Wonders of Christmas
Net Entertainment’s Wonders of Christmas online slot offers players a different type of holiday experience. The graphics and presentation are better than most games in the industry period, and the gameplay style offers something much different than the run of the mill options.
Casinos with Wonders of Christmas
- Wonders of Christmas
An Introduction to the Wonders of Christmas Slot
When you think of holiday-themed online slots, you typically think of a whole lot of ways to win. Getting gifts of payouts in this way is common in titles like Merry Megaways. However, NetEnt went a different path with their Wonders of Christmas video slot.
The payout opportunities in this game are a lot more feature-centric. When mixed with some atypical game mechanics, you’ll have a pretty unique overall experience with this title.
First we have to talk about the presentation because it’s simply the best we’ve seen in a long time in the holiday sub-genre. Everything happens with snow falling slowly all around the reels. Additionally, a beautiful holiday wreath is shown on both the left and right of the reels. However, that’s all before you get to the symbols on the game board. This includes all of the Christmas trappings like Santa’s sleigh, stockings full of goodies and more.
Once you get used to how amazing this title looks, you’ll get to really understand how atypical the gameplay is. For one, it has a hexagon-shaped layout. That’s not all that strange overall, but it gives a hint about how some of the features work. Additionally, as we mentioned up above, this title has some game mechanics that aren’t particularly common. This gives players ways to win some holiday payouts pretty easily without having to feel like you’re playing a copy of other games with similar themes and concepts.
Betting and Layout
The layout here is definitely different. However, don’t let that intimidate you or throw you off. Once you read through our breakdown below, you’ll understand it completely. Along these lines, here’s what we think you should know before jumping in to play.
- While five vertical reels are used in this slot, the number of symbols in each reel is not uniform. You have three symbols in the first and last with four in the second and fourth and five in the center reel.
- The end result is a hexagon type of shape, which actually comes into play with some of the game mechanics.
- As for regular wins, they happen according to a set of 20 predefined paylines.
- Like what is often found in more typical layouts, the paylines only run from left to right. Additionally, Net Entertainment does not allow you to play with fewer than 20 in this game.
- A grant total of 39 betting increments are available. They’re all listed in an easy to use grid system where you simply click or tap on the amount you want.
- Along these lines, the minimum bet size is just €0.20 per turn. You can also wager up to €50 per turn, and a lot of increments are available in between.
Other Information
The feature set in this game is largely set up around increasing potential multipliers for a free spins mode. On the other hand, the regular game mode doesn’t have a particularly high hit-rate. Since the multipliers can get pretty high for the free spins before it actually triggers, the volatility is pretty high in this game. In fact, we think it’s about as high as we’ve generally seen in a non-progressive title. That’s something to keep in mind because the swings will be larger than usual on average.
If you look at the pay schedule, wins are listed in their currency amounts. Likewise, they adjust themselves up and down when you change your bet size. However, in what follows, we’ll talk about them in terms of multiples of your bet size overall. We believe this to be the way that makes it the most clear to players how much they can win in different situations regardless of their actual chosen bet size.
Gameplay and Features for the Wonders of Christmas Video Slot
We love atypical gameplay elements that are mixed into common themes. A good example of this is how the wilds are treated in the Wild Stocking slot. With that said, Net Entertainment took this idea to a different level in their Wonders of Christmas online slot. This is done by leveraging the atypical, hexagon-shaped format as much as possible. However, while it’s atypical, don’t let it turn you off of this game. It’s pretty intuitive once you see how it works once or twice.
Wild Gift Symbols
Considering that this game centers around the Christmas holiday, it’s not surprising that the most important symbol in the game is a gift. This gift has a gorgeous red and gold look to it, and it’s also the wild symbol. The wild pays along the following lines:
- Five of a Kind – 5x
- Four of a Kind – 2.5x
- Three of a Kind – 1x
Note that you can get situations where a single wild intersects on multiple paylines. This is especially possible with the hexagon-like layout. We point this out because the wild’s purpose is determined on a per-like basis. What this means is that it’s possible for a single wild to substitute for multiple symbols at the same time on different intersecting paylines. We just don’t want players to be confused in situations where this happens.
