Sneaky Santa Review

Once you load up the video slot, you’ll notice that the visuals depict a cozy Christmas setting with a fireplace, tree, stockings hung above the mantle, and piles of colorfully wrapped gifts. Symbols on the reels include a variety of Toys, Elves, Angels, Gingerbread Men, and playing card values, including 10, jack, queen, king, and ace, representing the low-value symbols.

We should also note that Realtime Gaming (RTG) didn’t make the video slot. Instead, it was developed jointly with another software provider called Spin Logic Gaming. In some ways, this is great as it means you get to enjoy the best of both worlds!

It also is one of the most volatile Realtime Gaming (RTG) games yet, boasting a max win of a staggering 50,000X your bet! Ready to try it out for yourself? Then give it a spin - in demo or free play mode - below!

Immerse yourself in Christmas cheer with Sneaky Santa, an engaging online slot from industry leader Realtime Gaming (RTG) and Spin Logic Games. If you enjoy playing slot games that quickly immerse you into the festival spirit, Sneaky Santa is a game you won’t miss. It looks beautiful, and the reels are set against a backdrop of a holiday living room, complete with a lit fireplace and a towering pine tree strung with lights and ornaments.

It puts you into a warm, fuzzy mood - just in time for Christmas - and there’s a calming yet surprisingly upbeat Christmas jingle playing in the background. What we love about Sneaky Santa is that despite its high variance math model, wins tend to form quite frequently in the base game, and this ensures you don’t have to (usually) endure long losing streaks.

Unfortunately, writing this section of our Sneaky Santa review proved harder than we would have liked. Realtime Gaming (RTG) is notoriously bad at releasing RTPs. While they sometimes do, it’s not a set-in-stone rule, and many games - like Sneaky Santa, for example - only show the RTP to online gambling operators and online casinos. Once it’s released, players and the public can usually access the RTP themselves from inside the game’s files, but it would have been nice to talk about it.

However, one thing that we do know for sure is that the video slot has incredibly high variance. It’s been built around one of the most volatile Christmas math models we think we’ve heard of in a while, and how do we know this?

Because when you play Sneaky Santa, you’ll be spinning the reels - each spin - knowing that you could walk away with a maximum win of up to 50,000 times your bet. Yes, that’s right; if you were betting $1 and won the game’s top prize, you’d walk away from the slot machine with a staggering $50,000 in your pocket!

Sneaky Santa also has a superb selection of bonuses and features. These bonuses make it possible to win big and enjoy your time doing so in the process. We will not touch on them here, as below, we will have dedicated sections for each of the game’s bonuses. However, we will tell you that you can look forward to free spins, morphing symbols, and more!

Regarding betting options, Sneaky Santa is designed for players on all budgets. The minimum bet starts from as little as 25 cents, and high rollers can enjoy all the slot has to offer, too, as the maximum bet reaches a whopping $25!

Land three or more symbols on adjacent reels from left to right and on an active payline to form a win. In case you were wondering, by the way, it’s the Toy Santa and the Christmas Letter symbols that are worth the most.

The nimble-looking Toy Santa pays up to 500 coins - the max is, of course, awarded when you form a five-of-a-kind combo - while the trio of helper Elves, sweet-faced Angel, and Gingerbread Man offer up to 250 coins each for successful five-of-a-kind combos.

The low-value symbols include playing card values, including 10, jack, queen, king, and ace, although, interestingly, Realtime Gaming (RTG) has chosen to include a nine here, too. Even the low-value symbols have gorgeous snow specks on them, making the game even more immersive!

The Christmas Letter acts as both Wild and Scatter. As Wild, it substitutes for other icons to help complete winning payline combinations. This symbol also triggers a free spins bonus round when three or more land in view, and we’ll be telling you more about this later in this Sneaky Santa slot review!

Sneaky Santa brings bundles of holiday magic to slot play thanks to the trio of bonuses packed into this game. From surprise free spins to morphing symbols, Sneaky Santa has almost everything you want. Realtime Gaming also includes a bonus buy mechanic, allowing you to skip the monotonous base gameplay and head straight into the action. Let’s get started and discuss the bonuses one by one.

Free Spins + Morphing Symbol Feature

As with almost any video slot released today, especially one from Realtime Gaming, the main bonus round in Sneaky Santa is a free spins feature. In order to trigger this free spins bonus, you must land three or more of the letter scatter symbols anywhere in view.

If it triggers free spins, you will receive 12 free spins, and before these free spins play out, a morphing symbol of your choosing will expand for the duration of the bonus. Once you are taken to the special free games screen, you will be tasked with picking one of the game-paying symbols.

This is essentially a Book Of Dead-style game, so if you pick a rarer symbol, it will show up less often but award bigger wins when it does. On the other side of the coin, picking one of the lower-value symbols means that maximum win potential decreases, but you are more likely actually to have some wins.

Now, the mechanic in Sneaky Santa is quite unique, so we will talk about the morphing symbols in a separate subhead below. To finish off the rest of the details of the main free spins round, you will be glad to know that it is possible to re-trigger additional free spins. Plus, there is no limit on how many times you can trigger more.

