TheHolidays seasonis also a high season for reskin jobs, and that’s exactly what you get in NetEnt’s Xmas contribution of 2022. They have picked the brutal and volatileRome: The Golden Ageto provide the template for Wonders of Christmas, and the math model is not for the faint of heart in this festive installment either.
The Xmas theme is cozy enough though, with a classic Christmas tune accompanying the pleasant spin pace. You’re taken into the house for some fireplace quality time when the hold & win style bonus round hits, and the outcome will largely depend on what kind of multiplier you’ve managed to rack up from the base game wild frame transformation system. Up to x1,000 is possible, for payoutsup to 100,000x your stake.
The premium symbols pay between 1.2 and 5 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins, andWild symbolspay the same as the top-tier sleigh symbol should 5 appear on a payline. Of course, Wilds also step in for pay symbols to help complete wins, like is usually the case.
Gift symbolsmark positions with frames when they appear, and gift symbols can become golden at random times. This activates their respective positions, and turns them wild on the following spin. Also adjacent framed positions turn wild, and frames are removed after this has played out.
Gift symbols also add+1 point to the progress barseen above the grid if they land in non-framed positions. If a gift symbol lands in a frame or active frame position, however, +1 to +4 points will be added to the meter. Thebonus round multiplieris increasedper 200 pointsyou accumulate, and it comes with values of x1, x2, x3, x5, x7, x10, x12, x15, x20, x30, x40, x50, x75, x100, x200, x300, x500, x750, or x1,000. The multiplier is only active in the bonus round, just to be clear.
You need3 bonus symbolsin view on the 3 middle reels to trigger theBonus Round, and this awards3 starting free spins. Framed positions that didn’t become wild on the triggering spin will turn into sticky coin symbols instead. Only blanks or new coins will land during this hold & win style bonus round.
The coins come with prize values of 0.5 to 50 x your stake, and landing new sticky coins also resets the spin tally to 3 again each time. The coin values are summed up when you run out of spins, or when the grid is full, and the achieved multiplier from the base game will then boost your total win before it resets.
We had a decent time testing Wonders of Christmas from NetEnt, and any game with such a massive win cap will always make you feel an extra tingle up your spine. We have created a relatively brief and edited highlights video for your viewing pleasure as we usually do, and you can check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.
We have to say that Rome: The Golden Age is an interesting choice for an Xmas reskin, as most developers tend to go with something a bit more lighthearted and festive friendly. Wonders of Christmas requires both patience and persistence, as it can take a good while to build up a decent multiplier. Many times you will not get very far along the trail either, before the bonus round triggers to blow your load.
This is par for the course with a 1 in 195 spins bonus round hit rate, so getting anywhere close to the alluring x1,000 multiplier might just take you until next year’s Christmas and beyond. The equally alluring100,000x potentialcomes with a 1 in 166B hit rate, while 20,000x comes with a 1 in 58M probability. The wild frames system is decent, but the frustration this game can build in you might just ruin your Xmas spirit instead of easing you into it.
Pros
Cons
Rome: The Golden Age- is the original NetEnt release the game at hand is a reskin of, and it comes with a brutal gladiator theme that’s a better fit for the equally brutal math model. You get all the same features as the Xmas reskin version, and the max win is 100,000x your stake also in this installment.
Diamond Link Mighty Santa- comes with a cigar smoking badass version of Santa, and the hold & win style diamond link feature comes with 4 jackpots. Two of the jackpots are progressive, and you can also look forward to a multiplier feature. The overall max win is 1,500x your stake.
Plenty of Presents- is a Just For The Win installment in the seasonal Xmas genre, and you get multiplier wilds that can multiply together in the base game. You get even more of the same via the jingle wilds modifier in the bonus round, and this can land you payouts up to 25,000x your stake.
Wonders of Christmas
