Blaze Of Ra Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Blaze Of Ra Review

Ancient Egypt is a subject that fascinates most of us, and as a slot game theme, its popularity is as enduring as the pyramids themselves. There must be hundreds if not thousands of ancient Egyptian-themed games out there, ranging from outstanding to forgettable. Push Gaming’s 2017 release, Blaze of Ra, is certainly one of the better ones. This 5 x 4 reel, 40 payline slot pays tribute to Ra, the ancient Egyptian deity of the sun. Instantly recognizable by his falcon head atop a man’s body, Ra was known as the ruler of the sky, the earth, and the underworld. To the ancient Egyptians, Ra was regarded as creator of the universe and the source of life, and this made him one of the most worshipped of all the Egyptian gods.

Ra presides over the reels, observing proceedings, with a group of pyramids visible in the background, and clouds of dust billowing across the scene. The game’s haunting, desert-swept soundtrack leaves you in no doubt which ancient civilisation you’re in.

While Ra himself cuts a mighty imposing figure, overall, this isn’t the most visually impressive ancient Egpytian slot you’ll ever lay eyes on. Its RTP of 96.4% and medium-high variance are nothing out of the ordinary. So, why is this game such a hit with players. The answer lies in the simple but compelling mechanics that make it so entertaining to play. As the Wild symbol, Ra plays a central role in both of the game’s features.

The Nudging Wilds feature doesn’t promise wins, but its presence makes the base game experience a whole lot more exciting than it would otherwise be. Of course, the main attraction is Free Games, because when you succeed in unlocking this feature, the wealth of ancient Egypt is within your grasp. With its 3 locked Wild Reels, each spin in Free Games guarantees a win, and if luck is with you, these can be spectacularly rewarding.

Reels Screen

Game Symbols

Blaze of Ra has a total of 12 symbols: 10 regular symbols comprising 6 of high value and 4 of low value, a Wild, and a Scatter. Our main man Ra is the Wild symbol, which is the top paying symbol. Landing 3 or more Scatters is how you gain access to the Free Games feature where the real magic happens. This is what the Blaze of Ra paytable tells us.

• Wild - Pays 50x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Bastet (cat god) - Pays 20x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Anubis (dog god) - Pays 15x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Ankh Cross - Pays 10x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Sceptre - Pays 7.5x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Eye of Horus - Pays 5x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Lotus Flower - Pays 2.5x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Ace and King - Pay 1.25x total stake for 5 on a payline
• Queen and Jack - Pay 1x total stake for 5 on a payline

What are the bonus features?

Blaze of Ra has two bonus features. These are Nudging Wilds in the Base Game, and Free Games.

Nudging Wilds

We enjoy slots that have a Base Game feature of some kind. The Base Game is where you spend most of your time, and when you have a frequent event that can shake things up a little, it makes gameplay that much more exciting.

This is what Nudging Wilds is all about. It doesn’t guarantee a win, and most of the payouts may be on the smallish side (with some notable exceptions), but it adds plenty of value to the Blaze of Ra experience. The feature is triggered when one or more Ra symbols land on the top two positions on one or more reels. You’re left in no doubt when this happens, because Ra slams his sceptre down with great force when the wilds land, and as they nudge down the reels by two positions per spin, instead of spinning with the other reels. The feature ends when the Wilds have disappeared off the reels, but fear not - this is a frequently occurring feature, and you won’t have to wait long before Ra, with another mighty thunk of his sceptre, announces that Nudging Wilds are in play again. It’s possible to have Nudging Wilds making their way down more than one reel at the same time, and when this happens, you have a great chance of bagging excellent wins.

Free Games

Of course, Free Games is where the money is.

Landing 3 or more scarab Scatters triggers the feature. Each of the triggering symbols reveals either a 1 or a 2, and these are added up to determine the number of spins awarded during the feature. Neither through online research, nor during several extended gameplay sessions, were we able to confirm the maximum number of spins that can be awarded. The best we managed was 5, excluding additional spins triggered by landing Scatters during the feature. In theory, double that should be possible if you trigger the feature with 5 Scatters. While it awards a relatively low number of spins, what makes this Free Games feature so much better than most is its Wild Reels. Reels 1, 3 and 5 are Wild throughout, which means that a win is guaranteed on every spin.

