As the Festive Season is about to hit, we’re seeing an influx of Christmas-themed slots. It’s not often we lead with this, but Sneaky Santa is an awesome slot machine from RealTime Gaming.
When you read this review, you’ll see why we said so. The slot looks great and RTG pads it with a lot of extras. Come to think of it we haven’t seen it from other studios yet, at least for 2023.
It appears that RealTime Gaming plans on leaving 2023 with a bang. Sneaky Santa slot has 5 reels, 3 rows, and 25 paylines. The jackpot it offers is 50,000x the stake.
It offers “tons” of Free Spins, Morphing Symbols, Bonus Bet, and Bonus Buy. You can spin the reels from as little as 25 cents up to $25 per spin. Not the highest but it fits the game like a glove.
Christmas slots are like a dime a dozen this time of the year and 90% of them are usually meh. We’ll make an exception to that rule with Sneaky Santa.
Let’s start with the visuals, as they look great. Once you fire up the slot, Santa will pop up his head and disappear again. It gets even better when you trigger the free spins.
He’ll sneak across the reels, most probably where the slot derives its name from. So, top marks to RealTime Gaming there with that innovative streak.
Furthermore, the audio track of the slot is spot on too. As we head on into the symbols they pad the slot with a lot of expectation. We say so because 5-of-a-kind wins are possible. And, those symbols Morph themselves.
Here we have a slot studio that doesn’t just give lip service but puts its money where its mouth is. The premium symbol is the pink doll with the moustache, 5 of them pay 2,000x the stake.
The remainder of the top symbols are the elve, gingerbread man, and the angel. The low-value symbols are the cards from 10 to Ace. Finally, the scatter symbol is Santa’s List.
When 5 pitch onto the reels you’ll bag a win of 50x. Moreover, the scatter serves as the Wild as well.
Sneaky Santa Bonus Rewards
Free Spins with Morphing Symbols
You’ll trigger 12 free spins when 3 or more scatters appear on the reels. Before the Free Spins kick-off, you must pick a symbol to act as the Morphing symbol.
We selected the high-value Pink Doll (if we can call it that) as our Morphing symbol. During the Free Spins after regular symbols have paid out.
The Morphing symbol can expand vertically to cover the entire reel. But, the expansion only happens if there are enough symbols for a win. In this case, there must be two or more Morphing symbols on the reels.
It pays on all reels even in non-adjacent positions. If you manage to land 3 Wild Scatter symbols anywhere, you’ll retrigger another 12 free spins.
Buy Option
You can use the feature buy option for a price of 100x your stake to trigger the free spins. Note that you can’t activate the Bonus bet feature during the free spins.
Bonus Bet
You can activate the Bonus Bet feature to increase your current total bet by 10x for every spin. Now, when you turn on the Bonus Bet. Each spin operates like a Free Spin with the Morphing Symbol Feature.
You choose a Morphing symbol in advance. Further, during all spins, while the Bonus Bet is active, the symbol expands and pays in any position.
Paytable
Paylines
What We Like and Don’t Like About Sneaky Santa
We like the Morphing symbols which really pops during the free spins. Not to mention, the potential payouts during the bonus round. Let’s not forget about the graphics and the animations – they pop!
Tips & Strategy
Play Sneaky Santa in demo mode or with free credits before you deposit. That will give you an idea about the payouts, and how those Morphing Symbols act.
It’s also a great slot to play with a bonus. The volatility is not too sharp, and we believe the payouts will be good enough to clear the WR. The hit frequency is also high, so it’s a win-win.
How to Win Money Sneaky Santa Slot
We did not play slot for real money for the highest stakes. In fact, our average bet was $6.25 for an amazing win of $6,900, that’s more than 1,000x our stake!
Though we didn’t trigger the free spins within our 50 spins during the testing phase, we bought them. For 12 free spins, we had to fork out $625 or 100x our stake.
The amazing thing is that we triggered up to an extra 60 free spins. That pushed up our total free spin count to 72 free spins! More importantly, the Morphing symbol we picked was the pink doll.
It’s also the top symbol, you have to go big or go home, right?
Test the slot for at least 50 spins with free credits.
Play it with a bonus. Alternatively, ask the casino for a small no deposit bonus or 5-10 free spins.
Verdict: Sneaky Santa Slot
When we see online slot games with Christmas themes, we normally shake our heads. For the simple reason, slot studios release them just for the sake of releasing them.
Besides, we’ve never had any luck with them until now. Though the payouts weren’t that spectacular in the base game. The slot lit up like a Christmas tree during the free spins.
We landed more than 5 retriggers, heck, it was raining free spins. What’s equally amazing is that the Morphing Symbols pay from anywhere. However, you must land at least two of them on the reels before they morph.
In the free spins, we nearly had a full screen of Morphing Symbols. Yes, it was that good. Sneaky Santa boldly embraces its quirkiness. It bursts with Morphing Symbols that can appear at any moment during the free spins.
The graphics are equally charming, making it hard to envision a more delightful Christmas-themed slot than this. Another slot with the same theme is Yggdrasil’s Rock Star Santa MultiMax.
The Santa Wild dovetails nicely with the slot’s Avalanche feature. And, the winning potential of 10,000x is great too.
Mark Taylor, the chief author at Casino Whizz, is a dedicated gambling expert with over a decade within the casino world. His passion for poker, slots, and table games has fueled his career, where he shares invaluable insights, tips, and detailed game and casino reviews.
