John Hunter and the Book of Tut Respin Slots
One chap who has taken in several of the world’s ancient civilizations in real form is John Hunter. Of all the exotic destinations, he seems to favor the warm climes of ancient Egypt the most. And he’s off to that classic setting once more in John Hunter and Book of Tut Respins. If you know John Hunter from his earlier exploits, you’ll find the character much the same in this slot. You’re getting a sequel, and as such, this is the base game from the previous title with the added Respins mechanism and whatever minor tweaks Pragmatic Play had to perform to fit that feature in.
What is it about?
Not much has changed in the audiovisual department since Pragmatic Play’s original release, but the game’s certainly living up to the standard we expect from this developer. The big twist this time around is the Respins feature, which happens to occur regularly in the base game this time around and makes the usual grind a bit more interesting. But the price you pay for that added interest is significantly lower symbol values. John Hunter has been on many a treasure hunt over the years, and he returns to the land of the Pharaohs regularly, as do so many other slot explorers.
A remake of Pragmatic Play’s original John Hunter Book of Tut, it offers a twist that affects both the base game and the bonus round. Instead of an unvarying base game, you get expanding symbol respins thrown in now and then. The slot teases you with the potential of cracking quite a few full-screen, big-win moments, especially in those bonus rounds. We found it to be an entertaining addition to the ever-growing book slot saga.
Theme and Graphics
The studio has left the game alone. In other words, the same graphics are again featured in John Hunter Respins. It’ll be a recognizable view for Egypt slot veterans, featuring several classic icons on the reel grid. In short, John delivers without doing anything strange.
The symbols comprise card ranks from 10 to Ace, while John enjoys the honor of being the game’s top-paying symbol. Of course, symbols are part of the equation when it comes to determining a game’s quality. But they’re not the entire equation; otherwise, we’d just be measuring novelty. The novelty has a satisfying formula. The game combines unadorned pay symbols with a range of features that ensure you won’t be reaching for the skip button anytime soon.
Playing the Game
As for the game, everything will be old hat apart from the Respins feature, which has its moments. In some ways, it helped build bigger wins, though that might have been pure luck, but you do pay for the privilege. The trade-off is lower symbol values, so gone are the full-screen top premiums wins found elsewhere.
Symbol Respins Explained
The Respins are for the base and the bonus games. In the base game, on random spins, a symbol that pays off from the current spin will act as the Mystery Symbol for only that spin. When evaluating if a player won, if the player has three Mystery Symbols that form a winning payline, the Mysteries will then grow to fill their corresponding reel. This is unique in that it expands each Mystery Symbol to function like a regular pay Symbol. After this evaluation process, the reels surrounding the Mystery Symbols will spin to reveal more Mystery Symbols.
Free Spins Bonus
The other symbol you'll see on your grand reel grid is the book. Books are wild, and they are scattered. When scatters land in view, players win free spins plus a nice payout with their bet. The Mystery Symbol fills your reels to start your Respins until no new Mystery Symbols appear. Landing book symbols during the bonus round triggers additional free spins. No limits have been placed on the number of retriggers that can be won.
Round up
John Hunter’s Book of Tut Respin has a twist. It’s part of a long and growing line of them with a twist, so how does it measure up? There are pros and cons, and overall, it's closer to the latter, sadly. From a visual standpoint, John has nothing extraordinary, but there’s nothing in it that’ll hurt your eyes.
What made John Hunter neat was his ability to buy free spins. It’s a nice opportunity to take a gamble with the John Hunter symbol or play it safe and pick a royal. Intriguingly, the function that allows for this choice doesn’t come up that often. Perhaps it will now. If all of this sounds appealing, then John Hunter is for you. That said, it’s not game-of-the-year material, so don’t hold your breath.