Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of the most popular stories around the festival of Christmas, and so Play’n GO decided to put out a video slot game based on this story. Players will have a lot of fun trying out this adventure, and in the grand tradition of Christmas, end up winning some presents for themselves as well.
This is a game played out on a 3×3 grid with five paylines, which is a little different to the usual setup of such slot games. It is set inside a comfortable house, with a roaring fireplace to the right and a heavily decorated Christmas tree on the left of the reels. The images are of high quality, and really help create the Christmas ambience, while there is an appropriate soundtrack as well. Players pick up wins for landing at least three symbols in combination across the reels.
The betting range for the game is from $/€/£0.10 to $/€/£100 per spin.
In keeping with the Christmas theme, you are likely to see candy canes, snow globes, Christmas stockings and holly wreaths all show up on the reels, while the three ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future are also in the game. Another ghost from the story also shows up, in the form of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s dead business partner who is doomed to roam the rest of eternity stuck in heavy metal chains as punishment for his life of greed and selfishness. Finally, Ebenezer Scrooge himself shows up as the game’s Wild, wearing a top hat and sporting a pretty impressive moustache. Jacob Marley will pay out 4x of your stake for landing three in combination, while Scrooge will deliver 16x for the same, while also replacing the other symbols like a regular Wild.
While Scrooge was not known for being too generous, this game certainly is, with quite a few bonuses that can really liven up your gaming experience. The first is Ebenezer’s Clock – an old clock that sits on top of the reels and can randomly be triggered on any spin, where it will add a multiplier boost to winning combinations. The potential multipliers are 2x, 3x, 5x or 10x. These rewards can even be doubled if the Ebenezer’s Gifts feature is also activated.
The Win Spins feature is triggered in a rather unusual way – it is activated when you land two full stacks of the same symbol, with an active multiplier, but without creating a winning combination. If this occurs, the stacked symbols are locked in place, with one of the three features being triggered –
Win Spins of Christmas Future: this is triggered if a 2x multiplier was active on the triggering spin, with respins taking place until a new winning combination lands. The multiplier increases to 3x, 4x, 5x and 10x for every successive spin without a winning combination.
Win Spins of Christmas Present: this round is activated if a 3x, 4x or 5x multiplier was active, with that multiplier being active for this round as well.
Win Spins of Christmas Past: here, the multiplier starts at 10x and decreases to 5x, 4x, 3x and 2x for every successive winless respin, although you are guaranteed a win on your last respin.
This is a low volatility game with an RTP of 96.54%
This is an interesting variation on the standard Christmas slot game, using a classic Charles Dickens story to provide a new twist, with some exciting wins possible in the bonus rounds to add to the Christmas cheer.