Released: 16 Dec 2020

★★★★★

Christmas inspires many developers to create festive slots, including the Greentube/Novomatic duo. This is the Santa’s Riches slot that gives you access to a winder wonderland with amazing prizes of up to 1,500x your stake. Novomatic packed this game with the Arrow Trail feature, as well as with Free Spins. Not only this game is Christmas-themed, but it’s also very innovative - players will get the chance to expand the reels with every win. So, enjoy this holiday season by reading our Santa’s Riches Slot Review and spinning the reels of this winter slot wonderland.

Santa's Riches Slot Review

As Christmas comes around again, we are getting plenty of Christmas-themed slots. One of them is the Santa’s Riches slot from Greentube/Novomatic, a game which shows the traditional look of the North Pole, with a modern design and a number of innovative features. Can you help Santa unload his riches and bring them into every kid’s home? Find out how in our detailed Santa’s Riches Slot Review.

About Santa’s Riches Slot

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, and players can enjoy this holiday for the whole year thanks to the new online slot by Novomatic called Santa’s Riches. This game captures the traditional look of the North Pole and is dedicated to Santa whose job is to collect presents and bring them to the kids. Santa’s Riches is a five-reel slot with 20 paylines initially, but the reels can expand and allow you to end up with six reels, five rows and 50 active paylines.

When you open the Santa’s Riches slot, you’ll notice that half of the reels are frozen in ice, and your job is to warm them by landing winning combinations. This is the Cascading Reels feature which means that every win explodes and makes place for more symbols to land on the reels. With every win, the frozen symbols will start to unlock and you’ll get more paylines. But, the best thing about Santa’s Riches slot is that it pays for winning combinations from left to right and from right to left.

To start your winter wonderland slot adventure, you need to place your bet per spin first. In the Santa’s Riches slot, betting options range from £0.20 and go up to £40 for a single spin. If you manage to expand the reels to their full potential and have 50 paylines, you can win prizes of up to 1,500x the stake. In terms of the features, apart from the Cascading Reels, this game is packed with the Reel Drops mechanic, the Arrow Trail feature and with the Free Spins feature. All in all, it’s a great slot package.

Design, Symbols and Graphics

It’s very obvious what the theme of this game is, just by reading its title. Santa’s Riches slot is a Christmas-themed game, based around Santa. Launching the game will take you to a 5x3 grid with 20 paylines placed on a beautiful meadow covered in snow. There are also Christmas trees with colourful lights on both sides of the reels, and as you unlock more symbol positions, the trees shake up and reveal garlands from under the snow. Of course, there is a Christmas soundtrack that fits the theme perfectly. Overall, Novomatic has produced a well-designed slot with quality graphics.

The paytable consists of 10 regular symbols, split into low-paying and high-paying ones. The low-paying symbols are the classic A-10 royals, designed as Christmas tree balls. Next, we have the high-paying symbols which are designed as stockings, crackers, candy canes, bells, and the Santa himself. To land a win, you need to land at least three symbols on a payline. Low-paying symbols are worth 1x the stake for six of a kind, while high-paying symbols can pay from 10x to 30x the stake for six of a kind. In addition, the wild symbol substitutes for all regular symbols and helps you form winning combinations.

RTP, Variance and Payouts for Santa’s Riches Slot

The theoretical Return to Player (RTP) percentage of the Santa’s Riches slot is 95.26%, which is a little below the average. On the other hand, the variance of this game is medium which makes it popular among the players. Medium variance slots are the most popular group of online slots because they offer relatively smaller but more frequent payouts. And if you manage to trigger the bonus features, you can end up winning up to 1,500x your stake. All in all, it’s a decent online slot for players who want to play for fun and potentially win some prize. Here you can read more about the Variance, Volatility and RTP in online slots.

Gameplay and Features on Santa’s Riches Slot

The main feature of the Santa’s Riches slot is the Cascading Reels feature. It allows the reels to expand and offer more active paylines. As we’ve mentioned above, a part of the symbols on the reels is covered in ice and they will be active to play with once you land a winning combination. This will expand the reels and will give you up to 50 active paylines. Besides the Cascading Reels, the Santa’s Riches slot has the Arrow Trail feature, which leads you to the Free Spins feature. Here is everything that this game has to offer:

Reel Drops

Santa’s Riches comes with the Reel Drops mechanic, which allows winning symbols to get removed from the reels, making a place for new ones to land. So, this can give you more winning combinations in a single spin and the feature will continue until no wins appear. In addition, Reel Drops contribute to the Arrow Trail meter located under the reels.

Arrow Trail

Apart from the cash prizes you will get when you form winning combinations, there is the Arrow Trail. With every win you form, you will advance on the trail and you will unlock additional symbol positions and active lines:

1 arrow - expands the grid to 6x3 with 20 paylines paying both ways;
2 arrows - expands the grid to 6x4 with 40 paylines paying both ways;
3 arrows - expands the grid to 6x5 with 50 paylines paying both ways;
4 arrows - unlock 5 free spins and gives you Christmas Present symbols;
5 arrows - free spins will get stacked Christmas Present symbols;
6 arrows - 2x2 Mega Christmas Present symbols are available;
7 arrows - 3x2 Mega Christmas Present symbols are available on the reels.

Free Spins

As you’ve seen above, when the grid is fully unlocked and you play on six reels with 50 paylines, you will win five Free Spins. Four arrows give 5 Free Spins, five arrows make the Christmas Presents appear in stacks, and six and seven arrows increase the Christmas Presents in sizes 2x2 and 3x2. During the Free Spins, the Arrow Trail is active and allows you to extend the feature.

Santa’s Riches Slot on Mobile

The Santa’s Riches slot is optimised to work on all mobile devices. The design, gameplay and bonus features work without issues when playing on mobile. This game is developed with HTML5 so it’s mobile-friendly and can adjust to any small screen, on any operating system.

Other Novomatic Slots

The Greentube/Novomatic duo has made plenty of impressive online slots, and if you’re a regular slot player, you have probably played some of them. For example, there is the 5 Line Fortune slot, a traditional fruit-themed game with two jackpot prizes. If you enjoy playing ocean-themed slots, try the Lord of the Ocean Magic slot by Novomatic that takes you to Poseidon, the lord of the ocean, in his kingdom of ancient artefacts and mermaid princesses. Another popular Novomatic slot is the Arctic Empress slot that takes you on a journey into the freezing kingdom of the beautiful Empress.

SlotsWise Verdict

As a conclusion of our Santa’s Riches Slot Review, we would say that this is a great game with more interesting features and exciting gameplay. The medium variance makes it less risky, which is ideal for players who want to have fun while playing slots. If you’re in a Christmas mood and want to play festive slots, you should go for this game.