The
Book Of Ra slot machine won't be known to many players from North America or canada I would guess as Novomatic
slot machines tend to be more prevalent in Europe but of all the
slot machines here, Book Of Ra has to be
one of my favorites and probably the one I play most. Actually, it's a toss-up between Book Of Ra, Novomatic's
Dolphin's pearl slot machine which I tend to play more at land-based casinos and
Playtech's
Iron Man 2 slot which is far less volatile than Book Of Ra.
The Book Of Ra appears on the Multi Gaminator machines (and Super Gaminator) in land-based along with several other games,
including the popular
Sizzling Hot slot. I've seen Ra in casinos as far
and wide as Hungary, Spain and England on my travels. There are actually two versions - the original 9-line version that you can
see above and a Deluxe version which is becoming more prevalent. In Hungary, I even saw a version called "
Book Of Liberia"
on a "Multi Game" machine! Some sort of licensing issue I guess. But most online casinos now carry the Book Of Ra
Deluxe version
but there's a certain charm about the original. Comparisons of both games are available on my
Book Of Ra website along with other info and videos of other
popular Novomatic slot machines.
Whichever version you play, the Book Of ra slot machine is very, very (very!) volatile! The key to the game is the free spin feature
in which you get a random symbol designated as an "expanding scatter", a concept that's also present in Novomatic's "Lord Of The Ocean"
slot machine and has since been adopted by some other manufacturers, notably Playtech with their online-only
Gladiator slot machine and "Rome and Glory". But in Gladiator you aren't guaranteed the
expanding scatter symbol as you are in Book Of Ra and without it, you're screwed LOL.
The expanding scatter feature round is why it's volatile because not only is the feature hard to get (you need 3 or more Book Of Ra
symbols anywhere in view to trigger it) but the symbol it selects randomly also impacts the potential for big wins. The worst symbols IMO
are the "10", the "scarab", the "pharaoh" and the "isis" symbols. It's hard to get huge hits on those although you normally get something worth
having. The best symbols - or at least, the ones I have made most from - are the Indiana Jones like symbol, the "K" or the "Q" (King, Queen)
symbols which seem to come up a lot.
The great thing about the feature in the Book Of ra slot however is the potential for retriggers. You get 10 free spins initially but more Book Of Ra
symbols are added to the reels and retriggers are frequent. That's fairly common with all Novomatic slot machines actually: getting the feature is
harder than on low volatility games such as
Where's The Gold by Aristocrat or IGT's popular
Cleopatra slot machine but once you get it, you are far more likely to get a retrigger or even several! I've had
up to 70 free spins in one feature round on the Book Of Ra slot machine before now and have walked away with over 1,000x my bet on more than one occasion.
