The Elf Wars comes from RTG and it’s one of the games they’ve created with a Christmas theme and with a twist, the war that has arrived at the North Pole. As it happened in each case, the two parts involved are Santa and Rudolph, but here the elves lend a hand as well. The game looks like it’s going to be incredibly fun for someone that wants to get into the spirit of Christmas. You can do that here without going through the usual gifts and Santa cookies that most themed slots will give you. Elf Wars chose a different path, and I think it’s much more fun this way.
The game’s 5 reels are inhabited by a total of 50 paylines. RTG placed inside a feature guarantee, plus a progressive jackpot, scatters, wild symbols and re-spins. If you want to know how much you can win, the answer is 2,000 coins, or about $10,000.
Features of The Elf Wars
Besides the usual list of options and special symbols, The Elf Wars also gives you the Feature Guarantee, which I’ll cover in detail below, but for which you have to pay extra.
You will notice that there are two wild symbols used in the game, the good one being Santa while the bad guy is Rudolph. These are the leaders of the two sides of the conflict, so naturally they have the most important roles. In this case, it means being able to substitute for other symbols, with the exception of scatters. You also get rewarded for having multiple wilds on the same line, and they don’t even have to be of the same type. You can get a payline filled with a mix of Santa and Rudolph wilds, and you will get up to 2,000 coins out of it.
The scatter feature also benefits from the presence of two types of symbols, from both sides of the conflict. Santa’s Good Elves are used together with Rudolph’s Bad Elves in this role. You need 2 to 5 Elf symbols in the game, to be rewarded with payouts of up to 100x the triggering bet.
Re-Spin Feature
The requirements for this feature are not huge, but the need for the symbols to appear starting from the left does make it harder to trigger than it appears at first. You only need two identical scatter symbols to get the Re-Spin feature going. It can be two Good Elves, or it can be two Bad Elves. The reels that had the triggering scatters are held in place, while the others will re-spin. It’s not that great of a feature, as you only get one re-spin out of it, but it still guarantees you a small prize so it’s better than nothing.
Feature Guarantee
This is a feature that RTG sometimes includes in their games. It will cost you extra to activate (+20%, so up to $50 extra) and you can’t give it up. It basically lets you know that if you didn’t trigger the feature round within 150 spins, you are guaranteed to get access to it. It lets you know in how many spins you can win it, or you can take your chance and gamble your progress so far and try to get it triggered instantly.
Betting options and jackpots
The betting system shouldn’t be that difficult at a first glance, but the feature guarantee wager does complicate it. Initially, your bet is composed of 50 coins which cover all 50 paylines available. The coins having denominations of up to $5 and that means a $250 wager in the game. An extra 20% is added to trigger the Feature Guarantee, so that means a bet of up to $300 is allowed.
You get a couple of potential decent payouts in this title, one being the wild’s 2,000 coins ($10,000), while another is the one offered by scatter symbols (100x the bet, so up to $25,000). The third one would be a progressive jackpot that is awarded randomly at the end of the spin.
Design and symbols
The design here is just as good as in any other Christmas themed slot from RTG. You get high quality graphics, where the cheerful images are combined with war machines and dangerous traps. The artillery guns placed at the top of the reels bring it all home, making this a war themed slot just as much as it is about Christmas.
Symbols: Santa/Rudolph (wilds, 2,000x), Good Elves/Bad Elves (scatters, 100x the bet), North Pole Sign (1,500x), Snow Men (1,000x), Rocket Snow Machine (750x), Free Food Bucket (250x), Cake (250x), Naughty List (250x), Ace/King/Queen (150x), Jack/Ten/Nine (125x).
Is It Worth Playing?
Looking for a Christmas themed slot to play that doesn’t prove to be totally boring and cheerful? The Elf Wars is the perfect answer, a game that’s highly entertaining and unconventional.
The Elf Wars slot machine is offered through the RTG platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
