Cleo's Wish

The game opens with a visit to Egypt, where players can meet Cleo face-to-face. Standing to the left of the reels, she is rendered in 3D and looks quite stunning. The animated Cleopatra also features prominently in the game as a wild symbol and is adorned with lots of (animated) jewels. The background also serves the game well: a slightly more modernized Egypt that allows the backdrops to bloom with color, which they do, as does the whole game. The reels are filled with jewelry that's also animated spectacularly.

As I mentioned, NextGen refreshingly mingles with the themes. The fundamental concept is that we meet the ancient Cleopatra, who at the same time is more relevant than ever. In addition, the background music could not be any more modern. There are no direct sounds that scream eastern mystery in the game. Instead, you get to enjoy many different loops of jazz music, a few of which sound suspiciously like Christmas music!

Stakes and winnings

Cleo's Wish is a fairly simple five-reel, 25-payline game across three rows. When you play, you immediately select your total bet. All lines are always active, and you choose a coin value that ranges from 10 cents to 10 dollars. A noteworthy aspect of the game is that you always play with some form of feature bet. This feature bet amounts to one-sixth of your base bet and is included in the total cost per spin. In practice, this means that if you are paying one dollar per line, you're not actually paying the expected 25 dollars per spin but rather 30 dollars per spin.

You can win up to 200,000 coins on a board in this slot, and these wins happen in free spins bonuses with the mighty multipliers (see below). In the base game, your maximum win on a single spin is 10,000 coins. And by the way, the symbol that pays the most is the Wild symbol representing Cleopatra.

It is good to know that Cleo's Wish is a relatively high-volatility slot. NextGen itself believes that it is between 'medium' and 'high.' The payback, in this context, is quite a modest 95.15% over time.

Symbols

Of course, the role of lead character in a slot shouldn’t go to anyone but the mythical queen, Cleo. And in this case, Miss Cleo is the best symbol by far. Alas, in this slot, Cleopatra doesn’t get to be the beautiful, sultry character we all know and love. With an expression that looks something between a sultry stare and a push for Cheetos, she does, however, carry the main symbol.

The logo symbol and the three jeweled objects (a scarab, a bracelet, and an ankh) pay fairly well. Then there are the low-paying playing card symbols, which go all the way from A to 9.

Functions

Free spins are always included in the games from NextGen. And not infrequently, a wild function of some kind is also included. In Cleo's Wish, the developers haven't skimped. Quite the contrary, they've gone all out and given players many different functions to activate.

Wilds

Starting with the features of the Wild is always wise. In Cleo's Wish, the Wild features a joker who is, in all ways that count, Cleo herself. She also gives off an ample number of generous pennies.

You might also be lucky in the base game to cause the guaranteed wild reels feature to activate. This feature means that on random spins, you get one or more reels that contain guaranteed one or more wilds.

Another wild feature in the base game is known as wild additions. This random feature also gives you extra jokers on the reels.

Sand of happiness

Happiness Sand functions as a signature of sorts—one that's written in secret. It's a random event that can occur at any time during the main game. And when it does, you can be certain it will lead to a sizeable payout, because all the high-win symbols on screen (that is, the logo, The Scarab, and the bracelet and ankh symbols, respectively) will turn into one and the same high-win symbol.

Two different free spins bonuses

The scatter symbol shows the three pyramids of Giza and pays a penny on its own. Its main job, though, is to give you free spins. When you get three scatters on the screen, you get to access either Eternal Riches or Cleo's Parade. You can pick which of these Free Spins rounds you want to play. Both bonuses have their upsides and downsides.

When you trigger the free spins round in Eternal Riches, you are guaranteed a minimum of 5 free spins, with a maximum of 10. But that's not all: scatters that show up on the reels during the free spins will result in some extra free spins. You can think of these as the "Super Spins" that come after your "normal" free spins. And as with most normal spins, you'll encounter wilds, too; they give you a 3x multiplier, which is a bit of a weird way of saying that for every wild you land, you should consider it as more of a free ride to the next level of spins. Because once the normal free spins are done, you're off to Super Spin land.

Selecting Cleo's Parade also awards you with 5-10 complimentary spins. There, you experience a different kind of wild as you play with wilds that walk, or move, across the reels from right to left, somewhat akin to Jack and the Beanstalk, as well as using stacked wilds that are much taller than your average wild. If you manage to get three more scatters while playing this feature, you re-trigger it.

Summary

Many ways make Cleo's Wish an unusual slot. The graphics, sounds, and theme are bizarre enough to raise the question of what the game creators were thinking when they conjured them up. Were they really intent on designing a tribute to ancient Egypt, or had they simply run out of ideas and decided to take a route less traveled?

In our view, the best thing about Cleo's Wish is that its features can provide unmatched payouts. If you hit the bonus round with Super Spins, it can yield some gigantic wins, even if your bet size is on the lower end. What's a bummer is that the game's return to player (RTP) is just kind of blah.