Genii, an experienced independent online slot games development company, has released their Christmas-themed slot game in Santa’s Surprise.
Players are whisked into a snow-covered village where Santa’s helpers are busy at work stuffing Santa’s sack with presents. The game uses a cozy design for the game – the houses feel homey, and the game’s symbols depict decorations that are tied to the Christmas season.
From nutcracker soldiers, Christmas ornaments such as the white angel, golden bells, Christmas balls, and delectable sweets such as candy canes, Santa’s Surprise gives a harmonious yuletide experience wrapped up in a soothing musical score that help immerse the player into a Christmas season.
What are the Main Features of Santa’s Surprise?
Santa’s Surprise is a Christmas-inspired classic slot game that uses a 3-reel, 3-row game board and a 5 paylines system. Players can win up to a maximum of 1,250 coins which can be converted to the corresponding payout depending on the online casino operator.
For its special features, the game utilizes the standard Free Spins feature, but with a couple of twists, as well as a Multipot.
The Free Spins feature is activated whenever 3 Scatter symbols appear on the game board, and players are rewarded with 3 free spins. Santa’s Surprise uses two Scatter symbols – a present that has a gold ribbon, and a present that has a red ribbon.
The gold ribbon present only appears on the second reel, and when the Free Spins are activated, gold ribbon presents are locked in place throughout the Free Spins feature.
Meanwhile, the red ribbon presents appear on reels 1 and 3 during normal spins. When Free Spins are activated, red ribbon presents appear on all reels. During Free Spins, any winning combination will reward players with 3 free spins.
That said, during the Free Spins feature, only Red Ribbon Presents land on the reels. Each red ribbon present has a specific value, and when players can win them during winning spins.
As for the Multipot, whenever a Scatter symbol appears on the game board, they fill up Santa’s sack which is located at the top of the game board. The values of the Multipots are proportional to the size of the bet that triggered the bonus round, but can only be won during the Free Spins.
What are Great Online Slot Game Alternatives to Santa’s Surprise?
For players who can’t get enough of Christmas-themed slot games, they should check out the following titles from RealTime Gaming. These slot games are available on the Online Casino Games site, and have free to play and real casino versions players can choose from:
Santa’s Reel Wheel
Santa’s Reel Wheel is a medium volatility slot game that uses a 3 single-line game board arranged in Levels while also using a Pays Any payline system. Its special features include Santa’s Bonus Wheel, Santa’s Mega Bonus Wheel, Free Games, and the Fireworks Bonus.
Santa’s Reel Wheel offers a unique take on the classic 3×3 slot game by having players start with a single 3-Reel game board. When a player lands a winning spin on the primary game, or 1 or more Fireworks symbols occurring on that game, activates the 3-reel, Level 2 game.
On Level 2, when a player gets a winning spin, or 1 or more Fireworks symbols appear on the reel on that spin, this activates the 3-reel, Level 3 area.
Finally, any win on the Level 3 game, or 1 or more Fireworks symbols occurring on that game, activates Santa’s Bonus Wheel.
When Santa’s Bonus Wheel is activated during normal play, it will either award an instant Bonus, or Fireworks Bonus, or it will advance play to Santa’s Mega Bonus Wheel.
Meanwhile, when Santa’s Mega Bonus Wheel is activated, it will either award the Fireworks Bonus or up to 20 Free Games.
Play commences in Level 2 for each Free Game. If Santa’s Bonus Wheel is activated during Free Games, it will either award extra Free Games or the Fireworks Bonus. Moreover, Free Games are played at the betting amount of the triggering game.
Lastly, the Fireworks Feature transforms the game board into 15 spinning positions, including Level 1, 2, and 3 reel positions. 3 Re-Spins are awarded, with any triggering Fireworks symbols held in position.
If a new Fireworks symbol appears in a spinning position, it is held for the remainder of the feature and the number of remaining Re-Spins resets to 3. At the end of the Re-Spins, all prize values and/or bonuses displayed on the Fireworks are awarded.
