Santa's Wonderland: Slot Overview
Pragmatic Play leaps on the seasonal bandwagon with a
Christmas themed slot called Santa's Wonderland. In keeping ❤️ with tradition, the studio
has followed the trend of taking an already made game, in this case, Gems Bonanza and
❤️ giving it a Xmas makeover. It's not a 100% carbon copy of the older slot, as some of
the stats ❤️ and rules have changed slightly, but the bulk remains the same, so if you've
played one, you've definitely played the ❤️ other.
The emphasis in Santa's Wonderland is
on gifts, toys specifically and judging by the name, it appears we are in ❤️ Santa's
workshop at some stage in the process. Most probably the final stage, as evidenced by
the piles of bow-tied ❤️ packages ready to squeeze onto Santa's sleigh for their one-night
trip around the world. Pragmatic Play has devised a nice ❤️ enough Christmas image, though
most of the screen is taken up by a big 8x8 sized grid, covered in trinkets, ❤️ and
surrounded by a feature clock, a meter, and a bonus buy button. Cluttered, but in a
warm Christmas way.
Santa's ❤️ Wonderland is a cluster paying grid slot, forming wins when
5 matching symbols land adjacent to each other in horizontal ❤️ or vertical directions.
Winning clusters trigger the tumble feature, which removes them, allowing new or
existing symbols on the grid ❤️ to fill the gaps. This can create additional cluster wins
from the same spin, ending when no more wins appear. ❤️ One area where Santa's Wonderland
deviates slightly from Gems Bonanza is in an RTP reduction from 96.51% to the current
❤️ value of 96.23%. It does retain a highly volatile math model, though the max win has
also decreased. Not a ❤️ very Christmassy move, yet there you go. Players who still want
to take on the big man can do so ❤️ on any device by selecting bets of 20 p/c toR$/€100
per spin.
Toys and baubles rule the paytable, starting with blue, ❤️ green, red, and
orange decoration low pays worth 5 to 12.5x the bet for a cluster consisting of 20-24
symbols. ❤️ High pays are toy planes, trains, and teddy bears; these ones are worth 25 to
100x your stake for a ❤️ 20-24 symbol cluster. The last symbol for this section is the
bushy-bearded Santa wild. Wild Santas appear in any position ❤️ to substitute for all
symbols. It does not hit organically, however, but as part of the Wild Santa or Lucky
❤️ Santa features. Wilds can connect with more than one symbol type at the same time to
help compete clusters.
Santa's Wonderland: ❤️ Slot Features
Working hand in hand with the
cluster paying tumble system is a bunch of snowflake features and a Midnight ❤️ Riches
Meter, which sends players on a 5-level bonus round if enough winning symbols are
collected.
Snowflake Modifiers
When each new spin ❤️ starts, 5 snowflakes appear in random
cells on the grid beneath the regular symbols. If a winning cluster forms on ❤️ top of a
snowflake, its respective modifier is triggered once the current tumble sequence
ends.
Blue Snowflake - Awards Refresh. The ❤️ grid is cleared of all symbols except wilds,
and new symbols tumble onto the screen.
- Awards Refresh. The grid is ❤️ cleared of all
symbols except wilds, and new symbols tumble onto the screen. Purple Snowflake – Awards
Wild Santa. All ❤️ instances of the same symbol type are transformed into wilds.
– Awards
Wild Santa. All instances of the same symbol type ❤️ are transformed into wilds. Yellow
Snowflake – Awards Blocks. Random 2x2 sized blocks of the same symbol type are added ❤️ in
random positions on the board.
– Awards Blocks. Random 2x2 sized blocks of the same
symbol type are added in ❤️ random positions on the board. Red Snowflake – Awards
Supersize. A random block of 3x3, 4x4, or 5x5 of the ❤️ same symbol is added to the
grid.
– Awards Supersize. A random block of 3x3, 4x4, or 5x5 of the same ❤️ symbol is
added to the grid. Green Snowflake – Awards Lucky Santa. Adds 5 to 15 wild symbols to
the ❤️ screen in random positions.
If more than one snowflake is won on the same spin,
they play out in the order ❤️ they are listed in above.
Midnight Riches Progressive
Feature
On every spin, the number of winning symbols is collected in the Midnight
❤️ Riches meter. When 140 symbols have been collected, the Midnight Riches feature is
triggered. The feature begins at level 1 ❤️ and activates all spin modifiers mentioned
above, once per level, and all wins are multiplied by 3. Collecting winning symbols
❤️ during the Midnight Riches feature progresses players to higher levels, like
so:
Collect 116 winning symbols to activate level 2 which ❤️ plays with an x6 multiplier
.
to activate which plays with an . Collect 120 winning symbols to activate level 3
❤️ which plays with an x9 multiplier .
to activate which plays with an . Collect 124
winning symbols to activate level ❤️ 4 which plays with an x12 multiplier .
to activate
which plays with an . Collect 132 winning symbols to activate ❤️ level 5 which plays with
an x15 multiplier.
The feature ends when not enough symbols have been collected to move
to ❤️ the next level, or if all spin features from level 5 have been played.
Buy Midnight
Riches
For the cost of 100x ❤️ the stake, players can buy the Midnight Riches feature from
the base game. The same five levels may be progressed ❤️ through by following the
collection requirements laid out above.
Santa's Wonderland: Slot Verdict
If there's one
guy who must be concerned with ❤️ population growth, it's got to be Santa Claus. The first
billion people was reached around the year 1800, and it ❤️ took just 200 more years to hit
7 billion. If the growth rate continues like this, how's the guy going ❤️ to fit all those
presents in his sack, let alone find the time to visit everybody? Maybe he does that
❤️ thing in movies where a normal-sized sack is actually magical and opens into a
limitless space which can hold whatever's ❤️ thrown in, like Hermione's magic bag in Harry
Potter?
Leaving the realms of fiction, Pragmatic Play made a pretty good decision ❤️ when
they chose to base Santa's Wonderland on Gems Bonanza. Studios don't often build Xmas
games around cluster paying grid ❤️ slots, so the additional choice could be a welcome one
on Christmas Day. Santa's Wonderland is an entertaining option, too, ❤️ with a potentially
thrilling roller coaster of a bonus game that builds nicely through the levels if
enough wins occur.
The ❤️ main problems with Santa's Wonderland are that the changes don't
feel like they were done in a Christmas spirit. Let's ❤️ see, symbol values are less, more
winning symbols are needed to trigger the features, RTP has been reduced, and potential
❤️ is markedly less. Pragmatic has reeled in the max win from Gem Bonanza's 10,000x to the
7,500x on offer in ❤️ Santa's Wonderland. Add them all up, and it feels like something
Scrooge would pull - before he turned benevolent.
While copying ❤️ an older game isn't the
most original move, Gems Bonanza wasn't a hotbed of originality anyway as it followed
the ❤️ template laid down by the likes of Play'n GO, reliant as it is on collecting
winning symbols to trip features. ❤️ Even still, Santa's Wonderland is a playable grid
slot, capable of slinging off some satisfying Santa infused entertainment.
