John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen Demo
John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen Slot Review
The legendary John Hunter is back for more action on the reels of Pragmatic Play’s latest release, John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen!
After exploring Da Vinci’s Treasure in the original release, John Hunter enters his next phase of exploration in the Egyptian Tombs of the Scarab Queen. As you make your way through the dark and dusty tunnels of the tomb, you will unearth riches to the tune of 10,500x your bet.
As you spin the reels, Money symbols will potentially increase in value, expand, or respin via the Collect Feature. During Free Spins, the last spin gives you the chance to win the accumulated value of all Money symbols for big payouts.
Many players may not have the luxury of visiting Egypt, but they can do so many times throughout slot releases like this one. The Egyptian slot theme has become a reliable genre for software developers, covering a whole array of Egyptian Gods and their unique powers.
One provider with quite an extensive coverage of this particular genre is Play’n GO, in games like Book of Dead, Legacy of Dead, and Rich Wilde and the Amulet of Dead, to name a few. With many other options to choose from, how will John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen fare against them? Let’s find out.
Base Game & Features
John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen is a 6-reel, 3-row Video Slot with 25 fixed pay lines. Winning combinations occur when 3, 4, or 5 matching symbols land on adjacent reels. starting from reel 1.
The highest-paying symbol falls to John Hunter, followed by Anubis, the belt, the satchel, and A, K, Q, & J card suits. Each of the 8 paytable symbols has a fixed payout between 0.2x and 32x your bet.
Additionally, Wild symbols appear on reels 2-5, substituting for all symbols except Scatter, Money, and Collect symbols. Lastly, Pyramid Scatters are available on reels 2, 3, and 4, awarding a fixed payout of 1x your bet for 3-of-a-kind.
Money Collect Feature
The Money Collect feature triggers when 1 of the 5 Collect symbols lands on reel 5, along with 1 or more Money symbols. In this round, Money symbols with values between 1x and 35x your bet appear on reels 1-4. Furthermore, there are up to 5 Collect symbols available:
- Collect: Acts as a standard collect symbol, gathering all visible Money symbols on the reels of the current spin
- Extra Collect: The current value of all Extra Collect symbols, between 2x and 25x your bet, is added to visible Money symbols before being collected
- Multiplier Collect: Multiplies the current Money symbols in view by x2, x3, x5, x10, or x25 at random
- Expanding Collect: All reels containing at least 1 Money symbol will expand to reveal more, taking on the current value of the original money symbol
- Respin Collect: All visible money symbols are held on the reels, while remaining positions respin to potentially reveal additional Money symbols
John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen Free Spins
Triggering the Free Spins mode requires 3 Pyramid Scatters to land on reels 2, 3, & 4 in the base game, awarding 8 Free Spins.
During this mode, the Money Collect feature is active. Throughout spins, the value of all Money symbols is added to a special Bonus Pot to the right of the reel set. At the end of Free Spins, the total value of the Bonus Pot is returned to the reels in the form of a giant symbol.
One final Respin is awarded, whereby players have the chance to win the contents of the Bonus Pot by landing a Collect symbol on reel 5. Finally, landing 3 Scatters will award an additional +8 Free Spins.
Our Honest Verdict
John Hunter has become something of an iconic figure in the world of Pragmatic Play releases, acting as head of the table, similar to Play’n GO’s Rich Wilde and ELK Studios’ Kane, but perhaps more popular than both of them thanks to Pragmatic Play’s reach within the iGaming industry.
We’re coming to you now, many years after the release of this game, and John Hunter has outshone multiple Explorer series from different software developers; however, the rivalry between Rich Wilde, Kane, and John Hunter continues to this day.
It’s safe to say there’s no shortage of John Hunter titles, with some more appealing and rewarding than others. Some of the later releases utilise the Megaways & Book mechanics, while others focus on a Money Collection feature, as seen here.
Is John Hunter & the Tomb of the Scarab Queen their biggest hit yet? Probably not, but it’s a particularly memorable one around the time it was originally released. These days, with modern technology and advances, this game would have been laughed off the screen.
What’s great about this game is that Pragmatic Play used this as a base to continue the legacy of John Hunter, to now, where he’s recognised as a celebrity of sorts on the iGaming market.
All in all, John Hunter & the Scarab Queen wouldn’t have made our top 10 today, but it could have been a top choice back then. This game laid solid foundations for later titles, which to flourish in this day and age.
*The images found in this slot review are currently from Demo Play. On average, our reviews are written prior to the initial release date and before real play is available.