Fireworks prizes are shown as multipliers, and the Grand Bonus of 1,000 times the bet amount is awarded if all 15 positions have been filled by Fireworks symbols during Re-Spins. That said, only Fireworks symbols are active during the Fireworks feature.
Rudolph Unleashed
Rudolph Unleashed whisks players in the North Pole where Santa’s favorite reindeer is getting into all sorts of shenanigans as he waits for Santa to start delivering gifts.
This medium volatility, 95% RTP slot game utilizes a 5-reel, 4-row game board and a 178 Connecting Ways paylines system. Its special features include Re-Spins, the Moving Wild feature, and the Chasing Wild feature.
The Re-Spins feature activates whenever 3 Scatter symbols appear on the game board. The player is awarded 3 Re-Spins, and the Scatter symbols are held in place during the Re-Spin feature.
An additional Re-Spin is awarded when a new Scatter symbol appears. The Re-Spin feature ends when there are no more Re-Spins to play or when a Moving Wild symbol appears.
A Moving Wild symbol appearing on reel 5 without Scatter symbols on reels 2, 3, or 4 triggers the Moving Wild feature.
The Moving Wild symbol activates and continually moves one reel to the left until it reaches reel 1, generating one Re-Spin for each shift left.
The active Moving Wild may trigger the Chasing Wild feature. Additional Moving Wild symbols can appear during the feature, but only one Moving Wild can be active at a time.
Moreover, the first Moving Wild symbol will stay active until it has moved all the way left to reel 1, even if there is more than one Moving Wild symbol on the reels.
Any additional Moving Wilds on the gameboard will then activate one-by-one in the order in which they appeared and will begin shifting left.
Lastly, landing a Moving Wild when at least one Scatter is on the gameboard or landing one or more Scatters when a Moving Wild is on the gameboard triggers the Chasing Wild feature.
During the Chasing Wild feature, the Moving Wild symbol moves first vertically and then horizontally to cover and replace all Scatters, leaving Wild symbols behind in their place.
The Moving Wild starts by replacing Scatters on the same reel, then continually moves to the right, replacing Scatters until there are no more remaining.
Sneaky Santa
Sneaky Santa lets players accompany the titular Saint Nick while he’s making his rounds leaving presents under the Christmas trees of households. This high volatility, 95% RTP slot game uses a 5-reel, 3-row game board on top of a fixed 25 paylines system.
For its special features, the game offers Morphing symbols, Free Games, Bonus Bet and Buy Feature.
Free Games are activated when 3 or more Wild Scatter symbols appear anywhere on the game board. Players are given 12 Free Games, and before Free Games begin, the player chooses a symbol to act as the Morphing symbol.
During Free Games, after regular symbols are paid out, the Morphing symbol can expand vertically to cover all 3 positions on the reel. Expansion is triggered only if enough symbols are present for a win. The Morphing symbol pays on all reels according to its paytable value, including non-adjacent positions.
Moreover, 12 Free Games are retriggered whenever 3 Wild Scatter symbols appear anywhere on the game board.
The Buy feature allows the player to purchase a Free Games triggering spin at any time. This feature costs the equivalent of 100x the current total bet, and after this feature is purchased, the triggering spin will be played automatically.
However, during the Buy feature, the Bonus Bet feature is disabled, and all Free Games rules apply when the player buys the triggering spin through the Buy Feature.
During the Base Game, the player can toggle this feature on to increase the current total bet by 10x for every spin. When the Bonus Bet is on each spin is played like a Free Game with Morphing Symbol Feature spin.
The player preselects a Morphing symbol, and during all spins while Bonus Bet is on, that symbol will expand and pay anywhere, just like during Free Games. When playing with the Bonus Bet feature on, wins are calculated according to the base bet, which does not include the extra 10x paid for the feature.
During the Bonus Bet feature, the buy feature is disabled, and Bonus Bet remains active until the player manually deactivates it.
