Santa’s Stack

Santa's Stack: Slot Overview

If you find yourself tooling around on Christmas day for something sweet on the outside, a bit harder-edged on the inside, here comes Santa's Stack courtesy of Relax Gaming. Something of an anomaly for a Christmas slot, Santa's Stack is an original game built around a couple of simple features, enormous symbol values, and uncomplicated yet volatile as blazes gaming. This is a game that doesn't muck around, so in we go.

Santa's Stack is a cluster paying grid slot played on a game panel made up of 8 rows and 8 columns. Winning clusters are formed when at least 5 identical symbols sit adjacently to one another, which trigger a cascade feature when they hit. Part of Santa's Stack charm lies in the way Relax Gaming has gone for an 8-bit approach, so everything has a slightly blocky, pixelated look to it. The game doesn't quite throw back as far as Hellcatraz did in this regard, but there's a nice old-fashioned look to the game that blends with the Xmas subject matter to create a pleasant overall feel. Is a wise move, as the combined sentimental value of Christmas and retro gaming is likely to hit its target audience right in the feels.

As mentioned, Santa's Stack is a highly volatile game, so hold on to your stockings if you're planning to tackle the beast. Seriously, tangle with this thing on a bad day, and it'll feel like Santa has deemed you naughty rather than nice. The upside with Relax Gaming is the reliability of the RTP offered, which here comes in two versions - one is when playing the game in regular mode, which produces a return value of 96.27%, the other is when buying the bonus, where it increases to 97%. Getting all ho ho ho is possible on all devices, while stakes vary from 10 p/c to $/€50.

All symbols found in Santa's Stack have been custom made for the season and the game. On the less exciting side are blue, green and red decorative lights as the low pays, then Rudolph, Elves, Mrs Claus, and Santa as the four premiums. When it comes to max payout values, grid slots typically top out at, say, 20-30+ symbols. Cluster values at this size aren't overly impressive in Santa's Stack, but when it creates larger clusters, the values are massive. Hit a cluster of 60 Santa symbols, and it really would be the most wonderful time of the year; we'll reveal how much this is worth down below.

Santa's Stack: Slot Features

There's not a lot of features to be found in Santa's Stack, but they are snappy and can spark adrenaline when they're performing. These are Secret Santa Respin feature, free spins and a bonus buy.

Secret Santa Respins

This feature is triggered whenever a wild symbol is used as part of a winning cluster. The winning cluster in question converts into mystery symbols and locks in place for a respin. If a win occurs on a respin that is adjacent to the locked mystery symbols, the new winning cluster converts to mystery symbols as well, and another respin is awarded. When no new winning clusters adjacent to mystery symbols hit, all mystery symbols transform to reveal the same symbol type.

Free Spins

When at least 3 scatter symbols land, 5 free spins are awarded, plus 1 additional free spin for every extra scatter in view. In free spins, wild symbols are guaranteed to land at the start of every spin, helping to trigger the Secret Santa Respin feature. The number of wilds guaranteed to land increases by 1 on every spin, starting with 1 wild on the initial free spin. When scatter symbols land during the feature, players win either an extra free spin or the win multiplier increases by 1 - or both of these things.

Buy Feature

If this feature is available in your jurisdiction, then it is possible to buy free spins for the cost of 100x the reference bet size, which also bumps up the RTP to 97%.

Santa's Stack: Slot Verdict

With a casual flex, Relax Gaming has turned out a highly intriguing Christmas slot. The studio has declined to tart an old game up in Xmas garb to cash in on the season the quick and easy way. Instead, they've designed a slot so playable some users might be tempted to do the unthinkable and play it on Boxing day, or even beyond.

Several factors contribute to Santa's Stack's allure, and its looks are one of them. The old school angle is hot and works like a charm in Santa's Stack. All those beguiling little sprites on the grid, the cute Sim City angle, the cosy snow-covered, Christmas tree-filled square paints an idyllic portrait of the season. No doubt, if this was real life, the scene would be full of frantic shoppers doing a mad dash for the shops, having left everything to the last minute, for the umpteenth year in a row.

Try not to fall too far for the charm, though, because Santa's Stack was ruthless during testing. Bonus buys struggled to end up in the black, and repeated use of the feature buy led to bankroll decimations. This game is not here to make friends, so handle it with care. Like we've seen in previous Relax Gaming releases, Santa's Stack does have the goods to blow its metaphorical stack when the stars align. For players who like a grid slot with massive upper-level cluster values, then Santa's Stack should fit the bill. Land the largest cluster of 60 Santa's and a colossal 10,000x the bet is heading your way. Doing that twice, or with an x2 multiplier or higher on board, means you've hit the game's full potential, which is capped at 20,000x. You do get the impression that a lot of Santa's Stack's payout capabilities have been rammed into these big clusters though, because without landing them it is tough to get much forward momentum.

Up for a uniquely styled, simple yet savage grid slot loaded with Christmas charm for the special day? You might want to check out what Santa's Stack can do. Just be aware playing this Christmas themed game is far from kicking back with eggnog and a mince pie as it can bite.