King of Kings (Relax Gaming): Review

Ah yes, the classic “Book” slots—apparently nobody is ready to move on from them. And if you’ve never liked this style of game, King of Kings won’t be the title that changes your mind, so you may as well spend your time elsewhere. On the surface, there isn’t much that immediately grabs attention, aside from the possibly borderless reels. As usual, you’re looking at 5 reels and 3 rows. The paylines, though, have been reduced to just 5, which is half of what you’ll find in the Novomatic and Play’n GO takes on the formula. An odd decision, we have to admit.

In terms of presentation, it gives off strong Book of Gods (Big Time Gaming) energy. The reels sit inside an open oasis temple, with Horus statues standing on both sides, while dunes and an imposing pyramid fill the background. The base game includes 9 standard symbols. Spinning brings up low-value blue, green, yellow, orange, and red scarab gems, alongside higher-paying Egyptian gods. These are (from lowest to highest) Bastet – the cat goddess, Anubis – the symbol of regeneration, and Horus – protector of the Egyptian ruler. The highest regular symbol is a cartoon-like Tutankhamun—landing 5 on a payline pays 200 times your stake.

The golden Ankh acts as both wild and scatter, substituting for all symbols on the reels – 2, 3, 4 or 5 wilds on a payline award 2, 20, 200 or 1000 times your stake respectively.

King of Kings (Relax Gaming): Featured

Compared to its Novomatic and Play’n GO counterparts, the base game here actually includes a mechanic called the Bonus Symbol Re-Spin feature. It can (but doesn’t always) trigger when you fall short of landing the third scatter. In practice, it mirrors the bonus: you receive 1 free spin with a randomly selected expanding symbol, giving you a shot at up to 1000 times your total stake in the main game if you manage to hit a full screen of Tutankhamun‘s.

The more notable variation comes in the Free Spins feature, which activates when you land 3 or more wild scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. You begin with 10 spins, and the play area expands to 6 reels. Beyond the extra reel, it functions the same way as the Re-Spin feature—one symbol is chosen as the special bonus symbol, expanding to cover the reels when you land 3 low-value symbols or 2 premium symbols respectively. With 6 reels active, the maximum potential rises to 5000 times your stake for a single spin. The theoretical overall max win is much higher than that, though, and Relax Gaming’s fact sheet notes that wins exceeding 10,000x have been recorded.

King of Kings (Relax Gaming): Verdict

Don’t go in expecting a deeply mystical storyline or anything particularly layered in King of Kings. At heart, it remains a fairly straightforward, one-note “book” slot that, even with its tweak, doesn’t really offer a fresh spin on the idea. And we have to say it—the 6th reel feels about as useful as a dead camel in the desert, because ultimately it still boils down to the usual potential. Put differently, it’s mainly there to create a sense of added value, much like when developers switch to 4 rows instead of 3 but still cap you at 20 paylines.

The Re-Spin feature is decent enough, although it likely means something else had to give to accommodate it—like a lower bonus hit rate or more dead spins between Re-Spins. It could even help explain the small number of paylines. Either way, it doesn’t feel essential. The book format has been proven for years, and there’s a reason it remains so popular. King of Kings isn’t a poor slot—if anything, it’s a solid attempt. But in the end, it mostly just makes us want to load up Book of Dead/Ra instead.