“What animal has four legs but can also change to two legs and three legs?” It was said that the Sphinx defending the Ancient Greek city of Thebes addressed this question to any would-be guests. Those who correctly identified the species as “man” would be granted access to the metropolis. Those who didn’t make the cut were not only turned away at the door; they met a violent end. According to legend, the Sphinx committed herself by jumping off a cliff when Oedipus gave the proper answer to her riddle. She met the same fate that he did in the end. Thankfully, Red Tiger’s Riddle of the Sphinx isn’t as preachy as other traditional tales and legends.
Neither is it strictly Greek. In its place, Riddle of the Sphinx looks to the Egyptians, who also had their own renowned Sphinx. Perhaps it would have been more creative to base a slot on the Theban version, which is less well-known than the Egyptian one. The ancient desert areas have an undeniable allure for video game creators, and there you have it. Since supply can’t exist without demand, it’s safe to assume that many gamers share your enthusiasm. Riddle of the Sphinx isn’t really a must-see, so it’s best if you’re already interested in the subject matter to begin with if you want to get the most out of it.
A 5-reel, 20-payline grid hovers above the Egyptian dunes in the early morning or late afternoon in Riddle of the Sphinx, a visually appealing slot machine game. The time of day is up to the player. There isn’t a jumble of broken, uneven stone here. Here you see the pyramids in all their former beauty, when their summits were gilded with electrum or gold. The remaining masonry was similarly clad in limestone, which must have looked amazing in its day. Riddle of the Sphinx has a familiar music to go along with its familiar visual, with bleeps and bloops thrown in here and there to give it more of a physical slot feel.
Bets range from 10 pence to £/€10 each spin, and riddling may be done on any device. In this far-flung voyage, the mathematical model is highly unstable; nonetheless, like oasis in the desert, there are a few features that appeared frequently during simulations. Although it’s unlikely that it would rain in the desert, the theoretical default RTP value is 95.66 percent. The paytable has 9 different symbols, with the lower-paying 10-A card images paying out for 3 or more and the higher-paying symbols paying out for 2 or more appearing in a row. Riddle of the Sphinx uses standard slot machine imagery for its reels, including the high-paying ankhs, hand-fans, eyeballs, and scarabs that award 15–50 times the wager for 5 of a kind wins.
The Sphinx and Its Slot Machine Features
The Pharaoh symbol, which measures 1×2, serves as the wild. When it does, anything to its left and right becomes wild as well. This is the Dynasty wild, which appears at any time but is very often during free games.
Get the Pharaoh free spins bonus by getting scatter symbols on reels 1, 3, and 5. To increase the likelihood of this happening, the Pharaoh Free Spins symbol staying in position after landing during a spin is locked in place. This also prevents any fresh scatters from appearing.
Before the game begins, players can select from four different variations of free spins. They all provide a varying amount of bonus spins and multipliers. The first three provide a multiplier of 8, 4, or 2 and a total of 6, 12, or 24 free spins. The fourth choice is a mystery selection, and it can result in any of the free spins and multipliers listed above. During the bonus round, wilds carry the associated multiplier. The multiplier is applied to the total of each winning combination that contains a wild. Finally, the value does not rise when there are many wilds.
Solving the Sphinx’s Mysterious Slot Machine
Riddle of the Sphinx is surprisingly straightforward for a game centered around puzzles. The game’s mechanics are simple: to play, you just hit the play button and hope for Pharaoh free spins, during which the game’s multipliers may really shine. There are Dynasty wilds to spice up the main game along the road, but they frequently appear in the upper right corner of the grid and don’t contribute anything. They might occasionally string together a respectable victory, just enough to keep you afloat.
The best way to win big in this game is to take use of the Pharaoh’s free spins feature. They also pose a problem, as do most multi-option incentives like those seen in games like Blueprint Gaming. Should you play it safe with a 2x multiplier for 24 spins (there’s a lot of free spins, after all) or go all-in with 8x and cross your fingers that the 6 free spins produce some kind of miracle? No matter what you pick, you might win up to 8,002 times your initial bet.
Red Tiger has a few slots with an Egyptian theme, although it has been a while since they introduced one. Egyptian games are often easily forgotten after a single playthrough. Perhaps the only one they’ve planned to fit into a grid slot is Vault of Anubis. After giving it a few goes, you may as well write off Riddle of the Sphinx as just another disposable game. Though it’s entertaining enough during play and has some nice extras, this slot won’t leave much of an impression once the session is finished unless you strike it big.