Legend of the Sphinx Slot
Every theme has games that stand out and ancient Egyptian themed slots are no different. One of the more recent is Legend of the Sphinx by Novomatic and it's made more than a few ripples in the sands of online casinos. On point styling makes good use of solid 3D graphic designs to bring the spirit of Egypt to life. The designers have put a lot of research time in too with plenty of Egyptian gods putting in an appearance on the parchment paper covered reels.
Names like Anubis and Horus may be recognisable from popular films like ‘The Mummy’, but for this slots salute to the old kingdom of Egypt, the lesser known name of Hathor gets let out of her tomb for a spin on the 5 reels. The sphinx we see of today is quite worn down by natural erosion from the weather and age; after all it's been around for a very long time! Novomatic paints it as it once could have looked and has it answering players’ questions for a nice twist on the legend.
Paying for a Legend
Although there is a 10 payline version of Legend of the Sphinx available from the same developer, we played the 25 adjustable payline one for review here. Using credits to play, betting was straightforward in choosing the amount of paylines to put into play and how much to wager per line. The lowest possible to play with is a 2 coin bet over 1 payline with a total stake being 2 credits. Raise everything to the high limits of 25 lines and 400 coins, and that raises the max bet to 10000 credits.
The pay table automatically adjusts for tailoring the bet so it’s nice to see at a glance the winning values to be expected without having to calculate it all. All slot games have their own set of rules of play, and for this one, all symbols play from left to right except for the pyramids that can appear anywhere as a scatter symbol. The Sphinx is wild and has a x2 multiplier when subbing other symbols in the base game. It’s also good to remember that for any wins on the paylines, the value is multiplied with the bet placed per line. Scatters multiply their value with the total bet and this will give the number of credits that will get added to the balance to make it swell.
Scarabs, Sphinxes and Sand
The symbols represent the theme well with God's, scarab, pyramids, water barge, and the Sphynx. As with many slot machines, playing card symbols make up the lower paying half of the pay table values. Novomatic uses them but gives them a nice eastern makeover so they don’t appear out of place on the reels. The Gods are drawn as they would have appeared in the artwork illustrations on parchment and temple walls of the day.
The scatter can trigger a bonus feature that offers free spins and multipliers that can really boost wins. First the player is taken to a new screen and stands before the Sphinx to ask two questions to find out the number of spins or multipliers. Whichever question players ask, they get to play the answer. The Sphynx looks a bit frightening so we were glad when getting the answer to move on to the feature round. Throughout the game there is a gamble feature that is available to take a chance on doubling up the payouts. There’s also an auto spin button that will play until it stops, but will cancel out the gamble game if used.
An Egyptian Walk
As a slot for fun, Pharaoh’s Fortune by IGT is a real treat with great music, great design and great pay table. It has high quality graphics and is full with all things ancient Egyptian including a smiling pharaoh in a death mask! It is 15 paylines of pleasure with a betting range of 15 to 1500. The symbols are a mixture of wall art that animates on wins, and parchment hieroglyphics. It surrenders itself completely to the theme with no card symbols anywhere.
There are bonus games, free spins and multipliers and there is some really serious money to be won. The game also has an award cap set to the maximum payout of 25000000 coins. The slot is quirky in the best possible way and the music used is a cover version of ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ by The Bangles that plays long enough to sing with in the feature game, and is sure to have feet tapping and even the odd bit of whistling going on.
One of Seven
The pyramids of Giza are one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the Sphinx guards them, now and just as it has done for thousands of years making it a true legend. Will this Novomatic slot of the same name be just as legendary? We think so, but it does have its faults.
The auto spin feature is either on or off with no tailoring. With such high roller bets possible, it would be easy to lose sight of what was rolling away. Without the backup of a few pre-sets put into place as a safety net, for the inexperienced players, money could be very quickly lost. The music of the game is good and fits the theme well, but the noise on a payout isn’t and it really stands out in a bad way. Nevertheless, it's a game that is good fun to play, albeit not as witty as some, but then again it isn’t trying to be. Play Legend of the Sphinx on mobile and the fun and great fortune continue.
