Santa vs Rudolf

Holiday season is finally here and NetEnt is contributing to the festivitites by launching a brand new Christmas slot called Santa vs Rudolf. We of course put it under a test so keep on reading and find out if you should start playing it this December.

Theme for this slot comes from the popular story and song of Santa Claus’s misfit reindeer Rudolf who was born with a shiny red nose but eventually saved Christmas and shut the mouths of other mean and mocking reindeers. You can join their adventure this December with an RTP % of 96.35, which is quite alright.

How Santa vs Rudolf Works?

There are 5 reels and three lines with 20 different payout lines. You can hunt winning combinations from both right to left but also left to right. Minimum bet is €0.20 and max bet is €400.00 per spins. The volatility is medium-high basically meaning that there are a bit less wins than usually but the chance for scoring big wins is higher than average.

On average the hit rate for this slot is a bit under 30% meaning that almost every third spin should be winning. The maximum win with a single spin in this game is 1,000-times your total bet meaning that one can win up to €400,000 from one round.

Game symbols and icons are – surprise, surprise – based on holiday themes. Lower level wins are pictured with common A, K, Q, J, and 10 icons which for this case are made out of red and white candy sticks. Then there’s the next level with Christmas symbols like decorations, snow globe, jingle bells, gift boxes and finally Santa’s sledge, which brings you the biggest wins. If you manage to get 5 sledges on the same payline, you’ll get your money back 25-times per line.

Special Features

There is an exciting free spin feature in Santa vs Rudolf, which is activated when Santa Wild and Rudolf Wild appear on the same line and meet together and decide whether you’re awarded 10 free spins or not. You can collect more free spisn when the bonus game begins and could end up getting up to 30 spins in total if additional wild symbols appear on the reels.

If you are lucky you can fill up Santa and Rudolf meters, which you can find from the top of the screen during free spin play. When you get 8 wilds during your bonus game you can boost your winnings with additional encore bonus game called Santa’s Gifts and Rudolf’s Spins.

With Rudolf’s Spins you’ll receive 3 special spins with 5 wild symbols added randomly on the reels each time. This means that with some luck and by landing highest paying symbols among Rudolf Wilds, you can score really big. In Santa’s Gifts you’ll be picking cash prizes and multipliers during three rounds from five different gifts. There is always one multiplier, three cash prizes and a Santa’s hat meaning your turn is over.

Santa vs Rudolf RTP %

So when you disembark on your journey with Mr Claus and Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, you can expect to get your money returned to you 96.35% on average. This is just alright for this kind of seasonal special slot as there are games with higher RTP but also many games with lower return-to-player rate. Mid-high volatility high ever ensures that you have a real possibility to score big wins.

Santa vs Rudolf Verdict

• Gets you in the holiday mood!
• Christmas slot with Santa & Rudolf
• 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 paylines

At first the game looked a bit lightweight with cartoonish or even a bit childish graphics that did not impress very much. However, when we progressed with our test play all of a sudden it felt like hey, actually this works. Great sound effects and christmasy tune on the background with quite different take on Santa and Rudolf as characters really got us in the holiday mood.

The RTP is not one of the best out there but it is still fair to say this machine won’t totally rob you eihter, which is fine as we’re talking about seasonal special slot. It is very positive that one actually has a chance to win big as the bonus plays and top symbols are enabling you to score as much as €400,000 if you get lucky.

If we compare Santa vs Rudolf to other new Christmas slots in 2019, unfortunately it does not stand a chance. For example Polar Paws from Quickspin looks better and offers bigger wins and better RTP %. The same applies to Xmas Magic slot from Play’n GO.