Royal Secrets Pokies
An online casino pokie with this name could have set in the present day, but developer EGT probably wanted to avoid having anyone’s head cut off, so the Royal Secrets video pokie is set firmly in the past, where we find a King, his Queen, a knight and a rich-looking woman.
Maybe she’s the secret, maybe not, we don’t know, but what we are sure of is that this 5-reel pokie a pretty basic game, where players will get some simple bonus features, although like all games from this developer, there’s the chance to double wins over and over, along with the Jackpot Cards progressive feature.
The whole design is uncomplicated, with just 10 fixed paylines running from the left side of the game, as is standard practice, wins come from landing 3 or more of the same symbol across a payline, on connected reels. The minimum stake needed to get them spinning is 0.10, and the high limit is 200.00, but free Royal Secrets video pokies are offered by most casinos for those who want to test it out first.
Playing Royal Secrets
Some misty hills are what passes for a background image, and while they may not be particularly colourful, they set the scene nicely. Above the reels we see the 4 levels of the Jackpot Cards round, with the Club, Diamond, Heart and Spade progressive values slowly increasing until the round is randomly triggered, while below are the simple control buttons.
A review of the pay table shows that the usual high-card symbols J, Q, K and A are each worth 10x the amount staked per line when stopping on 3 reels, while 4 or 5 of a kind are worth 30x and 150x respectively. The mystery woman pays 20, 40 or 200x, and the knight and the Queen are both valued at 40, 120 or 700x. The King of the castle is also king of the pay table, returning wins equal to 10x the line bet when he stops on just reels 1 and 2 across a line, and 3, 4 or 5 of this regal symbol are worth 50, 250 or the top award of 5000x.
Royal Secrets
Unable to connect to MySQL: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory
Bonus Symbols
The castle is a wild symbol, able to act as all except the 2 scatters. It only appears on the 3 middle reels, so isn’t able to make up a line on its own, but if this symbol is in the right places it can fill in the gaps in a line of matching symbols, or extend a win of 3 across the fourth reel for a bigger payout, or even do both at once.
Unusually, there’s 2 scatter symbols, each working in slightly different ways. The key on a cushion will be worth 50, 200 or 1000x the line bet when it lands in any 3, 4 or 5 places at once, without needing to be across a payline to return these wins. The crown needs to land in any places on reels 2, 3 and 4 at once to pay out a win of 200 coins, but while scatter symbols usually trigger bonus games as well, in this case they just return these basic wins.
Other Features
Any time players get a win of less than 350 coins, they will be given the option to gamble it, doubling the prize if they correctly decide that a playing card will be from a red or black suit. The card is flashing between the colours, and the aim is to time a click on red or black buttons, and while a correct pick gives them the further choice of collecting the win or trying to double it again, a wrongly-timed click at any point loses the gamble, along with the initial bet that triggered the round.
All EGT online casino games share the Jackpot Cards progressive feature, and once this random round is awarded, players are certain to collect 1 of the 4 jackpots. 12 face-down playing cards are laid out and by clicking each, the suits are revealed. This goes on until 3 of the same suit have been found, whereupon the corresponding prize is awarded and while the Club jackpot is fairly modest, the top Spade award can be quite a decent sum.
The Verdict
This straightforward pokie has a low volatility, where small wins come quite often, which is a pattern that most players prefer. It’s at the expense of any real bonus features though, so anyone who likes free spins games, multipliers and so on, won’t be too impressed with the simple wild and scatter payouts on offer here.
But a decent return to player percentage means it’s a good choice for cautious gamblers who want to hang on to their funds, although like many EGT pokies, it’s not mobile-optimised.