Christmas Carol Megaways Slot (Pragmatic Play) Slot Demo & Review

The full name of the famous Charles Dickens novella that this game is most likely based on is actually ‘A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.’ – I think I can understand why Pragmatic Play went for the shortened version; how about you? Christmas Carol Megaways is one of the largest Megaways slots on the market, with up to eight rows on its four centremost reels! This results in a staggering 200,704 payways, which makes you wonder how many of them you would need to hit on before running into the game’s jackpot cap of 20,000x the player’s stake! The RTP of the game can vary between 96.47% and 96.58% depending on whether the ante bet or bonus buy facility is used, but the difference is likely small enough that it shouldn’t matter to most players.

In addition to the frankly ludicrous number of payways, Christmas Carol also includes an ascending multiplier free spins feature. There are three choices of starting multiplier and number of spins, which the developer claims should suit players who are comfortable with different levels of risk. To be fair though, you really shouldn’t be playing this game in the first place unless you are absolutely mad about high-variance slotting! An ante bet option is available at the cost of 25% on top of the usual price per spin in return for twice the odds of triggering the free spins. If that still sounds like it will be too slow for your liking, then you may opt to bypass the base game entirely via the bonus buy facility at the cost of 100x the current stake.

Christmas has been and gone for the year right now, of course, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the odd Christmas-themed online slot. It’s never too early to get yourself in the spirit, so why not go ahead and fire up our free demo slot of Christmas Carol Megaways below?

Christmas Carol Megaways Slot
ProviderPragmatic Play
Reels6
Rows8
Paylines200,704
Bonus Rounds1
Bet Range0.20 - 125
VolatilityHigh
Max Win20,000x
Bonus BuyYes
RTP96.47%
Our Rating8.2

Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Casino Bonuses


Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Free Play


Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols

Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Paytable
Christmas Carol Megaways slot paytable

Many supposed ‘Christmas slots’ are nothing more than reskins of existing popular machines. Just look at Starlight Christmas as a prime example of that, and I suspect the same is probably true of Christmas Carol Megaways too. Pragmatic Play seems to create several festive games every year, and I can’t imagine that they built them all from scratch – especially when they often push out their best work right at the beginning of a new year. I suspect that Christmas Carol will do well with slot players purely because of the popularity of the 2009 movie of the same name, even though there isn’t likely to be any genuine link between the two! Now, how about a slot based on the 1983 Disney version of the tale? My grandmother would go mad for a game like that!

I’m not 100% sure which ghost the highest-paying symbol is supposed to represent – I guess the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come makes the most sense – but he’ll pay you 50x the total bet for a full payway of six of a kind. The green giant will award you 5x the bet for all six symbols, followed by the purple girl at 2.5x, the blue guy at 2x, and the child at 1.5x. The low-paying royals are divided into two groups; the aces and kings are each worth 1.5x the bet for a complete pay way, whilst the remaining three are a little less valuable at 1x each.

With the ante bet feature disabled, the minimum/maximum permitted bets are €0.20 and €100.00, respectively. I would recommend playing with the ante bet enabled if your bankroll allows, though, which would bump those numbers up to €0.25 and €125.00.


Base Game & Modifiers

Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Base Game

Christmas Carol Megaways boasts one of the largest reel sets of any Megaways slot, with up to seven rows on reels one and six, plus another eight each on reels two through five. This results in a total of 200,704 maximum Megaways, but you’ll need to hit lots of stacks of matching symbols for a chance of winning on a large number of them simultaneously.


Ante Bet

This option adds 25% on top of the normal price per spin in return for a 100% increase in the chances of triggering a set of free spins. This sounds like a great deal, and I would always recommend turning this on, provided that you have a sufficient bankroll.


Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Bonus Features

Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Free Spins Feature
Christmas Carol Megaways slot free spins feature

Hitting four or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels will trigger the free spins feature. Before your spins start, the game will ask you to select a combination of free spins and a multiplier. Larger numbers of spins come with a smaller starting multiplier and vice versa, but my preference is always to take the maximum number of spins, as you can always build up the multiplier during the bonus round.


Free Spins

In this mode, every tumble resulting from a winning combination being removed from the reels will increase the current round multiplier by 1x. After each tumble, all winnings obtained during the current spin will have the current round multiplier applied to them.

The bonus round can also be re-triggered by hitting three or more further scatter symbols whilst the feature is in play. This will add five more free spins to your remaining total, and there is no limit to the number of re-triggers you can receive.


Bonus Buy

If you become tired of waiting for the free spins to occur naturally, you can purchase a set directly at the cost of 100x the normal price per spin. The number of triggering scatters is determined randomly after making the purchase.


Christmas Carol Megaways Slot Review Final Thoughts

I’m sure there must be at least a few Megaways fans out there who were screaming for more pay ways – why else would Pragmatic Play have bumped the count up to 200,704? But, in all honesty, 117k or 200k is all the same to me – I’m much more bothered about the 20,000x jackpot, which is around four times higher than many other Pragmatic Megaways slots. That alone makes Christmas Carol worthy of a recommendation in my eyes!


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