Arabian Nights: Slot Overview
The stories found in the 1001 Arabian Nights are arguably the most famous Middle Eastern tales known in the West. Written during the Islamic Golden Age, this collection of fiction contains classics such as Alibaba and the 40 Thieves, and Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp. There are countless retellings of these timeless stories; even Walt Disney has had a crack. Now, it’s developer NetEnt’s turn, with the studio whisking players off to the hot sands of the Middle East in their progressive jackpot slot Arabian Nights.
It’s probably a good thing Arabian Nights has a jackpot attached because it would be hard to enjoy its retinal assault without it. Arabian Nights is a game that shows its age, meaning it’s not exactly nouveau. In fact, it looks a lot like an old fashioned land-based game. Still, it’s all about hitting mega sums of cash, and the graphics aren’t likely to put keen jackpot chasers off the trail. Indeed, some players might appreciate the thoroughly ‘classic’ look.
Playable on any device, bets can be selected from 10 p/c per spin, up to £/€200. For a jackpot slot, RTP is respectable, on 95.62% for local networks, or 95.22% if hooked up to the global network. Players who like constant wins on a low volatile math model will be well entertained by a high hit rate of 38.95%, so roughly every 2.5 spins will cough up some sort of reward. It might not be the big one, but Arabian Nights is capable of producing decent non-jackpot wins from its features.
As we said, the gameplay is simple, and players have 10 fixed paylines to land winners on. At least three adjacent matching symbols are needed, from the leftmost reel, to create a combination. As to the symbols, there are 10 regular pays, a wild, and a scatter to spin for the big one with. On the low side, a mosaic-ly designed 10-A royals, makes up the numbers, while the highs consist of a camel, fez, tent, slippers, and a scimitar. A little clichéd perhaps, but all well in theme. As to values, the premiums are quite high, where five on a line are worth from 15 to 200 times the stake.
Helping, in more ways than one, is the gem dealer wild. For one, it is worth up to 250 times the stake when four land on a payline. Also, the wild replaces any other symbol to make a combination and doubles the win value when it does so (though wilds do not double their own value).
Arabian Nights: Slot Features
The jackpot might be the main event but is joined by a round of free spins to add a bit of extra excitement. What you want for these is the lamp scatter symbol. Landing 2, 3, 4, or 5 lamps pays out 2x, 5x, 20x, or 200x the bet, plus three or more trigger the free spins feature. This bonus starts with 15 free spins, where the value of all wins is multiplied by x3.
It is possible to win 15 more free spins should three more scatters appear, but strangely, the additional spins do not benefit from the x3 multiplier. However, on a positive note, the wild still has the x2 multiplier when used in a win. During the first 15 free spins, at least, wild wins effectively come with an x6 multiplier. One line of scimitars (including a wild) is now worth 1,200x right there.
The wild is also pivotal to the final feature, which is, of course, the jackpot. Since the jackpot is progressive, a portion of each bet is added to the pool. On each spin, that equates to 4.5% to the global jackpot, with a seed amount of €30,000 + 10% of the contributions. There is a smaller, local jackpot, but most online casinos provide the global which offers much larger prizes. To win, it’s simple, in theory. If five wilds land on a payline, the jackpot is yours.
