Sands of the Mansa: a golden coin pusher in the Sahel

Anyone who has stood at a seaside arcade knows the feeling: a shelf of coins hanging over the edge, a pusher sliding back and forth, and the conviction that the next coin will be the one. Sands of the Mansa takes that machine to the Sahel, under mud-brick towers and a sun the colour of honey, with a robed ruler on a gilded throne presiding over a table of gold. You can play Sands of the Mansa free here in demo mode, with virtual credits, no download and no sign-up.

How the pusher pays

Set your stake and press Drop, or tap one of the three slots at the top of the table. Each coin you drop costs one bet. The pusher moves forward and nudges the pile; every coin that falls off the front ledge pays one bet, and coins that slip off the sides are simply lost. Mixed in with the coins are treasures: golden bracelets, gold bars and golden riders. They pay much more than a coin if they go over the front.

One detail is worth reading twice. Every coin has the same chances, however full the table looks, whichever slot you choose and whatever happened before. A ledge that seems about to collapse is no more likely to pay than an empty one. It is a pleasant illusion of the format, and the game is honest about it.

Salt slabs and the mud-brick walls

If a salt slab falls off the front, walls of mud brick rise on both sides of the table. You get 5 free coins, and while the walls stand nothing is lost off the sides. Each new salt slab adds two more coins, up to 15.

Kalifa’s Caravan and the Mansa’s Crown

A golden camel tumbling over the edge calls Kalifa’s Caravan: 10 free coins, a bag of gold emptied onto the table and royal carpets laid across the front ledge. Anything that falls onto a carpet counts two, three or five times. Salt slabs keep adding coins during the Caravan, up to 24 in total. If three camels fall while it is running, the Mansa’s Crown is placed on the table; push it off and it pays a thousand times the bet. The maximum for a single coin dropped, counting everything it sets off, is 5,000× the bet.

Making the most of the demo

Drop forty or fifty coins at a low stake, around 10p, and simply watch which objects go over and how often the walls rise. Then try the slots one by one; you will see that it makes no difference, which is useful to know. When you are curious about the Caravan, the buy option starts it straight away for 52.5× the bet, and three or four bought Caravans in virtual credits will show you how much the carpets and the bag of gold change the table. Autoplay can be told to stop when the Caravan arrives.

Sands of the Mansa is a Nocturn Play game and handles well on a phone, with the 3D table filling the screen. Demo credits have no cash value. When you want to play with a real stake, the same pusher runs for real money at the casinos below.