Book of Ra Magic Introduction

We don’t tend to cover Novomatic slots very often because, honestly, once you’ve tried one you’ve more or less seen the formula. That said, it’s not because we dislike them—quite the opposite. We’re big supporters of the classic Novo titles and still play them both online and in land-based casinos on a regular basis. All in all, this is one of the more noteworthy Novos we’ve seen in a long time, and it somehow flew completely under the radar.

As one of the most recognizable casino games ever, Book of Ra doesn’t really require a long intro, so we’ll keep it brief—especially since the main change here is simply an extra feature added to the free spins, and that addition makes a huge difference.

Alright, we’ll cut you some slack—if you’re not familiar with Book of Ra, here’s the basic setup. The game uses 5 reels, 3 rows, and up to 10 adjustable paylines. You can wager anywhere from €0.01 and €50, and it runs on a 95% RTP, which we consider to be on the low side of acceptable.

The paytable is unchanged from the original, including the 5000 times the stake top prize if you manage to hit a full screen of the Explorer symbol. Realistically, most players won’t ever see that happen. In the base game, landing 5 Explorers across a payline pays 500x, which is still a solid return—just incredibly rare.

Book of Ra Magic Free Spins

Many of you have probably already connected the dots—this is essentially Book of Ra with elements borrowed from Merkur’s Magic Mirror Deluxe II. The iGaming world is a bit amusing in that everyone copies everyone else without much shame, and with the recent launch of Book of Gods, Big Time Gaming basically did the same kind of thing Novomatic are attempting here. You could say BTG beat Novomatic at their own game. So now we effectively have three closely related options from three different providers. Which one do we like most? We’ll cover that in the summary.

If you somehow landed here by accident while looking for porn and don’t know the games mentioned above, here’s how the feature works: landing 3 or more books anywhere on the reels triggers the free spins and one symbol is selected at random. Whenever 3 or more of that chosen symbol appear, they expand to full reels and pay in any position on the active lines. If you retrigger the feature, another random symbol is added, meaning multiple symbols can expand on the same spin. In total, you can end up with as many as 9 activated symbols if the game decides to retrigger often enough.

Book of Ra Magic Conclusion

We absolutely LOVE Book of Ra, though like many Novos it can be seriously aggravating at times because it’s very high variance and plays at a fast pace. It’s also a classic, retro-style slot that will likely appeal more to dedicated slot players.

Book of Ra is already a legendary title, so does it really gain anything from this kind of tinkering? For us, the answer is yes. We see it as an upgrade, and it makes the bonus rounds far more thrilling. For instance, even if you get stuck with a weak pick like the 10’s, there’s still a chance to unlock the Explorer if a retrigger hits. And with several symbols activated, it’s easy to see how some huge dingers can happen.

The big question—what do we prefer out of Magic Mirror Deluxe II, Book of Gods, or Book of Ra Magic? We’re sure if you asked 10 different people you’d probably get 10 different opinions, but if you’re asking us, we’re going with Book of Ra Magic. With Novos you either love them or hate them, and we’re firmly in the love camp—especially when it comes to Book of Ra—so for us this is an easy pick. We’re genuinely glad to have discovered another nemesis…