Santa Pets

Festive Pets Review

Festive Pets is a new grid slot, built on the Cluster Pays mechanic, and it is filled with bonus features and modifiers. As the title implies, the game utilizes a Christmas theme, delivering joyful vibes ahead of the winter festive season. There are a lot of presents waiting for the players, up to 7,000x the bet.

It’s cute until you realize it’s a reskin of an older slot. It has the same gameplay math, while the only difference is the switch from the sweets theme to a Christmas one. You know what to expect. Anyway, back to the game, Festive Pets looks nice and charming, producing a warm homely atmosphere, and the jolly soundtrack adds a final touch to the general ambiance.

The 7x7 reels are made up of different pets and their toys and treats. Dogs, cats, and rabbits are premium symbols, and the lower symbol lot includes milk bones, toy mouses, tennis balls, and carrots. Wild symbols are also included. Payouts are awarded when clusters of 5 and more vertically or horizontally adjacent symbols appear. Clusters of 15+ low symbols are worth 5x - 7.5x the bet, while the higher symbols pay 50x - 100x the bet.

Players drop in by setting bets from €0.2 to €20 per spin. The volatility tends to the high side of the spectrum, and the RTP comes in four different settings, with 97.08% being the highest. The other possible payback values are 95.01%, 94.48%, and 87.04%, so be sure to read the rules carefully before depositing. Wins should occur fairly often according to a 31.45% hit frequency, and the maximum win is capped at 7,000x the stake.

Festive Pets Slot Features

Central to the gameplay of the Festive Pets slot is the Free Spins feature, though, let's start walking you through the random modifiers that are available both during the base and the bonus game. They are called Santa Booster features, and they trigger when the respective meter gets filled.

Whenever you score a payout, 12% of the winning credits contribute to the Booster Meter. Moreover, each spin adds 5 points toward the meter progress. When 380 points are collected, one of the following modifiers is randomly activated:

• Santa Gift - turns a random symbol on the grid into Wild.
• Super Santa Gift - creates a cluster of four Wild symbols.
• Mega Santa Gift - creates a cluster of nine Wild symbols.
• Santa Bomb - converts a 3x3 cluster into a random high-paying symbol.
• Ultra Santa Bomb - turns a random reel column into a random high-paying symbol.
• Santa Rocket - turns a random column and a row into a random high-paying symbol.

Players can also trigger the modifiers immediately via the Buy Booster feature. You can select a preferred feature, and the prices range from 1.3x to 52.8x of the bet.

Each win during the gameplay triggers a cascade, where all winning symbols get removed, allowing new ones to tumble down and fill empty spaces. Unlike other symbols, Santa Wilds are sticky. They stay in the position and don't get removed in the cascades. However, this doesn't apply to wilds that appear in the result of bonus features.

Santa Wilds also act as Scatters, and when 3 non-booster Wilds appear simultaneously in view, players receive 10 Free Spins. During the bonus, a progressive multiplier comes into play, starting from 1x, and each winning spin increases the multiplier value by +1x, up to 8x. Unfortunately, retriggers are not possible.

Review Summary

If you overlook the fact that Festive Pets is simply a copy of a previous title, you can’t deny the game is enjoyable. If so, Festive Pets does get the job done well providing Christmas vibes, and with so many features involved, there’s enough entertainment to be found.