Fat Santa Slot Machine
For the existing and maybe soon-to-be Fat Rabbit fans, Push Gaming have kept a special Christmas surprise up their sleeves. They call it Fat Santa and it has a distinct difference to the original. On top of the random feature in the base game and the free spins round, they have included a “Feature Buy” option for the very first time on one of their games.
For 80 times the bet, players can now trigger instantly the free spins bonus round. No doubt, that will please the impatient in the slot playing community. However, our review experts say it also pushes Fat Santa online slot into high variance territory.
The year 2018 has been a remarkable year for the young game studio that has seen it outpace the major players in the market with a number of exciting slots that had the slotting community buzzing after each launch. Jammin’ Jars, Wild Swarm and Fat Rabbit - they all literally stormed into the casino lobbies and favorites lists since their release.
The Festive Slot Reels
Like on most slots for the festive season, there is a jolly, colorful feel to the design in Fat Santa. The lush greenery from Fat Rabbit has been replaced with a wintry scene filled with snow-capped mountains, trees and log cabins. The semi-translucent game window is populated with typical Christmas symbols and characters. A relaxed festive soundtrack will please our ears throughout our gaming sessions.
All pay symbols except Santa and scatters can appear in super stacks. Christmas baubles in forest green, light green, brown and red colors, marked with the card suits, are the low-value symbols. They are joined by gift boxes, a snowman, a moose and an elf. The top and wild symbol is Santa. Christmas pies are the second wild symbol as well as the scatter symbol on this slot. Hitting five on a pay line will award wins from 1.6 to 20 times your stake.
The Numbers and Stats for Santa’s Reels
Our reviewers found that the Fat Santa slot is clearly trending towards high volatility, thanks to the option to buy the special feature and the high win potential. Just like the original, it is capable of payouts of up to 6,405 times the stake in the free spins. The rather generous RTP of 96.45% will help to avoid quick busts. The slot has a 5x5 game grid with 50 fixed pay lines. Spinning the reels will cost you 0.25 to 25 credits.
The maximum bet is unusually low for a slot from Push Gaming, but maybe is a purposely imposed limit to avoid having players staking huge sums with the feature buy option. At their usual maximum bet, that would cost a massive 8,000 credits, something licensing authorities would surely frown upon.
Mobile players will be pleased to know that the game is available on any device, including desktop computers, thanks to the HTML5 format.
The Random Santa’s Sleigh Feature
Watch out for Santa flying on his sleigh as it is one of the best moments to hit mega wins in the base game. The Santa’s Sleigh feature can be triggered randomly at the start of any spin in the base game only. He will elegantly steer his sleigh full of Christmas pies through the screen and drop a random number of them onto the game grid. Every position where they land will turn into a wild symbol for the spin to provide more chances to hit big multi-line wins.
Score Big With the Fat Santa’s Free Spins Feature
Fat Rabbit fans will surely know how the feature works, as well as that it can pay big and once in a while, rather little. That is the nature of high-variance games.
On the Fat Santa online slot, you will see him devouring delicious Christmas pies instead of the rabbit eating carrots. Hitting a Santa symbol on reel one, plus one or more wild pie symbols on the other reels, will award eight to 16 free spins, which cannot be retriggered. However, more free spins are awarded on each progression stage in the bonus round.
During the feature, Santa is the wild symbol just like in the base game and will move to any position where a pie lands on a free spin to happily devour it. He needs to eat a defined number of pies to progress through five levels. At each level, he increases in size. Understandably, considering all those sweet minced pies.
The first level will see him grow to a 2x2 size after devouring four pies, while also awarding three extra free spins. He will need to eat five pies to advance through each following level with two extra spins being added on each level-up. The more he devours the bigger Santa symbol is growing, up to a size that fills the entire game window, which will pay exactly 1,000 times the stake per spin.
Other Festive Reels With Potential for Jolly Gifts
Just like Push Gaming, many other game providers have added a Christmas Edition of some of their most popular slots. Our reviewers like the equally volatile but exciting Secrets of Christmas slot from Netent as well as the quirky Taco Brothers Saving Christmas slot from Elk Studios.
Our Festive Verdict
The main question after reviewing Fat Santa online slot remains whether it is a great addition to the existing list of Christmas-themed slots. Our answer is most definitely affirmative. While being a near 100% clone of Fat Rabbit, it does offer the newly introduced feature buy option. A part of the slot playing community will welcome that. What’s more, the win potential with up to 6,405 times the stake is surely high enough for some pleasant festive surprises. Ready to unpack your presents?