Merry Scary Christmas

The theme of Merry Scary’s slot machine is based around Christmas. While Christmas is known around the world as the most wonderful time of the year, the demonic Santa featured in this game might just be out to ruin the celebration and take your winnings. We appreciate this different take on the Christmas-theme, giving players something different for the festive season. Instead of Santa and cheerful elves, we are met by the mischievous Santa-like character standing next to the grid that is displayed in front of a hearth. The theme is enhanced by the symbols used which includes a creepy bunny plush toy, gifts, Christmas baubles, and candies.

In addition to the scary theme, the game is very vibrant, even though the setting is a bit on the darker side. Colorful symbols appear in the fireplace, which is adorned with Christmas lights that flickers throughout the game. The symbols are all excellently designed, and even the Santa figure that is constantly moving brings the game to life ensuring an entertaining and immersive experience.

The Christmas-inspired soundtrack is laced with mischief and has an ominous side to it, complementing the theme perfectly. We also found the sound effects that is audible once the reels spin fitting.

Animations are not extravagant, so players can focus on gameplay. The reels run smoothly with no glitches, while the Santa-figure seems to be heaving, his bell-adorned horns rocking with the movement as smooth as the spin of the reels.

Overall, the graphics, sounds, and animations ensure an entertaining gaming experience for casual players.

The game has five reels and 10 paylines. While most sites mention a Return to Player (RTP) of around 95%, the game indicates a slightly lower RTP of 94.48%. This is below the average of most slot games, which may be slightly off-putting to serious slot players.

We could not calculate the maximum payout of this game during our playthrough, and the game itself does not stipulate this theoretical number either. This is an aspect we would have liked to see and is crucial during our assessment of top slot games we rate and review.

While we were disappointed with the lack of information on the max payout, the medium volatility and features within the game makes up for this tenfold. We managed to garner multiple wins during our playthrough, even though they were on the smaller side. It was also not tedious to trigger free spins, which is a major plus in our books.

The gameplay of Merry Scary Christmas is simple, landing three or more symbols on an active payline garners a win.

To get started, simply set your bet size, choosing between 0.20 and 50, and hit the spin button in the middle of the screen. Not a fan of manual play? Then you have the option to select autoplay, up to 300 spins at a time. You can also activate turbo by tapping the button with a bunny on it, which speeds up the gameplay a bit.

Now, let’s look at the paytable:

As mentioned, Merry Scary Christmas is not at all one of the most innovative slot we have played, yet it has a unique charm that is difficult to resist. It’s features are on the slim side, but still offers plenty of winning opportunities.

Risk ‘n’ Buy

It’s not uncommon to have the option to jump from the base game straight to the action-packed free spins round, and Merry Scary Christmas is no exception. This feature allows you to buy the free spins round at any moment during the base game. After each spin, a menu offering a set number of free spins at a price. The higher your stake, the more spins and the more you pay for the round. This option is not as costly as we have encountered in some other games, which makes it accessible for casual players.

Santa’s Gifts

When you land 5 or more gift symbols, you unlock the Santa Gifts feature. Players are gifted with anything from coin prizes, to wilds, multipliers, and free spins. The types of gifts landed dictate the value of the rewards or gifts:

• Coin prize: Gifts equal specific values, and the sum of coin values won is added to the total winnings for the spin.
• Wild with random multiplier: Gift symbols can become wilds with random multipliers. Wilds that correlate with the same type of gift will have the same multipliers with all wilds substituting for all symbols.
• Free spins & Free Spins Feature: Gifts can award a random number of free spins with one or more gift symbol added after each free spin.