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Christmas Bonanza Review
Christmas is always a fun time of the year in Canada and around the world. Because of that, it does not surprise us that many online slots borrow this holiday for their theme. Big Time Gaming is in a gift-giving mood, recreating a fan favourite with a new coat of paint.
Christmas Bonanza brings us back to a familiar game, offering the gameplay many fell in love with a Santafied theme. It looks fantastic, is fun to play, and gives you an excuse to return to a release you loved.
- Highly volatile with a maximum win of 26,000x the stake
- 117,649 ways to win
- Cascading reels with dual reactions, free spins, and bonus buy
You cannot have a Christmas-themed online slot without a fair amount of snow. Seeing that familiar backdrop with a coat of snow and various symbols transformed into gifts feels excellent. The sound design also does a great job of keeping you engaged and immersed in the setting.
The features on offer will feel familiar to slot fans while shifting things around, so they are not identical to Bonanza. Christmas Bonanza will not feel like a brand new game, but it is not meant to. It is supposed to be a trip down memory lane with a fresh new seasonal look.
Theme, Graphics and Sounds
Visuals are on-point, which is what we expected to see from Big Time Gaming. The graphics are crisp, with the art team outdoing themselves yet again. The sound effects and music track are done well, helping to keep you engaged with what is happening on the screen.
Despite the new additions, the team wisely decided not to shake up the theme much. If you played the original Bonanza, you would recognize the backdrop and symbol designs.
Big Time Gaming carries over much of the gameplay loop too. You play the game on a six-reel board with up to 117,649 ways to win. Megaways are in effect, so reel height and active ways to win change with each round. Land enough matching symbols, and you win the corresponding cash prize.
Furthermore, available symbol designs include playing card royals, four gifts, dynamite Wilds, and gold bars.
In-game features
Christmas Bonanza has several extra features awaiting players. Alongside Wilds, you benefit from cascading reels, free spins, and the bonus buy feature.
Cascading Reels
Every spin of the reels triggers Cascading Reels. Symbols that were part of a win get removed from the playing field. Icons already on the board fall to fill in the empty spaces.
Simultaneously, brand new symbols fall from the top of the screen. Cascading reels allow multiple wins to occur at the cost of a single round.
A new addition to the cascading reels system is dual reactions. With it, reels can cascade both ways, taking full advantage of the game’s Megaways structure.
Free Spins
Spell out the word Gold with symbols to win twelve free spins. Any extra Scatter on the playing field awards five extra turns.
During free spins, the win multiplier gets increased with every reel cascade. If you land three or four Scatters during free spins, you can get five or ten extra turns, respectively.
You can also decide to skip manually triggering free spins with the bonus buy option. Paying 90x your total wager immediately grants twelve free spins.
Where To Play Christmas Bonanza?
RTP, bet sizes, and volatility
Christmas Bonanza’s RTP varies from 96% to 96.11%. That places this slot near the industry average or slightly above it. The game’s hit frequency is unknown.
As with symbol payouts, the preview copy has not yet finalized this title’s betting limits. We will update this section when we know more.
The release has a very high variance, allowing for rather impressive prizes. However, you will need to get lucky to take advantage of them.
The highest possible reward in this game is 26,000x your total stake when playing at a Canadian online casino. A fantastic prize if you can deal with the very high volatility.
Verdict
Christmas Bonanza looks remarkable. It faithfully recreates the thrill of Bonanza while adding a fun new theme and some adjustments of its own.
The high RTP and variance are attractive, as are its various fun features. This game will not change the world, but it will keep you entertained. We rate it 4 out of 5 stars.
