Sleighin' It Slots
As the year speeds ahead, we're coming toward one of the biggest holidays there is - Christmas. And that means a slew - or a sleigh - of Christmas slot game releases to check out.
Today, we're going to look at Sleighin' It, which must surely win the prize for the best title this year. It certainly packs in lots of festive touches, and perhaps one or two surprises as well. Follow us here as we review it for you.
Which developer is behind the Sleighin' It slot?
This is Betsoft's effort for this festive season.
The demo version is easy to access
You might need to be a member of casinos offering this game, but you should easily be able to try the slot before working out whether you want to bet on the real version.
More details about the theme
The theme is set at Christmas, with plenty of snows and fir trees in the background. There's even a candy cane-inspired fence! The theme continues onto the reels too, offering baubles of various colors for the lower-valued icons, and plenty of other festive treats for the bigger payers.
So, this has a truly Christmassy design then?
Absolutely, and it looks great.
What to expect when you check out the Sleighin' It slot
Five reels sit inside a wooden frame, with four symbols on each reel. You'll soon notice the four progressive jackpots above those reels as well - marked as Mini, Minor, Major, and Mega, with the final one being the biggest of the lot.
There is a wild here, shaped like four gifts on top of each other and each carrying one of the WILD letters. This means it is a wild reel, replacing everything apart from the bonus bag of gifts. You can net one, two, or three wild reels on a spin, after which point all wins are paid out.
Plenty of paylines in this festive online slot game
You've got 30 to look at in Sleighin' It.
Get ready to place those bets
Sleighin' It begins with a 30-cent wager at the bottom end of the scale. It then goes through a few other possible values to reach the maximum wager of $24, so things do stay on the low side for this one.
The usual info logo reveals the paytable
You might have seen this in other Betsoft slots, sitting below the line that separates the first and second reels in this case.
Bonus features in the Sleighin' It slot
Get ready for stacked mystery symbols to appear during the game. All positions that land on a spin transform into the same icon, so this is cool to see if it occurs.
How about asking Santa for some free spins?
You only need his sack of gifts and not the man himself to do this, requiring three sacks anywhere on reels one, three, and five to trigger them. The game offers a choice of four possibilities at this stage. You can go for 20 spins with a single wandering wild reel or drop to 12 free spins to get two wandering wild reels. The third option offers only eight spins, but you'll receive three wandering wild reels for that. Finally, you can go for the mystery choice of one of the above. Not surprisingly, given the potential in this round, you can't trigger more freebies while playing it.
Do we know the RTP for Sleighin' It?
Betsoft tends to be clear about the return to player percentages on its games, and the same is true this time around as well. In this case, it comes out at 96.19%, so it's a fraction above the preferred level most people like to see.
Our rating: Is Sleighin' It a fine festive slot game to play?
We think it's a cool game, and the linked progressives offer something new for this developer. The odds of snagging one of those are long, as you'd expect, but someone might get a nice festive surprise. All told, the other features here lead us to a score of 8.5 out of 10.
How about the winning possibilities?
The top prize given on the loading screen for Sleighin' It is way lower than we were expecting to see, confirmed as 568x your bet. It offers a higher volatility level too, so the two don't seem to match. However, we know there is a linked progressive jackpot in this one, and we think that explains it.
The progressive feature requires a random trigger, so you never know when it might appear. The jackpots are linked too, connecting with certain other games in the Betsoft collection. They mention a progressive reel offering a single spin, so we guess you spin that to see if you can get one of those prizes.
Demo play makes the best beginning
You'll be able to tell what's involved when playing the slot. While your real play session won't replicate the one you get via the demo, you'll see how it all looks and feels before playing the real game if you decide to do so.
And if you do decide to play for real?
You can find Sleighin' It at all participating Betsoft casinos.
Expect a fine performance on mobile platforms too
Android and iOS users won't miss out on this festive treat.