Seek Riches in Egypt With Sphinx Fortune
Sphinx Fortune is the latest addition to the online pokies portfolio of Booming Games. This is an Egyptian-theme, as you can tell from its title, and is available to play right now in online casinos around the world.
Dozens of Egypt-themed pokies exist. Has Booming Games done enough to make Sphinx Fortune stand out from the crowd or should we send the machine down the Nile?
Sphinx Fortune Fundamentals
Booming Games tried something different with the layout of Sphinx Fortune. It has five reels, but they are set out in a 3-4-4-4-3 layout, which is something different. We like it when software developers deviate from the norm.
Fire up the machine and discover the wealth of bet sizes at your fingertips. Minimum bets are $0.10 with $50 maximum bets. There is a bet size to keep everyone happy.
The RTP of Sphinx Fortune is not something to put a smile on your face, however. Booming Games set this at a very low 95.32% which is almost daylight robbery in today’s market. We shy away from anything less than 96% and prefer machines 96.5% or higher. A 4.68% house edge is far from ideal.
This machine comes with high volatility, too. Couple the high variance with low RTP and the game suddenly looks less appealing. Let us not write it off just yet though, give it a chance to redeem itself.
Being able to win 8,500x is one way to make up for its lowly figures. Here is hoping the features continue in the same vein.
Sphinx Fortune Symbols
It should not take a genius to work out the Sphinx Fortune symbols are all related to Egypt. The low-value symbols are royals, except they are set in stone. Landing three pays up to 0.30x and 1.20x for landing five.
Cleopatra, or the queen as it says on Booming Games’ website, is the most valuable symbol. Five of this beauty on one of the 576 win lines pays out 5.00x.
| Symbol | Three | Four | Five |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleopatra | 0.50 | 1.00 | 5.00 |
| Sphinx | 0.50 | 0.80 | 3.00 |
| Hawk | 0.40 | 0.60 | 2.00 |
| Scarab beetle | 0.40 | 0.50 | 1.50 |
| Diamond | 0.30 | 0.40 | 1.20 |
| Spade | 0.30 | 0.30 | 1.20 |
| Heart | 0.20 | 0.30 | 1.00 |
| Club | 0.20 | 0.30 | 1.00 |
| Sun | 0.20 | 0.30 | 1.00 |
Look out also for the Pyramid bonus symbols that land on Reels 1 and 5. Landing two starts the Hold and Win feature, more on that later.
There is a Pharaoh that acts as the wild. These fill an entire reel and always nudge down, increasing the multiplier x1 each nudge.
Finally, the free spins scatter needs three on a win line to trigger the free spins feature.
What Are The Features?
Sphinx Fortune has a handful of bonus features for you to get your teeth into. The Pharaoh wilds take up full reels and always nudge up or down to fill them up. They increase the prize multiplier by 1x with each nudge, leading to potentially large wins.
The two main features need triggering. Pyramid bonus symbols appear on the first and fifth reels. Land two to start the Hold and Win feature. You start with three respins which reset each time a coin lands. The coins are sticky and carry a value on them that is added up once you run out of respins. A new screen opens with a wheel of fortune on. This is your prize multiplier, which goes up to 10x.
The free spins round happens when you land three free spins scatters. You always receive eight free spins and your prize multiplier increase with each wild nudge. There is no limit to the size of the multiplier, so expect decent wins.
Conclusion
Booming Games has created a good machine in Sphinx Fortune. It is pleasing on both the eyes and ears, but that dreadful RTP spoils matters. We could not get past that no matter how hard we tried. There is no reason for it to be so low.
The game’s features are fun. We were lucky enough to land both during our test playthrough. We won 62x on the Hold and Win and 34.2x on the free spins. Both are decent wins, but we couldn’t help but think they would be larger was it not for the low RTP.
