It’s good to see you again, Charlie Chance. You can’t help but feel sorry for him, and you could even find yourself wondering why he bothers. But if you are knocked down by life, like our man Charlie has, you get yourself up, brush yourself off, and keep on living. At least he has escaped the criminal underground this time, but his luck hasn’t changed for the better. Now he’s gone off to Egypt in search of the Pharaohs’ treasure by rifling through their tombs. However, Charlie being Charlie, he has awakened Cleopatra, who is not pleased with the current state of affairs. Help Charlie restore Cleopatra to her non-mummified splendor and make a few bucks in the process without worrying about how she awoke.
Even while Curse of Cleopatra’s gameplay is very different from that of Hell To Pay and the XREELZ, many of the elements that made those games special are still there. Play’n GO has basically recreated the atmosphere of the 1930s cartoon film Betty Boop in its slot machine, Curse of Cleopatra. A 6×6 grid is located in the middle of the tomb, and wins occur when clusters of at least 5 identical symbols land next to one another. The rest of the images feature treasure chests, mummies, and skeletons, with a comical rather than sinister slant. The game’s lighthearted spirit isn’t too unlike from that of the Belgian animated Asterix and Cleopatra film from the 1960s.
Charlie Chance and the Curse of Cleopatra may be played for as little as 20 cents per spin all the way up to £/€100 per spin, and it’s available for play on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Keep an eye out for RTP values that shift with the market conditions. The desired choice has a success rate of 96.25%, whereas the less preferable ones have success rates of 94.27% or lower. Curse of Cleopatra’s math has a medium setting, rated 6 out of 10, so if you love playing the most volatile grid slots on the market, you should turn away immediately. The possibility for winning is, however, on par with that of Play’n GO’s other top-tier slots.
When a winning cluster occurs, the symbols in that cluster are removed from the grid and the cascade system replaces them with new symbols. As a result, further clusters may emerge, and so on, in a domino effect that might last until no further successes occurred. Multiple features and additional coin gains are unlocked simultaneously after a string of victories. There are a total of 8 different hieroglyphics that may be used as pay symbols, with clusters of 15 or more premium symbols paying anywhere from 20x to 500x the entire bet. When Charlie appears on the Charlie Mega Wild, he can stand in for other symbols to create a winning combination. Let’s find out which of the modifiers is the sole way he shows up.
Slot Functions for Charlie Chance and the Cleopatra’s Gold
Charlie Chance and the Curse of Cleopatra has a free spins bonus round that, once activated, awards a win multiplier and three additional modifiers. In both regular play and bonus rounds, the win multiplier will remain in effect. It begins at x1 and rises by one after every three iterations of the cascade. The maximum multiplier in the main game is x3, however it can increase to greater values in the free spins bonus round.
The Flying Scarab Wilds bonus round can occur at any time during play. When it occurs, anything from five to eight flying scarabs will circle the screen before settling on the grid. Wilds like these can replace any other icon besides the scatter.
The Serpent’s Trail bonus round can begin on any spin that does not result in a win. A snake appears on the grid as the trigger is pulled, forming a sequence of symbols. This sequence of symbols is either erased from existence or altered until it becomes the same as the original.
Cleo’s Columns is the third multiplier and it too activates on random spins. Cascaded symbols that land on these reels after activation do not synchronize with the original symbols on the reels. This is how the Charlie Mega sign can show up; it remains in place throughout the cascade, at which point the connected low-value symbols are eliminated and new symbols fill in the empty spaces. After that, Charlie Mega symbols become wild, and all winnings are awarded.
If you get 3 scatter symbols, you get 8 free spins; if you get more than 3 scatters, you get 4 more free spins for each additional scatter. Any existing win multiplier remains in effect. Similar to the original game, free spins include a win multiplier that rises after every three consecutive cascades, but it may reach a maximum of x10 and does not reset in between spins. Every free spin has Cleo’s Columns, which might trigger the Charlie Mega Symbol. Finally, up to a maximum of 150 free spins are awarded for any scatter that falls.
The Case of Charlie Chance and the Spell of Cleopatra in the Slots
Despite their superficial similarities, Play’n GO’s Curse of Cleopatra is a welcome departure for the Charlie Chance series. We’ve progressed from fast-paced 3-reel gambling to 5-reel multiplier mayhem and are now presented with a full-fledged grid slot, complete with cascades and all the other trappings of this genre. There have been two constants throughout the series: the charming 1930s aesthetic, and Charlie Chance’s ever-changing luck.
If you had to choose just one game for Charlie to try his luck at, this wouldn’t be it. Curse of Cleopatra has the least promising range of the three. The maximum payout of 5,500x the wager puts it on pace with other popular Play’n GO grid slots like Reactoonz and its sequel, Reactoonz 2. Although the gameplay doesn’t break any new ground in comparison to other Play’n GO titles, Charlie Chance and the Curse of Cleopatra also doesn’t have any major flaws.
Curse of Cleopatra has a lot going for it, unless you’re a grid slot thug who needs a super-tightly wound mathematical model to get massive winnings. The seamless mechanics, upbeat, slightly bizarre graphics, and interchangeable components make it simple to tag along with Charlie on his quest for wealth.