Snow falls onto trees and a decorated workshop behind the reels, and there’s a Christmassy tune that adds to the seasonal joy across desktops, Android, iOS, or Windows mobiles at our recommended mobile casinos. This delightful scene frames a set of reels filled with wreath-style playing card symbols, a gingerbread man, golden bells, and striped candies. A snow globe and rocking horse pay the top prizes when they cross any of the 75 paylines, and like the rest of the game, they are highly detailed symbols, with a slight 3D effect.
Red baubles on the reels and to the side are key to an explosion of wilds on every tenth spin, and the number of baubles increases with each appearance of the Holiday Robber. This tough-looking cartoon character wears a Santa hat and colourful lights are draped around his neck. Even more wilds can appear during a free spins bonus round.
The bet range of 0.20 to 20.00 per spin makes this a game more suited to low to mid-stakes players. There’s also a relatively low maximum win multiplier of 359x your bet, so it’s not a game that’s going to make anyone rich. However, you can buy your way straight into the free games for 27x, 50x, or 95x your bet level, depending on how many extra wilds you want in play throughout.
It’s easy to set up and play at the top online pokies sites, and you select your bet level with clicks on a scroll bar under the reels. The button showing an arrow in a circle activates Autoplay mode, and the 3 little lines on the control panel open up settings like Turbo speed, or sound effects.
To see how much you win from each symbol, press the ‘I’ tab to the left of the controls. This takes you through to a paytable that lists all potential wins at your current bet. Playing card symbols are worth up to 0.3x the stake when filling a whole payline, with the snow globe paying 3x the stake when 5 land across a line.
A red bauble by the spin button counts down from 10 to 0. During the countdown, any Holiday Robber symbols turn into identical ornament bombs and stick in place until the counter runs out. Then they all explode, turning into wild symbols that act as others, and while a prize isn’t guaranteed, you will usually pick up a nice gift of winning combinations from this fun feature.
Santa’s sleigh is a special bonus symbol that awards 15 free spins when seen in any 3 or more spots. Any ornament bombs remain in place, with 5, 7, or 10 extra wilds added to the mix. These wilds move around the reels from free spin to free spin, helping to complete wins.
The Take Santa’s Shop pokies game has a medium volatility and average returns of 96.08%. The highest win multiplier is a slightly disappointing 359x your total bet, and with maximum stakes of 20.00 per spin, that adds up to just 7,180. It’s not the greatest gift from Santa.
Apart from the low win multiplier, the Take Santa’s Shop pokies is a fun game with some exciting features. It looks superb, with the usual top-quality graphics that have made Betsoft games so popular.
The countdown from 10 to 0 is certainly an attention-grabbing feature, particularly as more and more Holiday Robber symbols transform into red baubles, waiting to explode into wilds at the end. The free games with roaming wilds should be enough to collect a few payouts before the end, especially of you get 10 extra wilds throughout.
Unwrap this festive treat at our recommended online casino NZ sites, like the ones featured here at gambling.com.