Mighty Sphinx Pokies Review

When it comes to online slot games, Mighty Sphinx is a particularly memorable title. Originating in Thunderkick’s creative cauldron, this slot is the second in the company’s legendary Beat the Beast series of slot games. Thunderkick announced a total of five instalments, and, in the developer’s own words, each game aims at “brave players.” 

The number one in the series took courageous punters on an underwater adventure to battle the mystical Kraken in Kraken’s Lair. The second game, which we’re looking at here, takes the opposite approach and focuses on the sands of Egypt. The symbology pays homage to this ancient civilisation and welcomes those that managed to survive the multi-tentacled horror from the deep. 

Mighty Sphinx Game Overview

If you’ve played the first game in the series, Kraken’s Lair, you’ll instantly notice numerous similarities between it and the sequel. When it comes to the differences, the most obvious ones are those involving the game’s colours and symbols and the background. The overall setup is also identical, with nine paylines, three rows, and five reels.

Thunderkick has kept the bet range the same, meaning players can wager between 10c and $100 per spin. We found it interesting that this game doesn’t involve as much unpredictability as advertised by the developer. The company claims that their goal with the series included producing classic games with modern twists. 

While the graphics are classic and modern, playing Mighty Sphinx isn’t as immersive as Kraken’s Lair. Much of the difference is analogous gameplay, but this aspect isn’t too detracting. The paytable features the usual recipe in terms of available symbols, meaning you’ll see low, medium, and high pay tiles. 

The low pays are 10-A royals, and the Khopesh Sword, Ankh, the scarab, and the Sphinx statute represent the medium pays. The winged Sphinx is the high payer, worth 250x the stake if you successfully land five of these symbols.

When you’re looking to form winning combinations, look for a minimum of three of a kind for low pays. On the other hand, you’ll only need two matching symbols for the medium and high pays. The Sphinx Emblem is the final symbol and acts as both the scatter and the wild. While serving as the wild, it can be a substitute for all other characters in the game. 

Additionally, a highly volatile mathematics model powers this game with a 96.14% RTP. If you’re a statistician keeping score, this game’s volatility is 0.02% higher than Kraken’s Lair.

Game Features

In all fairness, the overall lightweight features indicate that the developer wanted this game to represent an old-school slotting experience. However, this aspect doesn’t make Mighty Sphinx any less of a game. 

For example, the Mystery feature might trigger randomly on any spin during the base game. Once you activate this feature, you’ll see up to three Sphinx Emblems wilds/scatters on any reel randomly at the beginning of a spin. Depending on whether you get two, three, or five Sphinx Emblems, you’re looking at a 2x, 20x, and a 200x payout. 

If you see three golden Sphinx Emblems appear in view anywhere across the reels, you’ll have triggered the Free Spins feature, starting with ten spins. Between one and three golden Emblems appear randomly on the wheels at the beginning of every spin. If you see three Emblems, they award players with five extra spins, which is half of what you could get in Kraken’s Lair. You can also activate the Wild Upgrade feature if you retrigger the free spins. The Wild Upgrade transforms one mid-pay symbol into a wild.

Overall Impression

On the one hand, there is absolutely nothing terrible about Mighty Sphinx as a standalone slot game. It’s decent, fun, and works well. On the other hand, when you observe this title through the prism of its predecessor in the series, you might feel somewhat disappointed. However, much of the potential disappointment has more to do with the human psyche than the actual game’s quality.

Generally speaking, it’s human nature to expect a more considerable experience from sequels of any kind. This expectation stems from the pressure that producers find themselves under to outdo the original. Such situations occur in every industry imaginable, from books and movies to casino games. 

However, we applaud Mighty Sphinx for daring to go smaller. Thanks to exciting features, a fearful character, and excellent potential, the Beat the Beast series kicked off well with Kraken’s Lair. In comparison, the sequel is somewhat lightweight, and most of the initial aspects are either toned down or identical. Some of these aspects include the features, looks, and the maximum payout – one of the crucial considerations for most players. 

In other words, the payout amount is lower than Kraken’s Lair and stands at 4,444x the stake. Therefore, you won’t find incredibly compelling reasons to play Mighty Sphinx – unless you’re in love with the concept of beating beasts in slot games. Conversely, there are also no significant reasons not to enjoy this title.

Final Verdict

As a whole, Thunderkick creates exciting and quality slot games. However, we couldn’t shake the feeling that something held the company back when developing Mighty Sphinx. The hyped Beast series is an excellent chance to throw down the gauntlet to the big guys by cutting loose, making the somewhat lacking sequel a missed opportunity. 

We hope that this slot title is merely a case of shifting down a gear to prepare for a nitrous boost. At best, the Beast series’s mysterious plan is to take players somewhere wonderful and weird before knocking their socks off. If this is true, then we’re at the edge of our seats, anticipating what’s next after Mighty Sphinx.

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