April Fury and the Chamber of Scarabs Slot Review

A few weeks back, we were reading a news round-up on things happening in the interactive gaming sector and saw that Betsoft had struck a deal to attain a deeper foothold in the Dutch market via an agreement with Fair Play Casino and that they had released a new adventure slot named April Fury and the Chamber of Scarabs. We assume this illustrious Malta-based provider wants to get into the adventure genre with this game, so that prompted us to review it.

When we went to do so, we were shocked to see that we had only looked at one reel spinner from this brand. Golden Dragon Inferno is the only Betsoft title we have ever reviewed until this one. Maybe it is time we give Betsoft a little more attention. That starts now with April Fury and the Chamber of Scarabs, which debuted on August 1^st and got wide distribution on the 31^st of that month in 2023.

Theme & Design

Everyone knows about Play’n GO’s Rich Wilde, the Indiana Jones rip-off character that paved the way for the online slot adventure genre. Trying to capture the mass audience he created, various other developers have come up with similar characters. Examples include Spinomenal’s Lucky Jack, Pragmatic Play’s John Hunter, Evoplay’s Ethan Grand, and SpearHead’s Lara Jones. We could go on since we know of a few more of these adventures hanging around the Internet reel-spinning sphere, looking for hidden treasures in forests and lost temples. April Fury is the first in what we assume Betsoft will try to mold into a series, implementing the super-established Ancient Egypt motif, with this female lead diving deep into a mysterious chamber on a quest for riches.

We have mentioned before in our casino reviews that Betsoft used to be the sector’s premium 3D slot developer. However, they have moved away from this reputation, expanding and diversifying how they present their games. April Fury and the Chamber of Scarabs slot has painterly graphics that are on par, or better, than anything Pragmatic Play has ever created. The game looks stunning. And we appreciate that many of the backdrop elements here are not static, showing movement now and again. The setting here is a temple at dusk, with a brave explorer going down some steps, where the reels hover in front of some columns.

The music here is movie-like, and the sound effects are at just the right level. We also like that the win count goes by fast, allowing you to go into the next round hastily.

The button configuration here is different from what we remember seeing in older Betsoft spinners. You have a semi-transparent panel at the bottom of your screen, with opaque buttons that match the game’s chief colors. The spin and auto-spin options are on the right side. The latter allows up to one hundred automated reel rotations. The bet adjuster is in the middle, and the Bonus Buy option, with the mute and settings functions, can be found on the left side of this section, below April Fury’s feet.

Specs & Gameplay

Apparently, this 5×4 title comes in three RTP variations. Hence, you can bump into it featuring a return-to-player percentage of 91.68%, a default setting of 94.05%, and one of 96.20%. The variance here is high, the hit frequency 15.44, and the wagering range moves from $0.2 on the lowest end to $100 on the highest. The number of betways is twenty, and the max win you can attain in April Fury and the Chamber of Scarabs totals x4,000 your stake.

The game pays out wins when you get three to five identical tokens on one of the twenty defined paylines. The low-pay symbols in this slot are A-10 royals, supplying rewards of x5 or x7.5 for five-of-a-kind combos. The premiums are a golden gem-encrusted chalice, a scroll, binoculars, a magnifying glass (we assume), and a torch. Five matching symbols from the group landing on the same spin will yield wins of x10 to x200.

The wild in the April Fury slot is a statue of a lion’s head, and aside from pay symbol substitution, it also can provide rewards of x200 for five-of-a-kind combinations. Be aware that the magnifying glass, torch, and the wild also provide wins if two identical instances of them appear on the same reel rotation. Also, a key is the scatter here, and a beetle/scarab is the bonus symbol, activating the Hold & Win bonus.

Bonus Features

To enter the Hold & Win mode, you must hit six or more scarab symbols. In this round, multipliers of x1 to x500 may land, with the activating scatters getting locked in plays. The re-spin meter in this mode starts at three. It resets when a new scarab lands. The round concludes when you run out of spins or fill the 5×4 layout with scarabs.

Getting three keys to appear in view triggers the free spins, getting you five on-the-house reel rotations. Activating this feature with four scatters awards you seven spins, and five gets you nine. The Hold & Win bonus can come into play in the free spins, and you can retrigger this mode if three or more scatters materialize here.

You can buy access to the free spin round through the Bonus Buy (cart) button, which will let you purchase five spins of x90, seven for x126, and nine for x160.

GOSU Verdict

What further intrigued us about analyzing this game was that it was trending in the top ten rankings in Australia, and it still had not gotten wide distribution at the time of writing. We liked how it looked, but can’t really say that it wowed us. We kind of felt it lacked extra features, as the Hold & Win and free spins bonus rounds did not do enough for us. Therefore, April Fury and the Chamber of Scarabs felt a bit bare. Betsoft is not usually known for creating complicated spinners, but we expected more from this one. Nevertheless, we would still call it a tad above average compared to what else you can play at our top crypto casinos. It has a decent max win, but the default RTP is somewhat low, even for a high variance slot.

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