To make the most of this, you need to land high rather than low value symbols on reels 2 and 4. In conducting research for this review, we triggered Free Games a total of 8 times. The lowest we exited the feature with was around 40x our triggering stake, and the highest, as detailed in the 200 spin test a little further on, was a marvellous 250x. Clearly, the winning potential on offer here is as vast as the desert itself. Another plus is that more often than not, further Scatters land during Free Games. Each Scatter awards an additional 1 or 2 spins.

How to play

There’s no upskilling required before you can start playing Blaze of Ra. It is a simple game, and even if you aren’t familiar with how slots work, you’ll soon get a feel for it. Here are some things to consider before you set off into the desert.

• As always, the first thing we recommend is deciding upfront what your session budget is. When you have a number you’re comfortable with in mind, and you know more or less how long you want to play for, you’ll be able to decide what would be a good bet size per spin.
• Click the upward arrow to the right of the Total Bet panel on the console to open the bet selection box. With 12 bet size options, ranging from 0.20 to 100 credits, Blaze of Ra caters for all budget sizes. Once you have selected your amount, close the Bet selection box to return to the game. Your Total Bet amount remains visible on the console at all times, and you can change it at any point during your session.
• Next, we’d recommend a visit to the paytable, so that you know which are the important symbols, and what the payouts are. To access the paytable, click the leftmost button on the console. Hats off to Push Gaming for investing in the extra little bit of development time required to make this a dynamic paytable: the symbol payouts on the paytable automatically adjust when you change your bet size, so you always know exactly how much you stand to win. Other games providers, please take note - this is how you make players’ lives easier and improve the gameplay experience!
• To win, at least 3 matching symbols need to land on one of the game’s 40 paylines. The symbols must be on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel. To check the payline patterns, scroll down to the bottom of the paytable.
• You’re set.

  

  The spin button is hard to miss, but you may find that clicking it repeatedly starts to feel too much like hard work. This is why Autoplay exists. Hit the Autoplay button (directly to the left of Spin) to open the Autoplay panel, and choose your preferred number of spins, loss limit and single win limit. We’d recommend setting a loss limit as this encourages responsible gaming, and we’re all for that. Win limit comes in handy if you want to see the combinations that delivered your most significant wins.
• If gameplay feels a little slow, or you only have time for a quick session, you can click the Settings button to activate Turbo Mode. This makes everything happen a whole lot faster.
• The Nudging Wilds feature is triggered when 1 or more Ra symbols land on the top two positions on one or more reels. These symbols nudge down by 2 positions per spin instead of spinning with the other reels, until the Wilds have disappeared off the reels.
• Free Games is where you want to be. You need 3 or more scarab Scatters to trigger the feature. When you achieve this, each scatter reveals a 1 or a 2. These numbers are added up to determine the number of spins awarded. During the feature, reels 1, 3 and 5 are filled with Stacked Wilds, and this guarantees a winning experience.

Free Spins Gameplay Screen

Where to Play Blaze of Ra?

By reading this far, you’ve already done your due diligence. It must surely be time to get playing. Whether you play the demo version or go straight for the real money experience is up to you, but whichever you choose, look no further than this site.

Play for real money

If you’re ready to play for real, we recommend one of these licensed casinos Play Blaze of Ra for real money.

Play free demo version

You may of course want to check out the game itself before committing to playing with real money. The demo version will give you a good idea whether you’re ready to dig into your wallet. You can play the Blaze of Ra demo for free right here on Slot Catalog.

The 200 Spins Blaze of Ra Experience

As is true of any slot, you need to play Blaze of Ra for an extended period to develop a sense of what the game offers. We don’t have that luxury though, because as with all the games we review on Slot Catalog, we’re going to put Blaze of Ra through a 200 spin test and see what comes out. While 200 spins aren’t anywhere near enough to provide insights of statistical value, it is enough to form a first impression of the game. Here’s ours.

The first thing we do is set our wager. To keep things simple for the purpose of this test, we opt for a bet size of 1 credit per spin.

