If you want a classic Christmas slot machine, the kind where Santa is the main character and where you have loads of presents, Christmas trees, fireplaces, cake and stuffed birds, then Secret Santa is just the title for you. Created by Microgaming, the slot offers a 3D design when it comes to its features which you will enjoy, along with a lot of ways to win, plus some mystery features which trigger at random.
You’re getting a huge number of ways to win, 1024 being used on just 5 reels. You also have some great new features, like the one called 5 of a Kind, or the Mystery features with their 7 different options. There are some regular ones as well, like the free spins, scatters or the wilds. The jackpot offers you $2,500.
Features of Secret Santa
Though it has a good design, the features are the ones that are truly strong in Secret Santa. I’m talking about the huge number of ways to win, about the wild symbol, scatters, the “5 of a Kind Again” feature or the 7 different mystery features which trigger at random. Overall, there is a wealth of features in this game that you rarely see even in modern slots.
The game gives you an incredible 1024 ways to win, possible because the reels have four symbols each, instead of the three symbols used in slots with 243 ways. The combinations are formed whenever you have matching symbols on reels which go from left to right, so there are no paylines that are predetermined, like it happens in many other slots.
One of the main symbols of this game is the wild, the Secret Santa Logo being used for it. It’s a symbol which awards payouts of up to 800x when it manages to create combinations directly, and even though that’s far from impressive, you have to consider the other features and the ways to win as well.
The other symbol is obviously a scatter, like it happens in many other slots. You need 3 or more scattered symbols in order to trigger a cash prize. You win between 2x and 100x the wager, and you need 3 to 5 symbols scattered.
5 of a Kind Again
Secret Santa has at least one feature that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and that’s a huge reason to give the game a shot. Whenever you have a combination of five matching symbols, you first get paid like in any other game, and then the five symbols transform into another random five, after which you get paid again by the second combo.
There are some rules here as well. For example, you can’t get a second prize if you get paid by five scatters or five wilds. If a wild helps form a combo of five, then the feature doesn’t trigger. You need five matching regular symbols in order to trigger this feature. Only the base game spins benefit from it, so it doesn’t apply to free spins.
Mystery Features Bonus
The bonus game offered by Secret Santa is triggered at random, so you can’t do anything to get it started. Once it starts, it will give you access to one of the 7 mystery features.
Wild Reels is going to turn up to three reels completely wild, giving you another chance at forming combinations. Wild Boost will turn a random regular symbol into a wild one. Free Spins is a feature which gives you 5 games for free and wins multiplied by 3x for the duration. Mystery Multiplier is the feature which gives you wins that are multiplied by 5x or by 10x. With Dashing Wilds, you get four of these extra wilds, which will land in random positions. Scatter Spree is another one, a feature where all symbols form combinations from scattered positions, so they don’t even have to be on neighboring reels, plus the prizes pay as multiples of the total bet. The Rolling Reels feature is the last one on the list, giving you multipliers of up to 12x for consecutive wins, formed by pushing off the screen the symbols that are part of combinations.
Betting options and jackpots
You have to use 50 lines at all times when the bets are made, and that’s enough to cover the 1024 ways to win. $0.50 is the minimum bet, while $25 is the maximum. Up to 10 coins are used per line, with denominations between $0.01 and $0.05.
You are promised a 100x the bet top payout, meaning 50,000 coins for you, or up to $2,500. You can get it with the scatter symbol’s help.
Design and symbols
The game has a lot of design elements that I’m not a fan of, and I’m talking here mostly about the playing card suits that are used by Secret Santa. However, there are some very cool symbols as well, the ones themed around the Christmas holiday. With Santa , gifts and various delicious foods that you eat during the holidays, the game should be a good choice if you want to get into the mood for the holidays.
Symbols: Secret Santa Logo (wild, 800x), Scatter (scatter, 100x bet), Santa (500x), Christmas Tree (400x), Fireplace (200x), Toys (200x), Stuffed Bird (100x), Funnel Cake (100x), Spade (75x), Hearts (75x), Diamond (60x) and Clubs (60x).
Is It Worth Playing?
I’ve enjoyed the game, mostly because it has so many ways to win and thanks to the cool features available in it. The 5 of a Kind feature is a lot of fun to get, with the mystery features also being interesting when you can get them.
The Secret Santa slot machine is offered through the Microgaming platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
