The history of ancient civilisations has always been our fascination, even in the world of online slots. One of the most successful attempts of bringing one of the ancient mythologies to the reels is definitely Book of Ra Deluxe, the follow up to the original Book of Ra Novomatic slot which was also pretty impactful when it came out.

Book of Ra Deluxe transports you back in time and lets you join an archaeologist on the hunt for treasure – it really is the ultimate adventure, unless you want Indiana Jones himself to be your guide.

Our archaeologist is as close as you can get, strutting across the reels of this upgraded version of Book of Ra. We’ll get to the deluxe part in a minute.

Have you ever wished for a trip to ancient Egypt? To actually be surrounded by majestic pyramids, great pharaohs, temples and hieroglyphics instead of reading about them in encyclopaedias? Well, now is your chance. Start Book of Ra Deluxe by industry’s veteran Novomatic and you’ll be scooping forgotten treasures before you know it.

Much of the original Book of Ra was kept for authenticity, a lot of the symbols and visual elements, but their designs have been substantially improved. Once in the game, you will find yourself in a poorly lit ancient Egyptian temple, in front of a wall of hieroglyphics upon which the reels are set. Beyond these tomb-like premises you will see a sunset, a few trees here and there and a pair of pyramids in the distance.

What choice of symbols should you expect on the reels? The ones that honour Egyptian history, of course. Aside from the adventure-seeking archaeologist, the reels will be covered with symbols of pharaohs, the golden Book of Ra, Cleopatra, scarabs and sarcophagus icons. Generic card symbols will represent lower paytable values, The Book of Ra is the key to the big wins. It acts both as a Scatter and a Wild, initiating the bonus feature or substituting for regular game symbols, depending on the configuration it assumes on screen.

The game has kept a bit of its dated look, even though the graphics are polished. It gives it a certain charm, for sure. The sounds come straight from the arcade genre, just a small reminder that Novomatic released Book of Ra for land-based casinos way before it became an online all-time classic.

Book of Ra Deluxe includes a thrilling bonus game, a hidden treasure that is extremely rewarding once found. With 3 or more scattered Book of Ra symbols on the reels, the bonus is activated.

The player gets 10 free spins with a 2x multiplier applied on all the wins throughout the round. Before the gratis spins start, a random symbol will be chosen to become the Expanding Symbol for this round. Whichever symbols gets chosen will expand to cover the entire reel, increasing the winning potential. During the free spins pay-lines do not work and payouts are awarded for at least 3 card symbols showing up or at least 2 picture symbols.

Also, the Free Spins bonus round in Book of Ra Deluxe can be retriggered if you manage to get at least 3 more Scatter symbols to land at once. Even though this is not confirmed by Novomatic, it feels like re-triggering the bonus is much easier than triggering it for the first time.

Book of Ra Deluxe is available at many Canadian mobile casinos, as it also comes with a fully optimised mobile version for gamers who prefer to use their iPads, tablets, iPhones or Android smartphones to play. For this we’d recommend Rizk Casino.

Due to the old-fashioned graphics, Book of Ra Deluxe is perhaps more suited for phones rather than tablet devices. The payout percentage is higher than in the original slot, standing at 95.5%.

The variance is high, so the wins are bound to be few and far between, but considerably big when they come.

If something goes well with the audience, you don’t make a sequel unless you’re prepared to make adjustments that will elevate the game’s quality even more. Plenty of players prefer Book of Ra Deluxe to the original online game, although this one has kept a decent following, too. Book of Ra Deluxe tells a compelling story in a fairly simple way, and the improved graphics have surely helped for that story to reach more people.

It would have been nice to see another special feature here. Still, the freebies and expanding symbols make the game entertaining enough. If you’ve played Desert Dreams by Cryptologic or Sizzling Hot Deluxe, you might find similarities with this game. Also, Book of Dead?