Isn’t Christmas just around the corner? One could get the feeling that it is when shopping for groceries as all the typical goodies have gone on sale already. On another note, the game providers never fail to release some slots for the festive period every year. This week, we take a look at the creations from NetEnt, NoLimit City, Pragmatic Play and NextGen Gaming. Will they be the most wanted presents under the tree, or rather something players will pass on? Time to take a closer look.
After giving us a Christmas edition of some of its popular slots such as Flowers and Fruit Shop, NetEnt has taken the hilarious Egg-O-Matic slot as the basis for Jingle Spin. It has the same pay mechanics and win potential, but is still as highly entertaining. A more festive approach and no cloning was the route Pragmatic Play has taken with Santa, a medium variance 20-liner with four fixed jackpots. What would be Christmas without a romantic fairy tale? NextGen must have had that exact thought when it created Ever After, a Cinderella-themed slot with 243 ways to win and an array of random and bonus features. NoLimit City is taking us to the north of the Arctic circle in Ice Ice Yeti with a novel reel set that expands after winning spins that include a wild symbol or randomly as a booster.
Jingle Spin | Netent
Are you one of the many fans of Egg-O-Matic, the slot with the hilarious pressure cooker on the side randomly emitting surprise eggs on to a conveyor belt on top of the game window? Then here’s a perfect sister, brother, sequel, anyhow you want to name it. Jingle Spin uses the same mechanics and pay table as well as features, with a free spins round and spreading wilds.
Instead of the rooster, we have papa elf spinning a reel with Christmas baubles that are then handed from reel to reel by his little helpers instead of the conveyor. The slot looks graphically stunning, with a perfectly executed festive theme including intricate tree decorations as pay symbols and a game window held in a window with patches of ice.
The Christmas bauble wheel will randomly award baubles in the base game and one on every spin in the free spins round. The baubles contain coin wins, spreading wilds, or seven to 50 free spins. They will enter the game window on top of reel five and advance by one reel on every spin until they are awarded or disappear to the left. To get hold of the baubles, players need to hit a wild symbol on the same reel as the bauble is on the spin. It will drop down and award the displayed prize.
Collecting a dropping bauble with numbers from seven to 50 will award an equal number of free spins. During the bonus round, the Christmas bauble wheel has no empty spaces, emitting a bauble on every spin and thus increasing the chance to collect them when a wild symbol lands on the same reel. Once a bauble is collected, the space will remain empty until it disappears at the left of the game window.
Santa | Pragmatic Play
With Santa, Pragmatic Play is releasing a slot with a feel-good factor for the festive season. A soothing soundtrack playing an adaptation of the famed Jingle Bells song, warm colours, and stacked Santas as wild symbols are packed into a Christmas present all slotting players will be able to enjoy. In the spirit of the festive season, the slot has a medium volatility that will not see balances disappear in a flash as frequent smallish wins will provide for lengthy gaming sessions, even with smaller budgets.
And of course, the game has packed surprises for the festive celebrations. There is a pick-and-click bonus game with four fixed jackpots as well as a free spins round with random wild reels. A golden present symbol on reels one, three and five will trigger the bonus game with a choice of 12 gift boxes. It contains eight coin wins and four jackpot symbols. Adhering to the spirit of Christmas, there is no end symbol. Players can pick as many boxes until a jackpot symbol is unveiled. All coin wins and the won jackpot are added and paid at the end of the bonus game. The jackpot wins range from 10x to 250x the bet.
Scatters on the middle reels in one spin will award six free spins, which cannot be retriggered. During the feature, reels two, three, four, and five will randomly turn into wild reels, increasing the chance to hit big wins. A full screen of the top paying symbol will result in a 400x bet win.
Ever After | NextGen Gaming
We all love a romantic fairy tale during the festive period and there is hardly any more fitting than Cinderella. Ever After is NextGen’s take on the story that, although it is told with a darker twist, can surprise players with wins of up to 4,860x their bet. The tale is set in the faraway village of Darkwood, which is cursed with eternal night and entombed in a relentless fog, waiting to be awakened by the magic fairy. Her name is Faye and she will come to the rescue to award four random features that can produce mega wins or trigger the free spins round.
Faye will appear whenever reel one is turning gold on a spin, triggering the Mirror Magnificent feature with four choices. She will enchant one, two or three symbols that land on reel one and mirror them across the reels. An enchanted wild will turn itself and all other wild symbols on the reels into expanding wilds.
Bonus symbols are upgraded into enchanted bonus symbols with just two needed instead of three to trigger the free spins round. Enchanted premium symbols will turn themselves and all other matching symbols on the reels into wild symbols. Enchanted low-value symbols will be upgraded to premium symbols.
The free spins round will be triggered either by landing a minimum three scatters in one spin or via the enchanted bonus symbol feature. The game will award six to 30 free spins for three to five standard scatters, and six to 60 free spins for two to five enchanted scatters. The Mirror Magnificent feature will be activated on every spin in the round, providing more potential to score mega wins.
Ice Ice Yeti | NoLimit City
Join the four cute animal characters on Ice Ice Yeti as they roam the wide wilderness of the Arctic region on a five-reel video slot with 243 to 16,807 ways to win. A standard window with three rows can increase to up to seven rows randomly on any spin or during the bonus features. The medium to high variance game can produce wins well beyond 5,000x the initial stake.
Yeti Shake will trigger randomly in the base game and uncover two to 10 blocked positions to increase the number of ways to win and the potential to score big wins. Ice Ice Re-Spins are activated when a wild yeti symbol lands on any reel. First, he will break two to three ice blocks to uncover more reel positions before awarding one respin. A winning combination on the triggering spin will be locked in place as the reels respin.
Any further matching symbols or new ones that produce a winning combination on the respin will be locked as well and another respin awarded. The feature ends when all reel positions have become sticky or if no new symbols or winning combinations land on a respin.
The best moment for those mega wins is when the maximum 10 extra reel positions are unblocked by the Yeti Shake and multiple wild yeti symbols land on the reel, unblocking even more reel positions for the respin.
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