Collector features are all the rage in modern online slots. This feature allows players a new way to win on top of classic paylines, resulting in extra excitement and (hopefully) big winnings. However, we have yet to see Relax Gaming try their hand at this particular style of online slots. At least until 2024, when Sultan Spins finally saw the light of day.
The Sultan Spins online slot takes on a kind of Middle Eastern theme, as the name implies. However, it’s not the usual One Thousand and One Nights type of look that most slot games go with. No, these are modern sultans, complete with big, gold-plated cars and glass wall skyrises. There’s really not much to it, though the game looks nice in a bright, gilded sort of way.
No, the really interesting parts of Sultan Spins from Relax Gaming are its features. There are two main components, broadly speaking: the cash collector symbols and the progressive jackpot. Mind you, this isn’t a classic progressive slot in the usual way. Jackpots can grow as you play, but they’re only affected by your gameplay and don’t include a true pot. However, they’re an interesting addition that rewards persistent players.
If any of that piqued your interest, strap in for the Casino Bloke’s review of Sultan Spins.
The core gameplay is a classic online slot with a 5×4 board layout and 40 active paylines. You win the usual way, by hitting 3 or more matching symbols along the paylines. The game contains 9 regular symbols of varying value. 4 of them can be considered low-paying, 4 of them are middle pays, and the Sultan himself stands out as the highest-paying regular icon.
That said, Wilds symbols are also in the game, and they can substitute for any other symbol. Additionally, Wilds act as very high-paying symbols themselves if you manage to hit 3 or more of them along a payline.
Anyway, the five types of Jackots can be seen above the reels. There are five of them in total, divided into five colours. The grey and blue Jackpots are the smallest, while the red one in the middle is the biggest initial pot.
These jackpots grow in size as you play. Every time you hit a gem symbol on the reels, the corresponding jackpot increases by the size of your stake. For instance, a blue gem only increases the blue jackpot, and so on. Importantly, gems work anywhere on the board, so the reel they appear on is not important.
However, once the pots have been updated, the gem turns into something else. Mostly, it turns into a random regular symbol, and it can form winning lines if you’re lucky. However, it can also turn into a Wild symbol. Wilds created this way spread to cover their entire reel, making them much more powerful.
Alternatively, the Gem can also reveal a Jackpot Spin – the only way to actually win one of the jackpots. When this happens, a small reel appears in the middle of the screen and spins to determine which jackpot you’ve won. Obviously, bigger pots are harder to hit, while smaller ones appear more times on the jackpot reel.
Lastly, the Sultan Spins slot game also contains a bonus round. It’s triggered the usual way – by hitting 3 Bonus symbols anywhere on the reels. You initially get 7 of them.
However, the free spins in Sultan Spins are also sort of progressive. Durgin the bonus round, every time you hit a Bonus symbol it’s “collected”. If you collect 5 bonus symbols this way, you increase the level of the bonus round.
Every time you increase the bonus round level, you receive 7 additional free spins. Moreover, a win multiplier appears on every bonus level excluding the first. Basically, the multiplier grows as the bonus levels increase. It starts as 1x, then grows to 2x on level 2, 4x on level 3, 6x on level 4, and caps out at 8x on level 5.
As you would expect, this win multiplier increases all your winnings for the rest of the bonus round.
As mentioned above, there are 9 base symbols in this game. The classic card symbols are low-paying, as usual, and all four of them are equally valuable. Specifically, they pay 0.4x, 1x, and 2.5x for lines of 3, 4, and 5, respectively. Pretty good for a volatile game such as this. However, mid-paying symbols vary in value, paying between 0.8x and 1.4x for 3-symbol combinations, or between 12x and 20x for 5 symbols.
The Jackpots all increase at basically the same rate. One gem only increases the corresponding pot by 1x, no matter how big your stake is. However, they all start off at different points, and have different maximum values. Here are the jackpots of Sultan Spins, ranked in terms of value:
Sultan Spins slots have 96.10% RTP, which is just above average. The progressive nature of this game implies that the RTP improves the more you play on a particular stake level. However, according to Relax Gaming, the RTP averages out on 96.10%.
Sultan Spins is far from Relax Gaming’s best work, but there’s plenty here to sink your teeth into.
For starters, we know that many players will love the quasi-progressive jackpots. They don’t have the usual charm (or massive rewards) of pots that are increased by thousands of players, but they work well enough. The problem is that hitting gems is quite rare, which means the jackpots don’t really grow that much or very quickly. We reckon it would take an inordinate amount of time to actually reach the maximum.
As such, the main attraction to this game is kind of a letdown. The rest of the features are all good and fun, but they’re a bit basic.
Still, there is still plenty of fun to be had with Relax Gaming Sultan Spins. After all, the 5,000x max payout is nothing to sneeze at, nor is the 96.10% RTP.