Kingdoms Rise: Sands of Fury

The game comprises of 5 reels, with 3 rows each. There is also a 4th row on top, that is part of the special feature mechanics, but we’ll discuss that later. There are 20 pay lines, which are fixed and you cannot choose which you are betting on. You also can’t manipulate how many bets you want to place per line, so your total bet is always split by 20. The minimum bet that you can place is 0.10, while the maximum is a whopping 1,000. After playing the game for some time, we can rate it as mildly volatile. It also has a Return to Player (RTP) percentage of 96%, which is good, especially when considering that the game features a progressive jackpot.

Pay symbols

The pay symbols in the game all fit right into the setting. There are 4 low-value symbols that are various gems. The high-value symbols are represented by each of the 5 characters in the game. The values of all these symbols can be found in the paytable. There are also 5 different Wild symbols, appearing as gold versions of the characters. Just like Wilds in any other game, these can substitute other symbols to complete a match. There is also a special feature when these appear in their respective character’s reel.

Features

The unique feature in this game is quite neat and involves an extra row, as well as character-based reels. Each reel has a character assigned to it. If that character appears as a Wild gold tile in its reel, it gets locked into place and can remain there for several more spins. Once this has happened, the extra row at the top comes into play. For as long as the character is locked into its reel, the extra row will spin, determining what will happen next. This can result in one of the following: The Wild tile continuing to stay in its place. All tiles of that character can be turned into Wilds for the next spin. The player can win 5 re-spins, during which all character tiles are Wilds, or you could get a chain symbol, resulting in your pinned tile being released.

There is also an in-game shop, which offers microtransactions. This works with in-game gold coins that will appear, attached to symbols on the board, at random times. These go in your balance and are used to purchase bonuses from the shop. These include the Wild Beast Re-spins, which offer re-spins with several sticky Wild symbols. The other feature available on the shop is the Queen’s Ritual Bonus, which is a pick-and-click game on a special screen, with prizes such as extra picks, multipliers and cash.

Kingdoms Rise Progressive Jackpots

Every time you place a bet on a game from the Kingdoms Rise series, a small percentage of it goes to the progressive jackpot pool. The three progressive jackpots are randomly triggered:
Daily Strike Jackpot – must be won by the date and time shown.
Power Strike Jackpot – must be won before a certain threshold is reached.
Epic Jackpot – unlimited jackpot

Bottom line

Sands of Fury is an engaging game with a very neat aesthetic. The fact that it is part of a whole series of connected games that share a progressive jackpot can quickly get you invested in the franchise, so to say. The extra features are interesting and make the game exciting to play, sucking you into this magical world. The in-game shop is also an excellent addition, although part of the RTP is attributed to it.