Play Santa's Free Spins for Free

The Santa’s Free Spins video slot has a somewhat generic design, where striped candy canes divide the 5 reels, across which, we have 20 paylines. There’s a covering of snow on top and behind the main games, we see a forest of pine trees covered in even more snow, for a traditional festive scene. A click on the Paytable button underneath the reels lets us review what each symbol is worth, and following the standard format, you will need to land matching symbols across enough reels of a payline running from the left side without a break in the sequence to win anything.

Various wrapped presents are each worth 4x the bet per line when landing on reels 1, 2, and 4, while 4 on a line will return 20x and seeing either across all 5 reels will be worth 200x. A decorative star, bells and silver baubles each pay 8x, 40x, or 300x, while a sackful of presents and the sleigh are each worth a little more. The top prizes come from the game logo, which only has to appear on 2 reels to pay 4x the line bet and seeing this across all 5 reels will be worth a coin win of 500x.

A friendly Santa is a wild symbol, so even though he isn’t worth anything on his own, if you have a break in the sequence of matching symbols, he will substitute for the missing piece if he’s in the right place. It’s also possible to get a winning line of 3 or 4 symbols extended over more reels by Santa, which is another nice gift that will lead to higher prizes.

Santa also triggers the main bonus round and if you’ve read the title of the game, you will know what’s in store, with free spins games playing out when he appears any 3 or more times at once. The number of spins varies depending on how many Santa Free Spins symbols landed, with just 8 awarded if 3 Santa’s are seen, while 4 will trigger 12 bonus spins and there’s the top award of 18 free games should 5 or more land in single spin. There’s a little surprise to go along with the gift of free spins, as the high-paying game logo symbol will be stacked on the reels and turn up with greater frequency throughout this round.

Santa just can’t help himself from giving out extra treats, and he can pop up at random after any spin to start an in-game bonus feature. You could see extra Santa’s Free Spins symbols in play, increasing the chance of triggering the main bonus round, or there’s a guaranteed 5 of a kind award, where any symbol will be seen right across a payline for a big reward.

The Big Win feature is exactly what it sounds like, and players will be feeling festive as the game logo lands across multiple reels, guaranteeing a high-value prize, while the fantastically-named Giftus Maximus bonus sees a giant symbol across all of reels 1, 2 and 3 at once, which will also ensure that multiple win-lines will be created.

It’s possible to try practice rounds on the free Santa’s Free Spins video slots provided by Inspired Gaming, but just 0.10 is needed to play for real cash and this can be raised to a high limit of 250.00 if the special Fortune Bet option is taken. This doubles the size of any free spin symbols as well as doubling the chances of Santa turning up to trigger any of the in-game features.

There’s an Autoplay function, which sets the reels spinning on their own for a pre-determined number of times, stopping them if specific win or loss limits are reached, and there is also the option to play with or without the Christmassy soundtrack.

In common with the rest of the Inspired Gaming range, the Santa’s Free Spins slot is mobile optimised and compatible with Android, Apple and Windows-powered smartphones and tablets.

Most game developers have at least one slot dedicated to Christmas, so it’s just a matter of finding a game that suits your own style and tastes from the many on offer, but a particular favourite is the Santa’s Surprise video slot by Playtech. It’s got free spins with multipliers, a bonus round where you pick presents from under the tree and a gamble feature that can potentially multiply a win several times over.

Microgaming’s Secret Santa game is equally packed with gifts, from wild reels and free spins, to mystery multipliers and their Rolling Reels feature, while realistic graphics make this one stand out from the cartoon-y nature of many similar slot games.

If you don’t mind the Christmas theme, this game is worth tracking down at any time of the year. It looks good, but the main attraction outside of December is the way that Santa triggers so many bonus features.

The in-game awards, with guaranteed wins, are some definite highlights, and having extra chances to get winning combinations in the bonus rounds is another. The Fortune Bet is an interesting option, and while it will trigger extra bonuses, the overall return to player percentage isn’t really affected, so it’s just a matter of whether you want to get lots of features for higher stakes.