The Base Game experience is defined by the Nudging Wilds feature. We soon find ourselves willing it to trigger every time we spin the reels, and the great thing about this feature is that it does occur often - we counted 23 triggers over 200 spins. On the downside, the feature doesn’t guarantee wins, and when it does result in wins, these are typically not very significant. Nudging Wilds granted us only 3 wins greater than 10x our bet, of which the highest was 18.7x.

The sense of anticipation around Free Games is quite something. When 2 Scatters have landed, the game sounds soar in volume, and if a third Scatter doesn’t land, the sense of anticlimax is acute. This happens to us twice. Flying through our budget, we’re starting to wonder if we’re actually going to be able to tell Slot Catalog readers about the Free Games experience when, after 183 spins, we land that third Scatter. And boy, is it worth the wait. Thanks to the Stacked Wilds on reels, 1, 3 and 5, every spin is a winner. We land another Scatter during the feature, and the extra spin it awards us proves decisive: we score a Super Mega Win of 144.35x our bet. Along with our other (somewhat less spectacular but still decent) feature wins, this sees us exiting Free Games with almost 250x our triggering bet. Wow!

You’ve got to love the randomness of slots, and the fact that the margins between winning and losing can be so fine. Just 17 of our 200 spins remained when we finally triggered Free Games. And it was only on the last spin of the feature that our bonus experience went from pretty good to outstanding. We finish our 200 spin trial with a balance that is 146.05 credits higher than what we started out with.

Review Summary

Ancient Egypt offers rich potential for magnificent game graphics. In comparison to the outstanding art seen in some of Push Gaming’s other titles, Blaze of Ra falls a little short in terms of aesthetic appeal. Ra himself cuts an imposing figure, but overall the art feels flat, and this makes the gameplay experience that little bit less immersive than it might have been. That said, if you ask players what’s more important, a game’s art or the engine that drives it, most would say the engine - and this is where Blaze of Ra comes into its own. The Nudging Wilds feature ensures that the Base Game never gets dull. As for Free Games with those 3 Wild Reels, what a terrific feature. If you decide to give Blaze of Ra a try, our advice would be not to walk away until you’ve triggered Free Games at least twice. While conducting research for this review, we had the good fortune of triggering the feature 3 times during a single 100 spin session. On each occasion, we won in excess of 100x our stake, our best effort being almost 277x our triggering bet. Whether this was a complete fluke, or Ra makes a habit of awarding such generous returns is something we intend to investigate!

Pros

• Nudging Wilds make the Base Game highly enjoyable
• Wild Reels guarantee a winning Free Games experience
• Free Games can be highly lucrative

Cons

• Game graphics are not outstanding

If you like Blaze of Ra you should also try:

Push Gaming may be a relative newcomer to the world of online gaming, however, this provider has gained a reputation for innovative features since it was established in 2010. If you enjoy Blaze of Ra, chances are you’ll also like these other Push Gaming titles.

Meet the Meerkats has been around a little longer than Blaze of Ra. While their respective themes are very different, the two games have much in common. Both offer a 5 x 4 reel layout, 40 paylines, medium-high volatility, and near identical RTP’s. Their features are also similar: along with the Free Games and Stacked Wilds it has in common with Blaze of Ra, Meet the Meerkats comes with a Hold and Respin feature.

Razor-Shark is a 2019 release that inherited some of its DNA from Blaze of Ra. It also has a 5 x 4 reel configuration, but offers higher volatility and RTP. It comes with Mystery Stacks, the Nudge & Reveal and Razor Reveal features, and Free Games with Multipliers. Probably the biggest drawcard is the maximum possible win of - get this - 50,000x your bet.

One look at Jammin Jars" is enough to tell you that Push Gaming really pushed the innovation boat out on this one. Everything about this game is different, from the 8 x 8 reel configuration, through cluster pays, to the Rainbow Feature and the Jam Jar symbol - a Wild that awards multipliers, and also behaves as a Scatter. There’s too much going on in this game to cover everything here - suffice to say, it comes highly recommended if it’s new features and functions you’re after. Surprisingly for a fun-themed game, this one delivers a high volatility experience. It also offers a very attractive maximum win of 20,000x your bet.