Santa’s Wild Night

Santa’s Wild Night Overview

With so many Christmas-themed releases, it isn't easy to keep track of which ones are any good. However, we should start by saying that this slot created by the consummate designer Spinomenal definitely deserves your attention. With a raft of exciting features, a rich and interesting visual appeal and plenty of pay lines, this slot has a lot going for it. The only real letdown is the relatively small top prize of just 1,000x the stake. If you are into high-quality gaming experiences with a festive twist, though, this is about as good as it gets. The RTP is even pretty good.

The features for this game are, as we have said, plentiful. These begin with the Mystery Snowball feature, triggered when three or more snowball icons land in view. When this happens, an enormous snowball enters the centre of the screen and begins to spin, delivering either a bonus game or the free spins round. The bonus game is a wheel of fortune game that gives you the chance to win jackpots or various multipliers. The free spins game is triggered by filling a meter on the side of the board with specific symbols. Once full, the game provides players with five free spins. Finally, there is the Christmas Surprise feature. All bonuses will be explained in more detail later on in the review.

Theme and Symbols

Once again, the theme for games around this time of year is Christmas. This means a Santa's grotto, plenty of presents, lots of gingerbread men, as well as cold winter's nights with roaring fires. As Christmas themes go, this one is pretty simple with very little elaborate detail designed to leave the player in awe. No, this theme comprises a simple setting with snowy surroundings. Santa's Wild night is probably a reference to a particularly tempestuous night riding his sleigh rather than anything more sordid in connotations.

The background is an icy tundra, with a warm and cosy looking house in the foreground. There isn't much else to be said at this point, as the playing board takes up so much of the screen room that players cannot see much else.
The playing board is an icy black rectangle decorated in blue Christmas lights.

The symbols for this game are split into low-value, high-value and special symbols. The low-value symbols are the 10, J, Q, K and A in playing card royals. Each of these payout at exactly the same rates – 2x the stake for the top combination. On the other hand, the higher value symbols are the bell, present, bauble, and gingerbread man. However, the most valuable symbol is the big man himself, Santa, who pays out at 6x the stake for the top combination. Finally, there are the special symbols. These are the mystery symbol and the wild symbol. The wild symbol replaces other standard symbols to help score more wins.

Game Play

Santa's Wild Night is played on a 5-reel, 4-row machine with 1024 fixed pay lines. To win combinations, players must land three or more matching symbols on pay lines moving from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel.

The betting range for Santa's Wild Night is 1p to £10 per spin. To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stake up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information, including a short tutorial and a display of the paytable, can be found via the menu button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The spin and auto spin buttons are located in the centre of the screen.

Volatility for this slot is rated in the low range. The return to player percentage for Santa's Wild Night is 96%, which is average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 1,000x your stake.

Features

The first feature in this game is the Mystery snowballs feature. This bonus is triggered when three or more Snowball symbols come into view at the same time on the board. A huge snowball then forms in the middle of the screen and spins to select either the bonus game or the free spins, awarding players with either one.

The bonus game is basically a wheel of fortune game that gives players one spin to try and win one of three jackpots or a multiplier of up to 1,000x the bet.

The free spins game is triggered either via the mystery snowballs feature or by collecting five scattered Santa Clause symbols on the board to fill bonus meters on the side of the board. When triggered, you will then be granted five free spins.
Finally, there is the Christmas Surprise feature. During the base game, the feature has a chance to trigger randomly. When it does, it can award an extra 4-7 of the medium value symbols to the reels, increasing the player's winning potential.

Conclusion

With lots of features, plenty of Christmas themed fun, and a decent set of statistics, this is a pretty good effort from Spinomenal. Granted, it's not going to win any awards, but it is a lot better than the majority of poorly cobbled together festive slots you might see this time of year. If you're looking for a solid slot to play in your comfy chair by an open fire this year, you could do a lot worse than Santa's Wild Night.