Santa’s Xmas Rush Slot Review

The Santa’s Xmas Rush Slot Game

Did y’all read about the Venezuelan president declaring Christmas in October? While you may think it’s a joke, online slot developers have started following in his footsteps. For instance, with two months to go, Pragmatic Play has created this festive-themed adventure.

As expected, the joyful Father Christmas graces the screen beside the 6x6 reels. He’s ready to start delivering presents despite the wintery and snowy weather.

Santa’s Xmas Rush takes you to the outdoors for its base game, with everything covered in thick snow. However, if you start freezing, you should aim for the free spins that take you indoors.

The festive carols rocking the airwaves and the shining Northern Lights add glamour to the design, making it more exciting. However, it’s nothing never seen before.

Explore more Christmas-themed slots:

Sweet Bonanza Xmas

Symbols and Payouts

As is usual with cluster-paying slots, you’ll only encounter a few symbols in this game. However, they are all thematic, comprising anything related to a traditional Christmas celebration.

You have seven regular symbols to work with when completing winning clusters. So, all you must do is spin the reels and hope for a block of 6+ identical symbols connected horizontally or vertically. All the payouts indicated in the paytable reflect the currently selected stake!

The low-paying category in Santa’s Xmas Rush has Blue, Purple, Green, and Red Xmas-decoration gems. They are worth 0.25-2.5x, 0.3-4x, 0.4-6x, and 0.5-7.5x the stake, respectively.

Then, the high-winning symbols include the Rocking Deer, Gingerbread Man, and Xmas Stockings. They give out 1-12.5x, 1.5-20x, and 2-25x the bet, respectively.    

You won’t find a wild here, translating to non-win substitutions. Instead, the game only employs a Snowglobe scatter and Santa symbols for its features. I’ll dissect them and all the features below.

Santa’s Xmas Rush Slot Bonus Features

Tumbles are a significant part of this festive experience. In addition, it also comes with an Xmas Rush feature, free spins, an ante bet, and a bonus buy.

Tumble Feature

After win evaluations, this feature removes all the paying symbols except the scatter. The remaining symbols drop to the screen’s bottom, while new symbols from above replace the empty positions. The cascades continue as long as winning combinations appear due to a tumble.

Xmas Rush Feature 

Randomly, in the Santa’s Xmas Rush base game, 3-8 reel positions may get a snowflake mark. After all the tumbles from that spin, if at least one Santa symbol is on the reels, all the marked positions may reveal a 0.5x to 2,500x bet instant money award or a re-spin.

You get the accumulated direct money award instantly if you don't get the re-spin. However, the direct money awards will be collected if you also reveal the re-spin, revealing new prizes. If you get more Santa symbols on the screen during the reveal, the total number of Santa symbols on the screen will multiply the direct money awards.   

Free Spins

Manage 4-7 scatters to trigger 10, 14, 18, or 22 free spins, respectively. During this bonus, the snowflakes don’t randomly appear. Instead, every paying combo that explodes during the round can randomly add a snowflake mark to any exploded positions.

The snowflake marks stay on the screen until the round ends. However, it’s impossible to retrigger this feature.

Ante Bet

Santa’s Xmas Rush offers two ante-bet options that alter how the game behaves:

• 30x bet multiplier - triples the chance to win the free spins naturally. But it turns off the ante bet option below and the buy feature.

• 60x stake multiplier - octuples the chance to win the free spins naturally. It also deactivates the ante bet above and the buy feature.

Bonus Buy

You can instantly trigger the free spins from the base game by paying 120x the stake. After buying the feature, it guarantees 4-6 scatters to land on the triggering spin randomly.

How to Win at Santa’s Xmas Rush Slot

How do you perceive this Christmas adventure so far? I think it looks simplistic and should be easy for everyone to follow.

It uses an unusual 6x6 gameboard with a cluster-winning technique. Unlike the usual payline slots, you should aim for 6+ of the same symbols in horizontal and vertical touching positions anywhere on the reels.

Remember to change the bets between the €0.20 and €720 range before spinning the reels. If you’re lucky, you may secure up to 10,000x the bet after a successful spin.

You start the Santa’s Xmas Rush reels for a single round using the action button (crowned circle with two clockwise arrows). Or start several rounds automatically using the Autoplay function. Meanwhile, you can boost the reel spin speed using the Turbo or Quickspin buttons.

Santa’s Xmas Rush Slot RTP & Volatility

You better be ready for the high volatility characterised by less often payouts. However, it has a higher chance of quickly hitting big wins. Further, the slot’s RTP is above average at 96.51%. For the record, it changes, as per the game rules, when using the ante bet and buy features.

The Concluding Verdict

I won’t even lie: I’m excited for this year’s Christmas. And having slots themed around the festive holiday as early as two months away makes the anticipation much better. So, thanks to Pragmatic Play for reminding us that prepping early for the holidays is the way to go!

Although this video slot had a generic design and visuals, I wasn’t expecting anything different as it’s themed around a popular holiday. Furthermore, I loved the Borealis sky effect, thematic carols, and high-standard graphics, which evoked an immersive gambling experience.

Regarding the gameplay, at least Santa’s Xmas Rush wasn’t a cloned release. Its unique Xmas Rush feature employed snowflake marks that reward instant money awards or re-spins. Better still, the feature is active during the base game and free spins (where they are incessant.

But there aren’t any more features besides the ante bet and bonus buy, which you must spend extra to activate. Regardless, the biggest highlight was its 10,000 times the stake win cap. So, after analysing all the deets, I believe this fair production can stand tall among its competitors, making it worth checking out.