Name: Xmas Drop
Item: Xmas Drop
Rating: 6.5
Author: Nigel Hall

Casino Bonuses

Provider	Hacksaw Gaming
Reels	5
Rows	5
Paylines	19
Bonus Rounds	1
Bet Range	0.10 - 100
Volatility	Medium
Max Win	12,500x
Bonus Buy	Yes
RTP	96.22%
Our Rating	6.5

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Game Overview

Much like when the supermarkets in your local city or town drag down the Halloween decor and get the Xmas trimmings up on the 1st of November, the online slot world is similar. Barely have we packed away our last scary mask before we’re getting bombarded with Christmas slots to review. Under the festive microscope today is Hacksaw Gaming’s Xmas Drop slot, a 5-reel game with 19 fixed paylines, an RTP of 96.22%, and a max win of 12,500x bet.

The gameplay centres around one main feature that can be activated in the base game and bonus round. This is the Wild Santa symbol, and if he lands in view and is part of at least one winning combo, he will expand downwards, covering what remains of the reel. Furthermore, if he passes through a Wild Gift symbol, the Wild Santa will have a multiplier of up to 200x applied to it. As for the bonus rounds, two versions of the free spins bonus can be triggered. First of all, landing three scatters will award a standard bonus, where your chances of hitting a Wild Santa are increased, and a four-scatter trigger, where landing a Wild Santa will guarantee that one will appear on that reel for the remainder of the feature.

Pucker up and hang your mistletoe as you could be in with a chance of unwrapping a huge Christmas win courtesy of Hacksaw. If you want to try the game for free first, then check out our Xmas Drop slot demo. It’s ready to play below.

Xmas Drop Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols

Xmas Drop paytable

Our last two visits to Hacksaw before this review were to look at their Immortal Desire slot, a vampire-themed game, and Eye of the Panda, where a fun jumping wild free spins bonus can be activated. Yes, it’s fair to say Hacksaw has a diverse range of themes within its portfolio, but after double checking, I noticed that Xmas Drop is just their second game in the Christmas slot niche. Will it be a winner and something original? Or has a previous title been given a little makeover and used as a filler slot? We’ll begin our investigation into Xmas Drop starting over at the pays section.

Sharing the top spot on the paytable, we have the two wild symbols, Santa and the Gift Box, both paying 25x bet for a winning combo of five. Next are the Bells at 17.5x, with the Teddy and Christmas Tree following with equal returns of 15x bet. The remaining two symbols in the premium section are the Candy Cane and Stocking, sharing payouts of 15x for a completed line of five. Onto the low pays, which are represented with the traditional slot royal symbols, and we have the Ace worth 10x, the King and Queen paying 7.5x, and finally, the Jack and Ten awarding players 5x bet for a five of a kind win.

Hacksaw is always spot on with its offerings when it comes to choosing your playing stake, with plenty of options available. The minimum price to get the reels rolling in Xmas Drop starts from €0.10, with the maximum stake reaching up to €100.

Xmas Drop Slot Base Game

Xmas Drop base game

Hacksaw’s Xmas Drop slot has a 5×5 reel matrix with 19 fixed paylines. Players will need to land at least three matching symbols on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel first, with the win also needing to hit across an active winline. It can sometimes be a little confusing with such a strange payline structure where you can think you’ve landed a win, but it turns out it isn’t. I’d recommend going to the game’s help section and just acquainting yourself as to where the winlines are positioned on the game.

Wild Santa Symbol

A Wild Santa symbol will expand if it is going to be a part of at least one winning combination. The expanded Wild Santa symbols count as a wild on every position they cover and will only expand downwards.

Wild Gift Symbol

If a Wild Santa symbol expands through a Will Gift symbol, it turns into a multiplier that is applied to the whole wild. The multipliers can range in value between 2x – 200x. If a winning combo includes more than one expanded wild Santa multiplier, the multiplier values will be added together and then applied to the win.

Xmas Drop Slot Bonus Features

Xmas Drop free spins feature

There are two versions of the bonus that can be triggered with the Night Before Xmas free spins activated when three scatters appear in view, awarding 10 spins to begin with, and the Santa Claus is Coming to Town feature also starting with 10 spins when four scatters land in view to trigger it.

Night Before Xmas Free Spins

Whilst this feature is active, you’ll stand a greater chance of landing the Wild Santa symbols in view. If 3 scatters land in view during the feature, you’ll receive four extra spins, whilst landing 4 will activate the Santa Claus is Coming to Town bonus when the current spin ends.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Free Spins

In this version of the free spins, each reel can be activated by landing a wild Santa on it. Once the reel is activated, a Santa is guaranteed to land on that reel for the remainder of the free spins.

Bonus Buy

There are five options available in the bonus buy menu on Xmas Drop. They are as follows:

BonusHunt FeatureSpins: Each spin is five times more likely to trigger the feature at the cost of 3x the bet.

Two Wild Santas FeatureSpins: Two wild Santas are guaranteed to land on each spin at the cost of 20x the bet.

Three Wild Santas FeatureSpins: Two wild Santas are guaranteed to land on each spin at the cost of 50x the bet.

Night Before Xmas Free Spins: Costs 100x bet to activate.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town Free Spins: Costs 200x bet to trigger.

Pros

Two versions of the bonus can be triggered.
High max win of 12,500x bet.
The Wild Santas can also land in the base game.

Cons

A clone of a previous release.
It is potentially very difficult to land the four scatter trigger without the bonus buy facility.

Xmas Drop Slot Review Final Thoughts

Eagle-eyed Hacksaw Gaming fans will have noticed that their Xmas Drop slot is almost a carbon copy of their previous RIP City slot release, just reworked with some Christmas graphics. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that at all, and it is a similar tactic used by many of the other tier-one developers who are just looking to get some content out there into the casino lobbies as they begin to push their Xmas slots on the main pages.Overall, it's not a bad slot game, and if you liked the original version, then there's a fair chance you'll enjoy this one, too.

6.5

Good

Author Bio

Article by Nigel Hall

23 years Gambling Industry Experience

About Nigel Hall

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