Ready for another deep dive into the dusty tombs of ancient Egypt? Backseat Gaming takes you into the hieroglyphs-adorned walls of the dimly lit chamber, with bats flying across the screen for good measure. The game plays out on a 5×5 sized grid with only 19 paylines, but make no mistake, solid payouts can explode out of the blue in all stages of The Cursed King slot. This is typical for both Hacksaw and their partner studio, so be prepared for multiplier action.
This comes in the form of expanding multiplier wilds in this game, and each wild reel can be assigned with a multiplier up to x100. These are additive multipliers if multiple wilds partake in the same win, and you get walking wild reels in the bonus round. This is how you prolong the otherwise short free spins round, as respins are awarded as long as walking wilds are present. Not super original, perhaps, but certainly effective to the tune of up to 12,500x your stake.
Emerging developerBackseat Gaminghas teamed up with the well-knownHacksaw Gamingstudio. Their slots share a similar, user-friendly interface, and The Cursed King marks their 6th release. We’ve been impressed with their offerings so far, but they are not quite up there with big brother Hacksaw just yet.
The 3D visuals add a certain depth to The Cursed King, and the visual presentation is solid enough without being extraordinary. Perhaps the ancient Egypt theme is too familiar to make a lasting impression these days, but fans of the genre will hardly be disappointed. The dark grid is livened up by colorful symbols, and the soundtrack adds to the somewhat spooky atmosphere.
The top-tier The Cursed King RTP of 96.31 % is well above average. However, this game comes with lower RTP settings as well. This is ahigh volatilityinstallment from Backseat Gaming, scoring 4 out of 5 on their own volatility scale. This means ups and downs are to be expected in longer sessions. The Cursed King max win is 12,500x your stake, which is above average according to our numbers.
You win by landing 3 to 5 matching symbols across at least 1 of the 19 paylines, and The Cursed King slot plays out on 5 reels with 5 rows each. You can place bets between €0.1 and €100 per spin, which is a solid bet range that caters to all types of players. Wild symbols substitute for any pay symbol to help complete or improve wins, and they also pay 10x your stake for 5 wilds on the same payline.
You get a taste of the expanding multiplier wilds in the base game, but the real fun starts when you trigger the bonus round in The Cursed King slot. Walking full-reel multiplier wilds award respins to prolong the feature. Let’s take a closer look!
The Pharaoh symbol appears regularly, and it will expand to turn the reel into a full-reel wild if at least one winning combination is present. The expanded pharaoh wild comes with a random multiplier between x2 and x100, substituting for any paying symbol to help complete multiplier-boosted wins. The multiplier values are added together before being applied if more than one expanded multiplier wild is part of the same win.
You trigger the Bonus Round when 3, 4, or 5 eye scatter symbols appear on the same base game spin, and this gives you 3, 4, or 5 free spins, respectively. Whenever you land expanding pharaoh multiplier wilds you get respins where the full-reel wild moves one step to the left or right. The respins continue as long as there are expanded wild reels present, and the respins are not subtracted from your The Cursed King free spins no deposit tally.
The full-reel walking wilds can merge on the same reel, which means their multipliers are added together. The walking wilds can change direction at any time, and they disappear when they move off the grid on either side. You cannot land scatters during the bonus round, so retriggers and extra free spins are not possible except via the walking wild respins feature.
TheBuy Bonusmenu is available in some jurisdictions, and you’ll find it via the circular yellow button down to the left. It comes with 3 options this time, and all the options are high volatility:
You get an uneventful taste of the base game before we purchase the Cursed King FeatureSpin at 0:24 into the 2:54-minute highlights video. This turned out the be a good investment, and we purchase the bonus round at 1:18 into the video. You can see for yourself how we fared by hitting the play button below.
Backseat Gaming has a knack for making familiar features their own, something The Cursed King is a good example of. The game walks a tightrope between mediocre and good, but the strong math model and the solid set of features save the day in the end. While the visuals are decent, the dark grid and tomb setting get engulfed by an oppressive blanket of black that comes across as a bit too overwhelming. A minor detail, perhaps, but the colorful symbols help liven things up a bit.
It’s in the feature department that The Cursed King truly shines, although similar things have certainly been seen before. Still, the expanding full-reel wilds with multipliers up to x100 can be deadly effective also in the base game. The bonus round comes with few initial free spins granted, but you can expect plenty of walking wild respins most of the time. A lot is determined by the multiplier you get on these wilds, of course, but we have no complaints about the 12,500x potential. The Cursed King is well worth a whirl if you’re a fan of the ancient Egypt theme.
Pros
Cons
You can get started playing The Cursed King for real money at a casino right away, by simply following the steps below. You already know what we think of this game thanks to the review verdict above, and we assume you have already tested the free The Cursed King demo game found at the top of this page. If so, here’s how to get started for real:
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Zeus vs Hades- is a Greek mythology release fromPragmatic Play, and you can look forward to expanding multiplier wilds up to x100. The wilds are sticky in the free spins feature, where you can win up to 15,000x your stake.
Wanted Dead Or A Wild- is the instant classic that catapulted Hacksaw into stardom, and this Wild West release features expanding VS multiplier wilds up to x100. You can look forward to 3 unique free spin rounds for payouts up to 12,500x your stake.
We can assure you that The Cursed King game is optimized for mobile play, as is the case with any modernvideo slot. You can play on your phone or tablet as you see fit, and bring this game with you wherever you may go. No mobile app is needed to play either, as HTML 5 technology allows you to play directly in your mobile browser. This is also the case when you play at any of The Cursed King casinos we recommend at the top of this page.
Your overall The Cursed King strategy should include playing only thetop-tier RTPversion of the game, as you want to maximize your returns in the long run. A fun strategy we like to play with is to attempt to guess the next bonus round trigger. We increase the bet level a bit when we feel that it’s overdue, which hopefully will lead to larger payouts. It’s all random, of course, but this is still a fun strategy that enhances your experience.
We recommend that you test the freeThe Cursed King demo gamefound via this link to the top of the review page. Reading our The Cursed King review is one thing, but testing the game yourself is the best way to find out if you want to play for real money. You get a sense of the features and the gameplay, and you will find verified casinos to play at directly below the demo game.