See Santa like you’ve never seen him before in Yggdrasil‘s Christmas slot game for the 2023/24 Holiday season! It looks like Santa’s bag is more full than it’s ever been before, promising prizes up to €1,000,000 for anyone looking to join him in his rebel-rocker phase. The RTP is quite solid at 96%, too, so you can have a lot of fun even if you don’t become an overnight millionaire. In fact, the Rock Star Santa slot game works with so-called Cluster Pays, which means there are no traditional paylines.
Be warned, though – Christmas spirit or no, Yggdrasil chose to describe the game’s volatility as “super high”. Considering this company is known for making searingly volatile games in the first place, that should tell you a lot. As such, this title is for the edgier kind of Santa fan – one who isn’t afraid of risk. Of course, Yggdrasil is also known for beautiful games and attention to detail, which can clearly be seen with this release as well.
Yggdrasil tends to put originality and production value above all else. As such, Rock Star Santa is much different than most traditional slot machines. Our gameplay guide below will tell you everything you need to know about the game and its systems.
SHOW MORESHOW MORESHOW LESSIn order to win in Rock Star Santa, you don’t have to hit specific lines, but rather 5 or more symbols of the same kind in a group. The game features a 6×6 grid, providing ample space for you to achieve multiple wins at the same time. To secure a win, the symbols must form a ‘cluster’ where all matching symbols are connected to each other either vertically or horizontally. The more symbols of the same type you cluster up together, the more you win.
There are 4 low-paying symbols in the game, which look like Christmas tree ornaments. The (relatively) high-paying symbols depict the rocking Santa and his band, which includes two elves and Rudolf the raindeer. Of course, most payouts you’re likely to see are quite modest. They only start becoming impressive with large clusters of 15+ symbols. Thankfully, the payouts can become much bigger once you factor in the special features.
Another key part of the base Rock Star Santa casino game is symbol cascades. All winning symbols are removed from the grid and replaced by new ones, which fall from above. This gives you a shot at winning again and again in the same round. Additionally, a Wild symbol is added onto the board before the cascade every time you win.
Wild symbols can substitute for any other regular symbol in the game and can be parts of winning clusters with them. Additionally, every time a Wild hits it adds a multiplier above its reel. It starts at 2x after a single win and grows by +1 with every subsequent Wild. In the base game, this multiplier resets after a losing spin.
Landing 3, 4, or 5 Scatter symbols anywhere on the table awards the player with 7, 8, or 11 free spins, respectively. Every time this happens you can choose to gamble your Rock Star Santa free spins in hopes of winning more. If you win the luck-based wheel game, you win 2 additional spins (unless you already have 11.) Losing means you lose all your free spins, so gamble with care.
Additionally, the reel multipliers described above do not reset on losing free spins.
Another special type of symbol in Rock Star Santa by Yggdrasil is the Present. IT can land at any point, awarding you random prize. This can be a lump cash payment of up to 100x your stake, free spins, or 4 Wilds. Different prizes are offered during free spins.
Also, there’s an option to buy free spins. You can pay 75x the bet to win anywhere between 7-11 spins, or pay 250x for 11 guaranteed spins. Another form of Feature Buy is available via the Golden Bet. Activating this feature applies a 25% fee on all bets, but doubles the chance of triggering free spins during the base game.
Even a quick look at the Yggdrasil Rock Star Santa slot game will tell you this isn’t just another Christmas release. Yggdrasil wanted to make it more than just a way to profit off the Holiday excitement, and we would say it succeeded. Especially considering that most Christmas-themed slot games offer very little beyond the theme, as any seasoned online gambler will tell you.
For starters, the combination of cluster wins, cascades, added wilds, and growing reel multipliers makes for some exciting moments. The theme was also given a nice rock-and-roll twist. It’s interesting if nothing else, and it shows us that Yggdrasil purposefully avoided falling for the usual tropes.
At its core, though, Rock Star Santa simply combines multiple features we’ve seen from this company in the past. That’s standard practice in slot game making, of course, but it’s obvious if you have any experience with Yggdrasil titles. The Rock Star Santa slot is far from our favourite from this company’s illustrious portfolio, but it’s still a nice way to spend some time during this special time of the year.
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