Software developer Red Tiger has released a Christmas-themed slot machine called Santa Spins. Does the title include a double entendre? Either way, it conjured me mental pictures of Santa Claus spinning the reels of an internet slot machine or sneaking into the North Pole bar to drop a few money into the hidden pokie machines in the back. What, in the same vein, would Santa think of all the Christmas-themed slot machines that have recently appeared on the market? Put your thoughts to rest and take a spin on Red Tiger’s Xmas Spins and Wild Santa-filled reels to find out how the developer imagines the festive season.
It would appear that while creating Santa Spins, the visuals and music team at Red Tiger cranked up the white Christmas volume to eleven. You’ll find it in a magical land full of gingerbread houses, holly, a snowman, snowflakes, and presents galore. Where exactly are we? The North Pole? A quaint Christmastime village? Somewhere else entirely? If the images are able to enchant the player, the decision is left up to them. Jingle bells, a soothing winter melody, and a whole lot of “Ho, ho, ho” keep the audio in sync with the visuals.
The action on Santa Spins takes place in a central 5-reel, 4-row gameplay area that is festooned with various Christmas decorations. There are 20 different ways to win on this slot machine, and the payouts begin on the leftmost reel. Underneath its glittering white garb, Santa Spins is a medium-volatility slot machine that offers a whopping 95.73% RTP. Any device may be used, and wagers can be anywhere from 10 pence to £/€100 each spin, so everyone can take part in the holiday fun (or sorrow).
Pursuing the group of symbols on Santa Spins’ paytable brought to mind the term merry. Low-paying symbols include the J through A card ranks, while high-paying symbols include a wreath, bells, a reindeer, and a woman. Five of a kind pays anywhere from 0.8x to 2x the wager for the lower-paying symbols, and 5x to 40x the wager for the higher-paying ones.
Santa’s Wild Appearance in a Slot Game
House symbols can land on any reel except the first one, and as many as 16 can occur in one spin. Houses do not contribute to line victories and, when left to their own devices, have no purpose. But when a Santa Wild strikes, it showers all the Homes in its path with presents, converting them into monsters. Santa’s Wild only appears on reel one, and when it does, it fills the entire reel. The wild versions of the House and Santa symbols can both be used in place of regular pay symbols.
Holiday Turns
Scatters in Xmas Spins provide 10, 12, or 15 free games when 3, 4, or 5 appear. The Wild Santa remains in the same position on the first reel during the bonus round. One additional free spin is awarded for each Xmas Spins scatter that appears during the round.
Scrooge’s Slots: The Final Say
The holiday-themed opening of Santa Spins, which depicts a quaint town engulfed in a harsh winter, has the potential to provide a positive first impression. But this isn’t one of those freezing winter movies when everyone paces nervously around the hearth or rubs their hands together. Residents here welcome winter with open arms because it heralds the arrival of good old Saint Nick and his trusty team of reindeer bearing gifts and cheer to children all around the world.
However, once you get past the bright packaging, Santa Spins isn’t all that exciting. When Santa Wilds don’t appear, house symbols might be bothersome since they sit there doing nothing, exactly like an abandoned home. Having always-feral Houses could have been just as fun. However, doing so would eliminate the game’s lone additional feature outside of the free spins bonus round, and turning the House symbols into wilds is thematically linked to Santa giving out presents. Once activated, free spins once again rely heavily on the Santa Wild turning Houses wild mechanism. In case you were wondering, the maximum payout in Santa Spins is 995.2 times the initial wager, so the technique isn’t particularly lucrative.
Santa Spins wasn’t especially standout among the horde of other Christmas-themed slot machines. It looks nice enough and has some decent tricks up its sleeve when it comes to House to wild conversions, but it fails to create much of an impact.
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