Cobra Queen

Overview Cobra Queen

Max Win Gaming has played it very safe with the look and feel of Cobra Queen, going with a tried and tested (if a little tiresome) Egyptian theme. However, it isn’t the theme that makes this game attractive, it is the multilayer bonus features, which seem to be both generous and novel in their design.

This mostly pertains to the wild feature, which hinges on the introduction and collection of the wild symbol, which in this game, is the beautiful and decorated Cobra Queen herself. In addition to the wild’s standard practice of replacing other symbols to form wins, this wild has a feature that is much more interesting.

Every time the player triggers a winning combination, the win amount is frozen in place above the last participating symbol in that win. In the following spin, that final symbol is transformed into a wild. If the wild is then hit as part of a winning line, you are handed the payout displayed at the start of the feature. Although this sounds complicated, when you see the feature in action, you will understand very quickly its lucrative potential.

Theme and Symbols

If you have played even a handful of slots in your time, you will know that Ancient Egypt is a thoroughly relied upon motif and one that has been reimagined countless times.

Max Win Gaming for this slot takes us into the desert, to a spot in full view of the Pyramids of Giza. The board is decorated in the image of one of the famous Pharaoh tombs, bookended at either side with golden statues. The title of the game is at the top of the game screen, written in an exotic font to reflect the exciting foreign theme.

When it comes to symbols, the usual Egyptian iconography is used with no real surprises. The low-value symbols are a group of playing card icons such as the Jack, Queen, King and Ace. The Tens, Jacks, Queens and Kings all pay out the same. Landing five of any of these on a pay line, pays out an impressive 80x your bet. The red Ace on the other hand pays up to 100x for five of these icons on a pay line.

The more valuable symbols are the symbols that are directly related to the Egyptian theme, such as the Eye of Horus or Ankh. These two pay up to 250x your bet. However, this pay-out is dwarfed by the scarab symbol which pays out 400x your bet for five matching symbols.
However, this is not the most valuable symbol in the game. That distinction belongs to the wild icon, which pays a huge 1,000x your stake for five on a pay line. This is how you come by the top-pay out for the game.

Game Play

Cobra Queen is played on a 5-reel, 3-row board with 10 pay lines. To create wins, players must spin the reels using the big yellow button and match symbols across the win ways from left to right. The betting range for this slot is 20p to £40 per spin, with at least 12 intervals. Changing the bet levels for this slot is easy. All you need to do is toggle the current bet amount using the button located on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. You will find the auto spins tool here too. The paytable is accessible via the menu icon on the top right-hand side of the screen.

The return to players percentage for Cobra Queen is about average at 96.02%. The volatility for this slot is rated at the higher end of the spectrum, meaning wins will be fewer but larger per feature you play. The maximum win achievable in this game is 2,040x your stake.

Features

The main feature for this game as we outlined in the introduction, involves the wild symbol, which in this game is the Cobra (or more accurately Asp) Queen. Whenever a win is generated, the last symbol involved in that win (the symbol furthest to the right) is transformed into a locked-in or ‘frozen’ wild for the following spin, as well as adding the value of that win to its value. Then when it is part of a subsequent win, the value ascribed to it previously is paid directly to the player. If one of these wilds is part of multiple wins as part of one spin, the value is multiplied in line with the wins it has been part of.

Furthermore, any time that this wild comes in for a symbol to create a win, new wins are added to its value. This feature comes to an end and the special wild is dissolved once you score a win in which it isn’t part.

The second and somewhat overshadowed feature, is the free spins game. Players can trigger this bonus by landing the special Pharaoh scatter on the same spin on reels 1, 3 and 5. When taken through to the free spins round, players are awarded 10 free spins. During this feature, if a wild lands on the reels, it is automatically locked into place for the rest of the available free spins. By covering a reel totally in wilds, players will receive an extra 2 free spins to their total.

Conclusion

The standout reason why you might want to play this game is the interesting locking wilds dynamic, which adds value to the wilds as you play. Exciting new game mechanics like this are what players are interested in and are a big factor when considering the attraction of playing a game. Aside from that though, Cobra Queen isn’t particularly exciting. It has got a solid theme, decent payout and an underwhelming maths model. A good but not remarkable effort from those at Max Win Games.