Sultan Spins

Sultan Spins: Slot Overview

Mention the phrase, 'online slot with an Arabian twist', and what follows tends to be a game built around One Thousand and One Nights, or Aladdin, Ali Baba, or something boasting lamps and a genie. It feels like a missed opportunity since a bunch of handy stuff originated in the Arab world – algebra, for example. Perhaps because online gambling is illegal throughout large swathes of the Arab world, the UAE, for example, is an area underutilised by casino game makers. Apart from Ancient Egypt, of course. Bucking the stereotype are the brave souls at Relax Gaming, who have made Sultan Spins, an online slot that provides an Arabic-influenced gaming world to inhabit for a bit.

And a warm part of the world it is, too, and while Sultan Spins would appear to be a fictional place, buildings that look like the Burj Khalifa and the Burj Al Arab dot the skyline. A few traditional structures are mixed in besides skyscrapers balancing tradition with modernity, next to a water feature, so players can pretend they're gambling from a villa on one of those fake islands they've constructed if they so choose. This all occurs while a pretty generic Arabian tune blares across the speakers. Music is a subjective topic, of course, but this one ended up muted on more than one occasion.

Gold is a common motif in Sultan Spins, and its 5-reel, 4-row gaming grid is covered in it. The grid is also covered by 40 paylines, awarding regular wins left to right, beginning from the leftmost side. The RTP has been measured at 96.1%, while the volatility is in the high region. The game has a bet range of 10 c to $/€200 per spin, and unlike the Dream Drop progressive jackpot system, the size of the bet has no official bearing on the chance of winning a Jackpot.

A swag bag of blinged items make up the regular paying symbols, including golden metallic J-A card rank low pays, as well as a golden shisha, golden sneakers, a golden car, and a gold boat. Land a winning line of 5 matching low pays to collect 2.5 times the bet, or 12 to 20 times the bet is paid for hitting a line of 5 identical highs. Wild symbols are able to land on all reels. They substitute for any regular pay symbol and award up to 50x for a 5-wild winning line.

Sultan Spins: Slot Features

What Sultan Spins has to give in regards to features are progressive local Jackpots, plus free spins with levelling up capabilities and line win multipliers.

Local Jackpot Feature

Above each reel is a Jackpot value. Landing a Gem symbol on the reel increases the prize above it by the bet size. Once the Jackpot has been increased, the Gem reveals either a pay symbol, a wild symbol that could expand into a wild reel, or a Jackpot Spin. The Jackpot Spin plays out on a mini reel with jackpot prizes, and once a jackpot has been won, the corresponding prize is reset. There are five jackpots. These are what's known as the White Gem before 25x, Blue Gem before 50x, Green Gem before 250x, Purple Gem before 1,250x, and Red Gem before 5,000x the bet.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols triggers the free spins round. During free spins, all scatters that land are collected, and every 5th one collected unlocks a new level. The free spins have 5 different levels, which are played consecutively when unlocked. For every unlocked level, players are awarded +7 free spins: Level 1 = x1 multiplier,  Level 2 = x2 multiplier, Level 3 = x4 multiplier, Level 4 = x6 multiplier, Level 5 = x8 multiplier.

The Local Jackpot feature is available in free spins, but multipliers only apply to line wins. Any scatter symbols collected in free spins which don't unlock a level are stored and carried into the base game. Hitting 2 scatter symbols in the base awards 1 of the 5 collection spots needed to unlock a new level.

Sultan Spins: Slot Verdict

One good thing about Sultan Spins is we get a slot with an Arabic influence which doesn't feature a genie anywhere. It still manages to portray Gulf countries in a fairly stereotypical way, as if everything there is coated in gold and everyone's cashed up. In saying that, the images you see of places like Dubai are often full of people flaunting expensive consumer items, sports cars, or low-digit licence plates costing ludicrous sums of money. For sure, there is a lot of dough flowing around some of those countries, but as always, not everyone's in command of it.

Sultan Spins gives gamblers the chance to possibly get their hands on dough via its relatively small pie jackpot prizes and the free spins with multiplier feature. We say small pie jackpots while having Relax Gaming's mega Dream Drop in mind. Where one is a network, Sultan Spins is localised, so naturally, it is going to be on the smaller side, though up to 5,000x or so is nothing to sneer at. Actual Sultans probably have more than that in loose change down the back of their leopard skin couch in room number 789 of their summer palace. One of their summer palaces. But Sultan Spins gives players the chance to pretend they're swimming in a level of opulence of their own in a part of the world not super commonly found in an online slot. Unless it's an Aladdin or Ali Baba slot.

So, Sultan Spins is in possession of a measure of originality, though it did feel like one of Relax Gaming's lesser games. Max win is 5,000x for line wins (and does not interact with the Jackpot feature), so the payout potential isn't bad, though questions arose around the Local Jackpot. For instance, having to be won before 5,000x is all well and good, yet how long does it take to progress to that level? 100,000 spins? Who knows. Get's tedious when a hundred spins have passed by in a blur of gold plating, and the main prize has increased by 3x. Patient types or gamblers who'd like to fantasise about taking a punt in the Gulf might be keen, but it's not hard to find more exciting alternatives in Relax Gaming's extensive back catalogue.