Santa Express Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Santa Express Review

So far, 2022 seems to be a good year for Christmas slots, Santa Express is an above average release with a solid potential to boot. StakeLogic hasn’t done anything too unusual in the visual department, but the inclusion of the Christmas Grinch makes this game stick out in a positive way.

He plays a central part as the Wild, and wilds spawn from Cascading wins. They come with a multiplier that increases per consecutive cascade, and up to several multiplier wilds can move around when you’re on a winning streak. An overall win multiplier is assigned when the bonus round triggers, and you can win up to 20,000x your stake.

Santa Express Slot - Reels Screen

Santa Express Slot Features

The premium symbols pay between 1.25 and 10 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins, and the Grinch Wild steps in for pay symbols to help complete wins. The wild pays 25x your stake for 5 on a payline, and wild symbols only appear when the Collapsing Wild Symbols feature triggers. You can turn on Super Stake between base game spins, and it costs twice as much per spin. This doubles your bonus round chances.

Winning symbols are removed via the Cascading mechanic, and a Grinch Wild is then spawned in one of the empty positions.

The remaining positions get filled with new symbols, and the process continues if a new win is generated. This can spawn new wilds, or the existing wild may move to a different position. The wild multiplier is increased per consecutive cascade as well, up to x10 at best.

You need 3 Santa scatters on reels 3, 4 and 5 to trigger the Bonus Round, and this awards an upfront scatter win of 1.5x, 2.5x, or 25x your stake, respectively. You also get 8, 10, 12, or 15 free spins assigned randomly, and an equally randomly assigned win multiplier of x2, x3, x5 or x10. Finally, a random pay symbol is chosen to pay double during the bonus round.

You can retrigger the bonus round by landing 3, 4 or 5 scatters, and this awards 5, 8 or 10 extra spins, respectively.

The Buy Bonus menu is available in some jurisdictions, but not in the UK for sure. If available, you get the following options:

• Normal - pay 100x to get 8 to 15 free spins with a win multiplier of x10.
• Deluxe - pay 250x to get 15 free spins with a win multiplier up to x10, and this one also comes with a guaranteed premium symbol that doubles in value.
• Random - pay 175x to get a 50/50 chance of either of the bonus round versions.

The 200 Spins Santa Express Slot Experience

You get to see the Collapsing Wild Symbols feature in action in the base game, before we purchase the Deluxe bonus round around the 1-minute mark. It plays out for the remainder of the 4-minute highlights video, and you can check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

What makes this game stick out from run of the mill Xmas releases is the Grinch Wild. This green creature steals the show, just like he stole Christmas, and it’s a lot of fun when you manage to spawn multiple instances that move around in longer cascading sequences. When the wild multiplier increases, tension rises, and it can land you decent payouts also in the base game.

Everything is taken to a new level when the bonus round triggers, which is hardly unusual, and especially if you get a solid win multiplier. We have no idea how realistic the 20,000x win cap is, but at least larger payouts are possible. The Super Stake lights up the grid, and makes the game more visually pleasing, and we appreciate that StakeLogic is specific about the benefit this time. We enjoyed what’s on offer here at least, and this is far from the worst Xmas slot we’ve tried.

Pros

• Super Stake 2x FS chances (pay double per spin)
• Cascades spawn increasing multiplier wilds
• FS w/ up to x10 multiplier and random double value symbol
• Win up to 20,000x your stake

Cons

• Beware of customizable RTP ranges

If you enjoy Santa Express Slot you should also try:

Santa's Great Gifts - is Pragmatic Play’s contribution to the yearly Xmas installments, and it comes with a pay anywhere system.

Additive multiplier symbols up to x100 can boost your total cascading wins. These are collected in the bonus round, and this is how you upgrade the multiplier range for more lucrative symbols. The max win is 5,000x your stake.

Wonders of Christmas - is NetEnt’s seasonal installment in the Xmas genre, and it comes with a somewhat unusual 3-4-5-4-3 grid. Gift symbols turn positions wild, while also building the multiplier. It can go as high as x1,000, and the main attraction is the hold and win bonus which comes with a very solid 100,000x potential.

Saint Nicked - is the funniest and most “out there” Xmas slot we’ve tried so far this year, and it’s all about a tattooed badass Santa going on a bender with his favorite reindeer. They end up in jail for the bonus round, and you get an innovative Advent Calendar feature, hilarious action commentary, and a 5,000x potential.

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