As it’s December and we are all getting into the Christmas spirit, we have no option but to try out some festive themed slots.
There are absolutely loads of them.
These are some of our favourites to have come out so far this December, so if you happen to be looking for a game to get you in the mood for carolling, wrapping presents, and eating mince pies, one of these might do the trick.
…who are we kidding, no one needs help getting in the mood for mince pies!
Christmas Bonanza (Big Time Gaming)
You will almost certainly have heard of Bonanza by Big Time Gaming, it’s one of the most popular games on any casino site.
Well they have released a festive version in time for Christmas, and while it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel, it’s a seasonal version of this very popular game so it warrants a mention.
It’s a 6 reeler and obviously, being a Megaways slot, each reel can show anything from between 2 and 7 symbols per reel.
It looks great with the snow falling over the top of the reels as you spin, and the sound effects and music are just as zany as in the original.
Here are a few need to knows about the game:
- Paylines/Ways to Win – 117649
- RTP – 96%
- Max Payout – 26000x
- Volatility – Very High
With cascading reels and multiple wins possible on a single spin thanks to winning combinations being replaced by new symbols, it’s just what you would expect from a Big Time/Megaways slot.
There is also a freespins feature triggered by landing at least 4 of the G.O.L.D scatter symbols on the reels at the same time.
This grants 12 freespins, during which an unlimited win multiplier is in place, so this is obviously the main reason to play the game.
Santa’s Stack Dream Drop (Relax Gaming)
If you are old enough to have gotten excited about finding a Sega Master System or some other 8-bit gaming console under the Christmas tree, then this retro title from Relax Gaming might be right up your alley.
It’s a throwback in terms of visuals, and the soundtrack takes you right back to playing Super Mario (the first Mario, when he was made of about 10 pixels) but the gameplay is not old fashioned at all.
For a start it plays out on an 8×8 grid with cluster pays active rather than traditional paylines, and this allows the Secret Santa feature to come into play.
It is triggered when a Wild is involved in a winning cluster, at which point all symbols involved will turn into mystery symbols and hold in place for a respin, before all revealing the same symbol. If additional symbols are added to the winning cluster the process repeats until no more wins occur.
So the base game is fun in and of itself.
The basic nuts and bolts are as follows:
- Paylines – Cluster Pays
- RTP – 94%
- Max Payout – 20000x
- Volatility – Very High
The RTP is a bit disappointing but there is a lot to love about the game, not least the freespins feature.
Landing 3 bonus Christmas Tree symbols grants a miserly 5 spins, but every additional bonus symbol adds an extra spin, and once the round starts the Secret Santa feature is also active, while any further bonus symbols will either add a spin, increase the multiplier, or both.
You will start the round with at least one wild symbol landing, and this number of assured wilds increases by one every spin, so those 5 freespins might not last long, but there’s a lot going on with them. They are valuable.
The game also comes with the Dream Drop feature, which essentially is just a randomly triggered jackpot. There are five levels of jackpot as you will no doubt have seen elsewhere – the Rapid, Midi, Maxi, Major, and Mega – and which one you end up getting is also decided at random via a pick me game.
It’s a great addition that just tips the game into feeling feature heavy, and adds a little bit of Christmas mystery to every base game spin.
Wonders of Christmas (NetEnt)
Finally, we have a much more classic take on the festive period, thanks to veteran developer, NetEnt.
The artwork is reminiscent of those old glitter covered advent calendars that only had pictures behind the doors, before chocolate ones came in – yes millennials, there was a time before chocolate advent calendars – and the sound design is equally nostalgic.
It has an unusual 3-4-5-4-3 grid layout, with a nice base game feature that uses wilds and present symbols. Any present symbols that land are ‘collected’ and eventually increase the free spins multiplier, but they also put a frame around that space on the grid and make it active.
If another present lands in that space it could turn gold. This new gold present will be sticky for the next spin, and then will turn wild, and will also turn any connected spaces with active frames around them wild too. Frames stay active until they end up being used in this feature, however long that takes.
Here are a few need to knows:
- Paylines – 25
- RTP – 96.05%
- Max Payout – 100000x
- Volatility – Very High
Onto the main feature then, and it is, unsurprisingly, a free spins round triggered by landing 3 scatters on reels 2, 3, and 4.
The round starts with 3 spins, but only coins will be visible on the reels now, each with a value of between 0.5x and 50x the bet.
Any coins that land remain in place, and the free spin counter will reset to 3 each time a new coin lands on the reels.
The round ends after either the grid is full of coins, or after 3 spins in a row do not result in at least one extra coin landing on the reels.
At the end all coin values are added together, and the multiplier that has been building in the base game is applied to the total.
NetEnt games can sometimes be a bit basic, but this is one of their better recent releases.