Cursed Treasure

Cursed Treasure: Slot Overview

Cursed Treasure is an online slot from developer NetEnt that takes players on an adventure in a thick, jungly location where they have the chance to get their hands on treasure via such features as Cash Prize symbols, Mystery Prize symbols, and a hold 'n win bonus round. While not a Kong game, Cursed Treasure does give off a Skull Island vibe, where the bush is dense, looks hard to traverse, and wouldn't be surprising if it was full of dangerous creatures.

The game also gives off a 1930s to 1950s-era B-movie feel not a million miles away from former NetEnt slots such as The Invisible Man or Creature From The Black Lagoon, with a dash of an Indiana Jones adventure featuring heroes, villains, mysteries, and exotic locations thrown in. However the rest of Cursed Treasure manages to play out, NetEnt has done a swell job building the game world, making good use of the background imagery, panning camera, and aural effects.

To board the adventure, players pick a stake of 20 c to $/€80, keeping in mind that Cursed Treasure collection progress is saved per bet level. Behind the B-movie scene, Cursed Treasure chugs along with a low/medium volatile math model and default RTP of 95.99%, or 96.1%, when buying the free spins bonus round. Across its 5-reel, 4-row grid matrix, 20 paylines are built in for evaluating line wins and, in some instances, Cash Prize symbol wins.

The paytable lists 10 to A card ranks as the low-win symbols, then a map, a book, and three further characters as the high-win batch. Hitting a line of 5 royals pays 1 times the bet, no matter the winning combination type, while a line of 5 matching high pays awards 2 to 8 times the bet. In the main game, wilds appear on reels 2, 3, and 4 to substitute for anything except scatters or Cursed Treasure symbols.

Cursed Treasure: Slot Features

Cursed Treasure is essentially a hold 'n win style game with a few twists, one being that Cash Prize symbols award their displayed values in the main game when they create winning lines of themselves.

Cash Prize Symbols

In the base game, landing 3 or more Cash Prize symbols on a bet line from the leftmost to the rightmost reel without gaps awards a win equal to the sum of their values. Cash Prize symbols appear on all reels in the main game, showing values of 0.5 to 20 times the bet. Each Cash Prize symbol can pay only once per spin. Wilds may substitute for Cash Prize symbols, but they have a value of 0.

Cursed Treasure Feature

Cursed Treasure symbols appear on all reels and are collected whenever they land. The meter starts at 5 and each collected Cursed Treasure symbol increases it by +1. The Cursed Treasure feature can randomly trigger in the base game when a Cursed Treasure symbol is collected, or it automatically activates when the meter reaches 20. Now, when the Cursed Treasure feature is activated, a number of Cash Prize symbols equal to the number on the meter are placed on the reels. If the collection number is less than 20 in the main game, the Cash Prize symbols placed on the reels have values of 0.5 to 5 times the bet. If the collection has 20 or more, the values are 0.5 to 20 times the bet. If Cash Prize symbols are added to the same position as another Cash Prize symbol, the values are added together. After placement, wins are awarded, and the meter resets to 5.

Mystery Cash Prize Symbols

During free spins, Mystery Cash Prize symbols may appear on the reels with a random value of 50 to 5,000 times the bet. Their prize is revealed at the end of free spins.

Free Spins

A total of 3 free spins are awarded when 3 or more scatters land in the base game. During free spins, landing Cash Prize symbols (with values of 0.5x to 10x), Cursed Treasure symbols, or Mystery Cash Prize will resets the spin count to 3. These are the only symbols which appear in the free spins bonus round. Cash Prize symbols and Mystery Cash Prize symbols also stick in place when they hit. Cursed Treasure symbols are collected in a new meter that starts at 5, increasing by +1 for each collected symbol. When spins run out, the Cursed Treasure collection places a number of Cash Prize symbols on the reels equal to the number collected on the meter. Cash Prizes cannot be placed on Mystery Cash Prizes. Following this, the total prize value is awarded. Free spins end when the free spins counter goes to 0, all positions are full, or there are 15 Mystery Cash Prize symbols in view.

Feature Buy

Free spins can be triggered by using the feature buy, which costs 100 times the bet. When bought, free spins are immediately activated.

Cursed Treasure: Slot Verdict

Cursed Treasure goes to show that when NetEnt wants to flex its game world construction skills, it can still do a solid job. The Skull Island/Indiana Jones thing is a little cliched, but that's okay; NetEnt has made nice use of it anywhere in a slot which hearkens back to the studio's earlier days. Maybe not quite Relic Raiders days, yet an earlier time when NetEnt was one of the towering powerhouses of slot design. This isn't to say Cursed Treasure is a powerhouse of a game, but for an uncomplicated hold 'n win slot in an exotic location with a lashing of adventure, it's not bad.

The gameplay wasn't as striking as the audiovisuals, yet it has its moments. Winning Cash Prize values when they fall along a payline isn't wholly unique; 4ThePlayer, for example, has used this idea in its '4 Fantastic' slots, yet it's not a very common method. Nor is collecting Cursed Treasure symbols, which can end up adding Cash Prize symbols back onto the board at later points. The Cursed Treasure feature is a welcome addition to the base game, and it's able to add a positive end to a free spins bonus, as well, adding tension as the round progresses. Mystery Cash symbols are able to contribute to the anticipation, as well, since a single revealed 5,000x prize gets lucky players well on the way to the game's 5,064x max win.

Cursed Treasure probably isn't the sort of slot that's going to thrust NetEnt back into the spotlight and have its competitors shaking in their boots. However, it's one of the better slots the studio has released of late, not only looking and feeling like a wholly NetEnt product (rather than seeming like a joint venture with Red Tiger) but also having a decent level of entertainment to offer the right gambler.