Sweet Bonanza Xmas

Sweet Bonanza Xmas Casinos

Sweet Bonanza Xmas from Pragmatic Play is essentially a festive re-skin of the original Sweet Bonanza, but with a snowy, Christmas twist. While it keeps all of the core elements from its predecessor, it wraps everything in holiday cheer, making it a treat for players who love the festive season. However, for those who’ve already spun the reels of the original, the gameplay will feel very familiar, as little has changed beyond the visuals and soundtrack.

Festive makeover

When you load up Sweet Bonanza Xmas, the first thing you’ll notice is the festive theme. The backdrop has been transformed into a winter wonderland, complete with snowmen, decorations, and a cozy dusting of snow over everything. The game’s soundtrack has also been given a jolly Christmas tune, adding to the holiday vibe. Despite this, the core layout and symbols remain unchanged from the original. The grid is still 6 columns by 5 rows, and the symbols include five fruits—bananas, grapes, watermelons, plums, and apples—as well as four candies—blue, green, purple, and red. These symbols are given a frosty sheen, but their payout structure and function are exactly the same as before.

Sweet Bonanza Xmas: How does it play?

Instead of traditional paylines, Sweet Bonanza Xmas uses a cluster pays mechanic. This means that you don’t need to worry about paylines at all—symbols simply need to appear in clusters of 8 or more anywhere on the grid to trigger a payout. The highest-paying symbol is the red heart candy, which pays 50x the stake if you land 12 or more in view. The game operates with a cascading grid, where symbols fall into place at the start of each spin, and winning clusters disappear to make way for new symbols, potentially leading to additional wins on the same spin.

The RTP for Sweet Bonanza Xmas hovers between 96.48% and 96.51%, depending on whether you engage the Ante Bet feature. The Ante Bet allows you to increase your chances of triggering free spins by adjusting your bet, but it comes at a cost. In terms of bet levels, you can wager as little as 20 p/c or as much as $125 per spin, making it accessible to both casual players and high rollers. The game’s medium volatility means that wins are frequent, though typically on the smaller side, until you hit the more lucrative features.

Sweet Bonanza Xmas: Slot Features

At the heart of Sweet Bonanza Xmas lies the Tumble feature, which is the driving force behind its engaging gameplay. Whenever a winning cluster is formed, the winning symbols are removed from the grid, allowing new symbols to tumble down and take their place. This cascading mechanic can potentially lead to multiple consecutive wins from a single spin, making each round more thrilling and offering the chance for longer win chains—a feature that’s become highly popular in slots these days.

Free Spins & Multipliers

The Free Spins feature is the real star of the show. To trigger it, you’ll need to land at least 4 swirly lollipop scatter symbols, which will award 10 free spins. If you land 3 or more scatters during the free spins round, you’ll receive an additional 5 free spins, keeping the bonus action alive.

What makes the free spins particularly exciting is the multiplier symbol, which comes into play during this round. When a multiplier symbol lands, it stays on the screen as the tumbles continue, and at the end of the sequence, all multipliers in view are added up and applied to the total win. These multipliers start at x2 and can go all the way up to x100, giving you the chance to rack up some impressive payouts if luck is on your side.

The scatter symbols themselves also offer payout opportunities, delivering 3x, 5x, or 100x your stake when 3, 4, or 5 scatters land on the reels, respectively.

Bonus Buy & Ante Bet Features

For players who don’t want to wait around for the free spins to land naturally, Sweet Bonanza Xmas offers a Bonus Buy option. For 100x your current bet, you can instantly trigger the free spins round with a guaranteed 4 scatter symbols landing on the next spin. This option can be accessed via a button located beneath the reels.

In addition to the Bonus Buy, there’s also the Ante Bet feature, which allows you to increase your chances of triggering the free spins. By paying 25% more per spin, you effectively double your chances of landing the scatters needed to start the bonus round. However, if you activate the Ante Bet, you won’t be able to use the Bonus Buy feature at the same time, so you’ll need to choose which option suits your playstyle best.

Sweet Bonanza Xmas: Slot Verdict

When it comes to Sweet Bonanza Xmas, there’s no hiding the fact that this is a straightforward re-skin of the original Sweet Bonanza. Aside from a festive makeover with snow, candy canes, and a jingly Christmas tune, everything remains the same—from the gameplay mechanics to the bonus buy feature and Ante Bet. It gives the game an ever-so-slightly different holiday vibe, but the reality is that you’re playing the same slot, just with a sprinkle of holiday cheer.

Let’s be honest—this is a clear case of cashing in on the Christmas spirit. Christmas is a time for heavy consumerism, and Pragmatic Play is simply jumping on the seasonal bandwagon with Sweet Bonanza Xmas. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, and in some ways, it’s more forgivable because the game isn’t pretending to be anything more than what it is: a Christmas-themed clone of an already successful slot. It’s like a Christmas buffet—you take what you want (some festive gaming fun) and leave the rest (the cynicism).

So, while it might not offer anything new or groundbreaking, Sweet Bonanza Xmas delivers exactly what it promises—a sugary holiday version of a popular game, perfect for anyone looking to blend Christmas cheer with the thrill of high potential payouts.