Scepter of Anubis

Scepter of Anubis: Slot Overview

Editor's note: The game is still under development and the soundtrack is still being worked on. We plan on reviewing Scepter of Anubis again once it gets a full release.

It might be based in Stockholm, but game development studio Quickspin has released a number of well-received slots that were set many miles away in the continent of Asia. Eastern Emeralds and Eastern Emeralds Megaways are up there, as is the trio of Sakura Fortune slots. The last one reviewed, Sakura Fortune Epic Bloom, has been given a new lease on life, of sorts, serving as the basis for Scepter of Anubis, an Egyptian-themed reskin offering the full reel wild and respin combo the cherry blossomed series is famous for.

Where Sakura Fortune Epic Bloom exploded off the screen in a flurry of pink petals, Scepter of Anubis initially presented a less exciting representation of its theme. No complaints with what your eyes do rest on in the base game, but it's mainly just hints of pyramids and palm trees in the background. All well and good but a tad unexciting as well, giving the impression Scepter of Anubis wasn't a slot Quickspin invested a lot of its emotions into. Agreeable enough to look at for sure, yet nothing special, though the situation improved as time went by.

Mathematically, nothing much has changed; the top tier RTP comes in at 96.06% when betting 10 c to $/€100 per spin, or 96.34% when the Extra Bet is activated. When on, the Extra Bet costs 2x the base bet while giving an increased chance of landing Anubis Wilds and triggering free spins or super free spins. Played on a 5x4 gaming grid, this is a highly volatile online slot equipped with 40 paylines creating winning combinations from left to right.

Scepter of Anubis' 4 low symbols are winged scarabs in various colours, its mediums are a bird statue, a sphinx statue, Horus and Sobek, whereas its solitary high pay is a golden pharaoh. Hitting a line of 5 matching low pays awards 1x the bet, 5 mediums are worth 2x-3x, and the high pay symbols award 10 times the bet for a 5 OAK winning line.

Scepter of Anubis: Slot Features

Like its flowery cousin, Scepter of Anubis has full reel nudging wilds, respins, free spins, super free spins with possible multipliers, and two bonus buy options as its features.

Anubis Wild & Respins

The Anubis Wild is a fully stacked symbol that substitutes all symbols except the scatter and is present on all reels. A line of 5 wilds pays 20 times the bet. A full reel Anubis Wild also acts as a scatter symbol. Any time an Anubis Wild lands on the screen, there is a chance it nudges to cover the whole reel. Landing a full Anubis Wild in view triggers the respins feature. One full Anubis Wild grants 1 respin. Landing or nudging in additional Anubis Wilds grants extra +1 respin. The feature ends when no new Anubis Wilds land.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols or Anubis Wilds anywhere on the reels awards 8, 12, or 16 free spins, respectively. During free spins, any Anubis Wild on the grid expands to cover the whole reel and remains sticky for the duration of the feature. It also triggers the respin feature and awards +1 free spin.

Super Free Spins

If a super scatter symbol on the rightmost reel lands with at least 2, 3, or 4 scatters or Anubis Wilds on the triggering spin, then 8, 12, or 16 super free spins are awarded instead of regular free spins, respectively. The difference in super free spins is that when one or more Anubis Wilds covers an entire reel, a multiplier of x2, x3, x5, or x100 is chosen to be applied to that spin and its respin. If a new Anubis Wild lands on a respin, a greater or equal new multiplier is chosen.

Gamble & Feature Buy

If free spins or super free spins are won with less than 5 triggering symbols, players can gamble for the chance to win up to 16 free spins or super free spins. Losing gambles forfeits the entire bonus round. Free spins cannot be gambled to get super free spins or vice versa. Both bonus rounds may be bought from the base game. Regular free spins cost 80x the bet and have an RTP of 96.74%, while super free spins cost 160x the bet and have an RTP of 96.65%.

Scepter of Anubis: Slot Verdict

Overall satisfaction levels of Scepter of Anubis were good without being great. The audiovisual impression actually improved after an initial viewing of the base game failed to dazzle, and the game opened up. Quickspin has been in the business for a while now, and its art team is adept at painting pretty pictures. The same can't be said about the audio in this instance since, during the time of testing, the demo of Scepter of Anubis appeared to have the same soundtrack as Sakura Fortune Epic Bloom. Surely, or at least hopefully, the studio will rectify that before Scepter of Anubis slides completely off the production line.

Reuse is the word for Scepter of Anubis' gameplay, too, being a reskin and all. As in the related Sakura Fortune games, the main aim is to hit as many full reel wilds as possible in order to get respins going and maybe pack the screen in wilds. As before, the pinnacle is breaking or buying into super free spins where multiplicative modifiers become a possibility. Like Epic Blossom, this system didn't feel like a major advancement over Sakura Fortune 2, which had much higher winning potential backing some neat lopsided grid, locking wild hijinks. But it's hard to begrudge Scepter of Anubis' 10,000x win cap, and its super free spins mode has all the makings of a nail-biting episode if you can get lucky in that phase.

Naturally, Scepter of Anubis doesn't really offer much, if anything, that gamblers did not have access to before. However, players who fell for the cherry blossom charm of Sakura Fortunes Epic Bloom might be just as happy with the way Scepter of Anubis has turned out, possibly more so depending on their subject matter preferences.