The Cursed King: Slot Overview

Hacksaw Gaming sibling studio Backseat Gaming has pulled out the archaeology tools and headed for Ancient Egypt to create the online slot The Cursed King. In the slots world, an Ancient Egyptian-themed title is almost unavoidable sooner or later. Many developers eventually take a swing at a Book of Ra-style game, complete with expanding specials and similar tricks. The Cursed King does include expanding symbols, but here they’re expanding wilds that can sometimes walk. There’s no pay-anywhere expanding symbol mechanic, so this isn’t a ‘book of’ slot.

Even so, it’s unmistakably an Ancient Egypt slot, and the theme is crystal clear throughout. Expect the usual touches: a blazing brazier, stone structures, statues, carvings, a suitably exotic flowing soundtrack, and more. Hieroglyphs cover the walls, though they look a bit rough around the edges—more like quickly scratched stone graffiti than carefully crafted messages meant to last forever. A minor detail, but worth noting. Set inside a stone frame sits The Cursed King’s 5-reel game grid, with 5 rows on each reel, and a total of 19 paylines used to calculate wins.

To form a winning combination, at least 3 matching symbols must land on consecutive reels starting from the leftmost reel. The game comes in two RTP versions, with the default set at 96.31%; in both configurations, volatility is medium-high (4/5) and the hit rate is 26.02%. Players can wager from 10 c to $/€100 per spin, and the feature buy menu provides three optional ways to play.

Looking at the payout details reveals the 10 to A low card ranks, which return 1 to 1.5 times the bet for a 5 OAK win. The premium symbols are a bit harder to identify, but appear to include a swirling jewellery item, a scorpion-like symbol, a scarab-style object, a jar-shaped icon, and a winged bird. Whatever they’re meant to be, they’re nicely designed and pay 4 to 10 times the bet for 5 OAK. Wilds replace all standard pay symbols and can land anywhere, paying 10x the bet for a 5 wild winning line.

The Cursed King: Slot Features

The feature set is fairly modest, made up of Cursed King Wild Reels, a free spins bonus round, plus the feature buy options.

Cursed King Wild Reels

If a Pharaoh symbol lands and there is at least one winning combination on the grid, it expands into a Cursed King Wild Reel carrying a multiplier of x2 to x100. Cursed King Wild Reels substitute for every other symbol on the paytable. Any win that includes a Cursed King is multiplied by its multiplier, and when a win contains more than one Cursed King, the multiplier values are added together before being applied.

Free Spins Bonus Game

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game awards 3, 4, or 5 free spins, respectively. Whenever Cursed Kings are visible, respins are granted, and these do not count towards the number of free spins. On each respin, all expanded Cursed King Wild Reels on screen move a step to either the left or right onto a neighbouring reel. When 2 Cursed Kings move into each other, they merge and combine their multipliers. If a Cursed King shifts beyond the left or right edge of the grid, it is removed from the reels. Scatters do not appear in free spins.

Feature Buy

By pressing the Buy Bonus button, players can choose from these three buy options; all are highly volatile:

• BonusHunt FeatureSpins – 2x the bet where each spin is 3 times more likely to trigger a bonus game. RTP 96.3%.
• Cursed Kings FeatureSpins – 50x the bet where each spin guarantees at least 1 Pharoah symbol lands. Respins as long as any Cursed King remains on the grid. RTP 96.29%.
• Bonus Game – 125x the bet buys a free spins round triggered by 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols. RTP 96.26%.

The Cursed King: Slot Verdict

The Cursed King is another Backseat Gaming title that’s genuinely enjoyable, yet feels like it’s missing one key ingredient that could have elevated it to something special. The studio often delivers good-looking slots across different themes, pairing them with a solid feature or two, but sometimes without the knockout element that would push them from decent-to-very-good into truly top-tier. That said, The Cursed King has plenty going for it. Expanding multiplier wilds are a strong addition and can turn even a single base game spin into something big—an approach that worked wonders for Pragmatic Play and Hacksaw Gaming in major hits like Zeus vs Hades and Wanted Dead or a Wild, respectively. On top of that, letting Cursed King Wilds roam around the grid at certain moments is an even stronger twist. Because respins are awarded whenever a Cursed King is visible during the bonus, an initial set of 3-5 free spins can end up running far longer than you might expect.

Still, there was a lingering sense that The Cursed King lacked something that might have helped it reach the next level. It’s hard to pin down exactly what. Maybe additional side mechanics, like Stakelogic used in Gods of Death, which also featured a walking full-reel wild? Or perhaps a more distinctive spin on the theme? Not that the Ancient Egyptian styling here is poorly done. It could also be that, because Backseat Gaming is closely associated with Hacksaw Gaming (the same UI, for instance), players may expect the kind of inventive fireworks typical of a Hacksaw slot—so the more straightforward gameplay in The Cursed King can feel slightly underwhelming by comparison.

That doesn’t mean The Cursed King is a weak game in any way. It looks the part, its 12,500x max win is available across all game modes, and the features do their job well. Maybe we were simply expecting too much, because Ancient Egyptian fans and/or anyone who enjoys full reel walking wild mechanics should be happy with what’s on offer.