Each additional letter scatter symbol that lands during the free spins bonus will instantly award you with two, three, four, or five additional spins. Moreover, don’t forget that the letter scatter symbol also substitutes for the morphing symbols, making it easy for you to hit big wins. More on that in just a moment.

Morphing Symbol Feature

The Morphing Symbol is a unique feature that some players may feel is a bit Book of Dead-like, but it’s one of the highlights, so you’ll want to pay close attention to learn how it works. As we mentioned earlier, before any free spins are played, you will be tasked with selecting which symbol you would like to be as the morphing one for the duration of the bonus. You can choose any of the high-paying or low-paying symbols you like, but just remember the volatility guidance we spoke about in the last section.

Once the free spins begin, the morphing symbol that you have chosen transforms after every winning nomination that contains that symbol, and it will then expand vertically to cover the entire reel it lands on. This means, just like in all Book of Dead-like games, you only need to land three of your morphing symbols anywhere in view to secure a win.

While it is much like Book of Dead, Realtime Gaming has included a unique feature that turns any morphing symbol into a spreading wild. When you land stacked reels of your chosen symbol, a few random wild symbols are added to the reels, making it a little easier for you to form wins.

Bonus Buy: Triggers Free Games Instantly

While Sneaky Santa may be very much like many of the Book of Dead style slots we’ve seen thousands of times before, one thing Realtime Gaming has managed to do differently is include a bonus buy mechanic. If you prefer to skip the boring base game and get straight into the action, you will be pleased to learn that you can do just that.

For a cost of 100 times your total bet, you can buy immediate entry into the free spins bonus. For example, if your base game stake were set at two dollars, the total cost to trigger the bonus using the bonus buy mechanic would be $200.

Once you confirm that you would like to buy the free spins, you will immediately receive 12 and head straight into the bonus. We should point out that if you are playing with a matched deposit bonus, a no-deposit bonus, no-deposit free spins or any other no-deposit bonus offers or bonus code promotions, be careful.

Most online casinos prevent you from using deposit bonus funds on slot game titles like the Sneaky Santa online slot.

If you do want to play the Sneaky Santa online slot and join Santa Claus, make sure to check with the customer support team before spnding any deposit bonus funds on the game. More likely than not, it will be restricted, and you may lose your bonus if you use your funds on a restricted game.

Bonus Bet Feature: Ready To Get Into The Christmas Spirit? Enter Free Games Directly!

So far, we have swung between thinking Sneaky Santa is far too much like Book of Dead to ever really be a success and venturing to the other side of the coin, where we realized it is quite innovative and does many things differently compared to many similar games. One more of these unique elements is the bonus bet feature. In the base game, you can increase your base game stake by 10 times. For example, if your base game stake were set at $0.50, you would have the option to increase it to $5 to turn on the bonus bet feature.

This may sound like a lot, and truthfully, it is. However, there are some significant perks in doing so, and for raising your stake, every spin in the base game plays out like a free spins spin. A morphing symbol will be chosen automatically, meaning you can land three, four, or five reels of this symbol directly from within the base game, and of course, it’s also possible to trigger the main free spins bonus naturally.

This is a similar mechanic to what we have seen Hacksaw Gaming experimenting with in recent years. It’s definitely not a feature for everyone, but if you are the type of player who likes to up the ante, wager more money per spin, and enjoy more action, then the bonus bet feature is something you may want to consider checking out.

After playing Sneaky Santa and analyzing all of its features in-depth, we can confidently say that this is definitely one of the Christmas games at online casinos this year you’ll want to check out. It’ perfectly captures the festive spirit beautifully with its charming visuals and soundtrack, while also providing incredibly enjoyable gameplay with the potential for huge wins.

One of the thins that we really like is the inclusion of both the bonus bet feature and the bonus buy mechanic. This means that when you play Sneaky Santa, you can spin the reels in a way you’re comfotable with. Want to play Sneaky Santa to enjoy the free games round only? Now, you can! You don’t need to wait for the free games to land naturally; just buy them for your bet!

Simialrly, if you want to play Sneaky Santa and use the bonus bet feature to incrrase your stake by - but enjoy, essentially, free games every single spin - it’s possible! We live the bonus bet, the bonus buy mechanic, the fact that you can choose your own expanding (morphing) symbols - and best of all, this is a free game, so you can try it out in demo play mode before needing to risk any of your own cash on it!

A lot of the time, Christmas-themed slots are boring, dull, and uninspiring. They rarely contain good free games round, almost never offer true festive fun, and bonus code promotions or free games are rare. However, that’s why we love what Realtime Gaming (RTG) has done here.

Sneaky Santa, on the other hand, is a very well-made game with huge win potential (up to 50,00X your bet), a highly exciting free spins bonus round where you can pick your symbols - and we also love the fact you can use the bonus buy and bonus bet features at any point - so long gone are the days of having to wait around for the free games bonus to land naturally!

So, if you’re looking for a new slot this December that radiates Christmas charm while letting you win big, Sneaky Santa Slot is definitely deserving of a spin. With its volatility and massive 50,000X max win, see if you can enter the free games today. Which symbol will you be choosing ? Let us know over in the Casinomeister forum!