Santa’s Xmas Rush

Santa’s Xmas Rush Review

Santa's Xmas Rush slot is Pragmatic Play’s 2024 Christmas contribution, taking you on a festive journey to the North Pole. The game is set against a snowy landscape, with a jolly Santa Claus standing beside the decorated 6x6 grid. The symbols include classic Christmas imagery like stockings filled with candy, gingerbread men, reindeer, and colorful gemstone baubles.

To win, you need to land at least 6 matching symbols in a cluster, and clusters connect horizontally and/or vertically anywhere on the grid. A maxed-out winning cluster of 12+ symbols awards between 2.5x and 25x your stake. The game doesn't have any Wild symbols, but the Tumble feature helps create more winning opportunities by removing winning symbols and allowing new ones to fall into their place.

Santa’s Xmas Rush Slot - Reels Screen

If you thought multiplier symbols were on the Xmas menu, like I initially did, you might be disappointed. Instead, Santa's Xmas Rush slot features randomly appearing marked positions. When a Santa collector symbol lands, these marked positions reveal cash prizes worth up to 2,500x, collected by each Santa in view. A respin may provide extra prizes. In the bonus round, the marked positions are persistent, awarding cash prizes each time Santa symbols land.

With a max win of 10,000x your stake, Santa's Xmas Rush has the potential to cover your Christmas expenses and then some, but this is a highly volatile game that can be unforgiving at times. If eligible, you can also choose to play with 2 different Ante Bet options, boosting your bonus round chances by up to 8 times. The game has a solid top-tier RTP of 96.51 %, but lower RTP settings are a possibility to beware of. With bet levels ranging from €0.2 to €240, you may spin your way to an early Christmas.

Santa’s Xmas Rush Features

Marked positions turn into cash symbols if collected by Santa symbols, and winning tumbles can produce persistent marked positions in the bonus round. Let’s take a closer look!

Ante Bet (not UK)

There are 2 Ante Bet options available for eligible players. You can either pay 50 % extra per spin to triple your bonus round chances or pay 3x your stake to boost your bonus round chances by 8 times. Since the organic bonus round hit rate is 1 in 395.84 spins, Ante Bet options 1 and 2 give you a hit rate of 1 in 131.94 spins or 1 in 49.48 spins, respectively.

Tumble Wins

Winning symbols are removed via the Tumble Wins mechanic, allowing existing and new symbols to drop down to fill the gaps. This cascading process repeats indefinitely as long as you keep forming new winning clusters.

Xmas Rush Feature

In the base game, 3 to 8 positions can be randomly marked with a snowflake. If a Santa symbol is present, these positions reveal random cash prizes worth 0.5x to 200x, 2,500x, or random prizes plus a respin. The respin plays out after the current prizes are collected, adding more prizes to your total win and potentially additional Santa collectors as well. Each present Santa symbol collects all prizes, meaning the prizes can be collected up to multiple times.

Santa’s Xmas Rush Free Spins

The Bonus Round triggers from 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatters in view, awarding 10, 14, 18, or 22 free spins, respectively. Instead of snowflakes being added randomly like in the base game, winning combinations will randomly add snowflakes to positions after the symbols are removed. The snowflake positions are persistent for the duration of the bonus round, awarding cash prizes whenever you land a Santa symbol. You cannot win extra spins or retrigger the free spins round.

Santa’s Xmas Rush Slot - Free Spins

Santa’s Xmas Rush Bonus Buy (not UK)

Eligible players can purchase the bonus round for 120x the stake, awarding a triggering spin with 4 to 6 scatters.

Pros and Cons of Santa’s Xmas Rush

Our Verdict

I seldom get my hopes up when a new Christmas slot lands on my desk for a review. Usually, these games are reskinned versions of older slots or generic holiday-themed releases with uninspired features. However, unwrapping Santa's Xmas Rush game was a pleasant surprise. It turned out to not be the Gates Of Olympus clone I feared. While it certainly has a typical Xmas theme (complete with Santa's somewhat irritating laughter), it offers more than just a festive facade.

The marked positions that reveal cash prizes are a clever addition to the base game. They don't block regular wins when no Santa symbols are present, avoiding any interruption of the gameplay unless the prizes are collected. While you’re bound to get lower cash prizes most of the time, the respins feature will sometimes come to the rescue. It not only dishes out extra prizes but potentially lands you additional collector Santas for a multiplier boost.

The bonus round, where marked positions are persistently building throughout the feature, can be truly rewarding if you manage to accumulate a good number of them. Of course, it can be equally frustrating if you don’t land the Santa symbols you need to collect the prizes. The high volatility means you will be showered with gifts one moment and left with coal in your stocking the next. As always, the bonus buy price provides a glimpse into the average outcome.

Overall, Santa's Xmas Rush slot is a decent option if you’re looking for some festive fun this holiday season, and it’s a big plus that Pragmatic Play has taken the time and effort to create something original. The 10,000x potential is solid enough, and the game's innovative cash collection system shows promise. Knowing Pragmatic Play, I wouldn't be surprised to see this mechanic appear in future releases as well.