Additionally, the functionality of the wilds for substitution or acting as their own payouts work similarly. That is to say, it’s determined on a line-by-line basis to give the best individual payout possible for each line. Consider if you have three wilds followed by two trains from left to right on a payline. Three wilds pays 1x, but five trains earns 2.5x. This game will default to giving you the latter payout because it’s the largest available.
Golden Frames and the Multiplier Meter
When a wild gift lands, it adds a golden frame to that symbol position. At random, these golden frames can also become active, which turns the gift golden. However, if you have one of these golden gifts, that symbol position will also be wild on the following spin. This is much like a sticky wild. Additionally, any adjacent position with a golden frame will turn into wild symbols. This process continues up to five times, which can cause wild symbols to spread quite a bit.
On top of that, each gift that lands on a spot with a frame adds numbers to the multiplier bar. Once it feels, the multiplier for the next free spins mode increases. This can go all the way up to a multiplier of 1,000x with a variety of increments in between. Additionally, this is a source of a lot of the volatility in the Wonders of Christmas video slot.
Wonders of Christmas Free Spins
The Christmas tree is the scatter symbol in this game. However, it only makes an appearance on the second, third and fourth reels. When all three land simultaneously, you start out with three free spins.
During this features, you can only land gold coins on the game board. All of the framed positions that weren’t turned into wilds lock into place to give random prizes worth up to 50x apiece. Additionally, any gold coins you land gives another payout worth as much as 50x while resetting the number of free spins to three. This feature is over when you fill the game board or when you run out of free turns.
At the end of this feature, all of your wins on the board are added together. That total is then multiplied by the total multiplier you reached with the meter at the top. Note however that you will have all of your golden frames cleared after this feature is over and start fresh.
How to Win at Wonders of Christmas
As you can see from the potential 1,000x multipliers, the volatility is exceptional in this title. The only types of games we normally see with higher levels of volatility are those with big progressive jackpots. Nonetheless, it is possible to make a simple betting adjustment to normalize things a bit.
Consider lowering your bet size by around 33 to 40 percent of what you’d normally go with. From there, the volatility with respect to your starting bet size will be quite a bit lower. We realize that some players don’t care for these types of adjustments, and that’s fine. This is just a recommendation for those who particularly dislike a high volatility but still want to enjoy this game.
Payout Structure for the Wonders of Christmas Online Slot
Santa’s sleigh is exactly what you want to hear on your rooftop. However, it serves as the best-paying non-wild symbol no matter where it lands. This includes a 5x payout for five of a kind combinations. From there, both the red toy train and the golden gingerbread house can earn you 2.5x prizes. Additionally, the win for five of the blue snow globe and green stocking filled with goodies is 1.2x apiece.
The lower level symbols in this game consist of card ranks that have a great look. For one, the font has a thin appearance with interesting holiday-like serifs. However, it’s unclear whether they are supposed to be made of thin pieces of gingerbread or if they are simply golden in color. Regardless, you’ll earn 0.9x when you line up five of the A or K symbols on a payline. Wins of 0.6x are also available when five of a kind combinations of the Q or J are landed. Finally, you can get five of the 10 symbol on a payline for a 0.4x prize.
Overview
From a visual standpoint, we believe that the Wonders of Christmas slot is a bit better than the Santa’s Great Gifts title. However, it’s not by a lot. Net Entertainment was just really on their “A game” with the production of this game.
With that said, the gameplay is also strong and includes some good features. There aren’t so many that it’s difficult to keep up with, but there are definitely enough to keep things interesting.
FAQ
Which online casinos have Wonders of Christmas?
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What is the Return to Player (RTP) for Wonders of Christmas?
The Wonders of Christmas RTP is 96.05%. An RTP of 96.05% puts Wonders of Christmas among slots with an average Return to Players. To be a high RTP slot it would have to be 98% or more.