Sphinx Fortune

Overview Sphinx Fortune

 Once again players visit ancient Egypt in search of big payouts and reel-spinning fun. Booming Games (like every other online slot provider) always seems to be drawn back to the comfort and security of an ancient Egypt theme. Maybe it is because it is a well-known and comfortable thematic ground for slot designers, and they know what works and what doesn’t. However, we would take a slightly more cynical point of view and say that in fact, it is just laziness. It’s easier to import new features and maths models into a new theme than it is to come up with something new and have to design all the elements for it.

Besides the tired theme though, this is a slot with a lot going for it. The features alone are worth having a few spins. One of the most interesting is the nudging wild multiplier feature. These wilds (which look like the golden Sphinx) can nudge themselves into an expanded wild format which can cover the entire reel. For every nudge that is triggered, players will notice that an accompanying multiplier grows by x1 too. In addition, there are free spins, re-spins, normal wilds and a prize wheel.

Theme and Symbols

As we have discussed in the introduction, Ancient Egypt isn’t exactly ground-breaking thematic territory for slot providers. However, if nothing else, you cannot say that Booming Games haven’t tried to make Sphinx Fortunes visually compelling. The background for the base game of this slot is one of the outdoor areas of a grand and well-decorated Egyptian palace.

Looking beyond the irregularly shaped reels, you can see two thick columns that are precisely painted in delicate hieroglyphs. On either side of the reels, there are large black cat statues, symbolising the importance of this residence. The music predictably sounds like something transplanted from The Mummy soundtrack.

There are 9 normal symbols for this game. The first 5 of which are the lowest paying symbols. These are the sun, clubs, heart, spades and diamond symbols. Above these, there are several major or high paying symbols. These comprise the scarab beetle, the Horus character, the Bastet icon and an Egyptian Queen – Cleopatra perhaps. She is the most valuable symbol in the game. She pays out 5x your stake for 5 symbols on a pay line. The special symbols are the Sphinx nudging wild and the Pyramid scatter which helps trigger the re-spin and free spin rounds.

Game Play

Sphinx Fortune is played on a 5-reel playing board with an irregular number of rows in each. The formation is 3-4-4-4-3. This slot has 576 ways to win. To achieve wins on this slot, players must match 3 of a kind on a pay line or use the special symbols to make combinations. Each combination made must start on reel 1.

The betting range for Sphinx Fortune is 10p to £50 per spin. To adjust their bet levels players can toggle their stake up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen. Information about the slot, including the paytable and the autospins options, can be found via the small “I” icon on the top right-hand corner of the reels.
Volatility for this slot is understood to be rated at the higher end of the spectrum. The return to player percentage for Sphinx Fortune is disappointingly low at 95.32%. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 8,500x their current stake.

Features

There is quite a selection of bonus features for this game. One of the most useful, as partially explained in the introduction is the stacked Sphinx symbols bonus. These stacked wilds can appear anywhere on reels 2-4. Because they are stacked in shape, they are much more likely to help score a win. These special wilds also benefit from a nudge multiplier game dynamic that pushes them to cover the whole reel. Every time a nudge occurs a multiplier attached to your score grows by 1x. The regular wilds (not stacked) just help you to form wins by swapping themselves in for other regular symbols.

The scatter symbol (the pyramid icon) can only appear on the first and last reel. If you land a scatter on reel 1 and reel 5 at the same time the re-spin feature will be triggered. This will give you 3 re-spins. If you land an extra scatter within those spins, the re-spins are reset to 3. The only symbols that land in the re-spins game are the coin symbols. At the end of this feature, you are presented with a reel of fortune. This extra can multiply your winnings significantly.

The scatter can also trigger the game’s free spins feature. To do so, you must land a scatter on each of the middle rows at the same time. The game then provides you with 8 free spins. The nudging and normal wilds are also active in this feature and the multipliers earned with the nudging dynamic have no limit.

Conclusion

The best things about this slot are the exciting features and the big 8,500x top payout. It is a shame that the RTP is quite low and the volatility so high, but at least there is a decent prize worth risking a few coins for. Although the theme isn’t new, it is well-executed, and the detail of the graphics do make things much more captivating than you might at first think. All in all, a solid if not exemplary slot from Booming Games.