unlocks a special round. If the round is beaten, it has the potential to offer players a pink UFO to hit that can be worth 30,000 points. The most difficult to obtain, as expected, is a full-house which is a large UFO that’s guarded by a wall of aliens, half of which have an impenetrable barrier for players to get past.

 

It’s definitely fair to say that there have been some 80s theming in bingo. Furthermore, it’s also intriguing to note that it has worked the other way round in the case of Space Invaders Extreme in 2009 which may open the door for further tie-ins across the decades in future games.