Nile Mystery DoubleMax

Nile Mystery DoubleMax: Slot Overview

Software provider Hot Rise Games has done well from its partnership with Yggdrasil Gaming, having incorporated its big bro's GigaBlox mechanic in several of its 'Vs' slots. Now, the studio has armed itself with another one of Yggdrasil's popular devices, DoubleMax, and has come up with an Egyptian-themed version titled Nile Mystery DoubleMax. This is a slot which has a rather unique way of squeezing the infamous doubling-up win multiplier feature into its action.

The game's info describes Nile Mystery DoubleMax as combining 'the classic Egyptian theme with Steampunk', which triggered memories of Pragmatic Play's Rise of Giza PowerNudge and Thunderkick's Pyramyth. It's an intoxicating thought. Imagine the grandeur of Ancient Egypt surviving down to the present day, bolstered by technological advancement, and what the bringing together of those two things might have created. Okay, maybe something like the planet Abydos from the movie Stargate, but maybe something even more bewildering. Shame then that the only really obvious Steampunk references in Nile Mystery DoubleMax are a bunch of cogs stuck to the gaming grid. The rest is mainly standard pyramid and palms Egyptian slots stuff, pretty, but standard.

Nile Mystery DoubleMax's grid itself is made up of 5 reels and 243 ways to win. This is a highly volatile slot, with four possible RTP alternatives, defaulting at 96.1% when betting 30 c to $/€12 per spin. Regular hits occur at a rate of 31.16%, though this does not necessarily mean the win multiplier doubles every 1 in 3 spins or so, as the DoubleMax triggering method is different to the one found in slots like Raptor DoubleMax.

It's possible to hit winning combinations of 3 to 5 OAK, and there are ten different pay symbols. From the bottom up, we find J-A card ranks, then lotus jewellery, a cat, an ankh, an eye, a scarab, and a pharaoh mask. Landing 5 matching royals in a win pays around 1.33x the bet, while the others are worth approximately 2.33 to 13.33 times the bet for 5-of-a-kind. Wilds are one of the most important symbols in Nile Mystery DoubleMax, as not only do they substitute for any regular pay symbol, but they are also needed to kickstart the DoubleMax win multiplier. Wilds appear on reels 2, 3, and 4.

Nile Mystery DoubleMax: Slot Features

Like DoubleMax slots do, Nile Mystery DoubleMax has a win multiplier that doubles in value, but its entrance to the game relies on hitting a wild symbol in a certain way rather than just after every win. The resulting DoubleMax Respins are available in the base game and in free spins, which can be bought.

DoubleMax Respins

A wild symbol landing in the middle position of the center reel triggers DoubleMax Respins. A respin is awarded with all wild symbols from the triggering spin held in place. If another wild lands on a respin, another respin is triggered. The original wild symbols spin away, and the new wild symbols are held. DoubleMax Respins continue until no new wild symbols land on a respin. The win multiplier starts at x2 for the first respin and doubles on each new respin. The DoubleMax multiplier has no upper limit.

Free Spins

Scatter symbols are present on reels 1, 3, and 5. Hitting 2 scatters pays 2x the bet while hitting 3 scatters pays 5x the bet and triggers 5 free spins. DoubleMax Respins can be triggered during free spins, and the free spins round can be retriggered. During the free spins round, wild symbols are held for 2 respins when the DoubleMax Respins feature is active.

Buy Bonus

Players may choose to buy the free spins round for the cost of 50 times their stake, and the RTP is 96.3%.

Nile Mystery DoubleMax: Slot Verdict

Whether you buy in or you don't, it is always refreshing to see studios come up with inventive ways of using popular features in their games. For a while, DoubleMax slots mostly stuck to incrementing the multiplier following winning cascades and to be fair, that is a potent combination. However, like shovelling down extra plates of shrimp at a buffet not because you're hungry but to get extra value from the entrance fee, there are diminishing returns after a while. Fortunately, we've got slots like Nile Mystery DoubleMax from Hot Rise Games or Jelly's Sugar Bomb DoubleMax reviewed around the same time that is willing to hack a new trail through the DoubleMax bush to lead players along an alternative route.

Nile Mystery DoubleMax also brought back memories of Bang Bang Games' slot Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax while we're reminiscing. Like Hot Rise Games, Bang Bang Games dressed its slot up in an Egyptian wrapper while tinkering with the features to craft a DoubleMax slot with its own personality. Nile Mystery DoubleMax's personality might have shone brighter if Hot Rise Games had picked a more original theme to compliment the gameplay or hammered harder on the 'Steampunk' element. But Ancient Egypt has a grip over casino game makers like few other topics, and there are plenty of other slots out there for players over the theme.

Another tempter Nile Mystery DoubleMax lays out is winning potential of 20,000x the bet. It also felt pretty volatile, as in, a lot is riding on getting wilds to hit during a respin sequence to keep the pace moving along and the multiplier ticking higher. So much so that Nile Mystery DoubleMax might not be to the taste of players who prefer the usual winning cascade to win multiplier growth link, but it's a viable choice for gamblers looking for an alternative method.