Santa’s Stack Dream Drop

Santa's Stack Dream Drop: Slot Overview

Remember the story of King Midas, the guy who turned everything he touched into gold? Sometimes it feels like there's a similar thing going on at Relax Gaming HQ, where instead of turning things to gold, every game they touch winds up with a Dream Drop upgrade. We jest, and in many ways, this process is a lucrative upgrade since Dream Drop is the name for Relax Gaming's progressive Jackpot network with a possible upper limit of €10 million. Some games in the range are new, while others are remakes, such as Santa's Stack Dream Drop, which, as well as having four Jackpots, comes with a Secret Santa Respin feature and free spins with guaranteed wilds.

Santa's Stack Dream Drop is a cluster-paying slot played on an 8x8 grid and is quite the 8-Bit winter wonderland. It's set in a quiet town square in the middle of the Christmas period as flakes of snow drift lazily to a cobble-stoned ground. Players get a Santa's sleigh eye view of the surroundings, and when combined with the graphical style, it kind of feels like you're playing something like SimCity or the Sims while bashing away on the play button. The sprites on the reels are equally cute, and the whole scene oozes old-school charm.

Needless to say, in some cute-looking slots, the cuteness is only skin deep. This assessment applies to Santa's Stack Dream Drop as it is a highly volatile game which can hit pretty lofty highs or lows, even outside the Jackpots. The RTP has taken a hit from the original game due to the Jackpot association, now coming in at an even 94%, which is a typical figure for a Dream Drop slot. As an effect of this, the free spins frequency has been lowered as well. Bigger bets have a greater chance of triggering a Jackpot, and the options are 20 p/c to $/€50 per spin.

As a cluster paying slot, regular wins are created when at least five matching symbols land next to each other in vertical or horizontally adjacent spaces. The three low pays are blue, green, and red light bulbs, while the four highs are Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, an elf, Mrs Claus, and Santa. Hitting a five-of-a-kind cluster pays 0.2x the bet for the bulbs or 0.5-1x the bet for the premiums, rising to a maximum of 750-1,250x for 60+ low pays, or a whopping 2,000-10,000x the bet for 60+ premium symbols. When wild symbols appear, they substitute for all pay symbols on the grid.

Santa's Stack Dream Drop: Slot Features

Complimenting the big cluster values is a Secret Santa Re-Spin feature, free spins, and the Dream Drop Jackpots.

Secret Santa Re-Spin Feature

When a wild symbol is used as part of a winning cluster, the Secret Santa Re-Spin feature is triggered. The winning cluster is converted to mystery symbols, and a re-spin is awarded with the mystery symbols locked in place. Each time a win occurs next to the previously created mystery symbols, the new winning cluster is also converted into mystery symbols. If mystery symbols surround an area where a win cannot land, the area will convert to mystery symbols. When no new winning clusters land next to mystery symbols or with wild symbols, re-spins end and all mystery symbols reveal the same pay symbol.

Free Spins

Free spins are awarded when 3 or more scatter symbols land on the reels. A total of 5 free spins are awarded for 3 scatter symbols, plus 1 extra spin for each additional scatter symbol in view. Secret Santa Re-Spins are active in free spins, and wild symbols are guaranteed to hit at the start of each free spin. The number of guaranteed wilds increases by +1 with each spin. On the first spin, one wild hits. When the red, blue, or red and blue scatter symbols land on a free spin, they award either +1 free spin, +1 multiplier, or +1 free spin and +1 multiplier, respectively.

Dream Drop Bonus

Before any normal spin, the Dream Drop Bonus can trigger randomly. When activated, 15 gift boxes appear on the screen. Players click boxes until 3 of the same Jackpots are revealed, and then its corresponding prize is awarded. This could be the Rapid, Midi, Maxi, Major, or Mega, which has first-time seeds of €1, €5, €100, €25,000, or €500,000, respectively, though the actual amount could be greater than this. Current prize values are clearly displayed on the screen.

Santa's Stack Dream Drop: Slot Verdict

The original non-Jackpot Santa's Stack was a pleasant Xmas surprise that exuded charm while delivering simple yet compelling gameplay. First of all, the game world had a nifty old-school video game of yesteryear look about it that suited the Christmas theme to a tee. Santa's Stack Dream Drop captures a bunch of the season's magic without finding itself located in a more traditional setting, such as inside beside a roaring fire. Instead, Relax Gaming has chosen to invoke the rosy-red cheeked feel of a bracing winter's night. In short, Santa's Stack Dream Drop presents a neat, cosy space to try your luck in.

Then there's the gaming side of things, where Santa's Stack Dream Drop does not disappoint either. Secret Santa Re-Spins have been cleverly designed to be rather thrilling when a number of mystery symbols start piling up on the screen. More so than might have been the case since cluster values are absolutely monstrous at the upper echelons of the paytable. Fair dues, you need quite a lot of matching symbols to reach the upper echelons, but they're there regardless. The 10,000x for 60+ Santa symbols is gargantuan, and landing it with at least an x2 multiplier will hit the non-Jackpot win cap of 20,000x the bet. However, with the free spins frequency having been lowered, actually triggering the bonus can be rather frustrating. Unless you're on a jackpot hunt, you're better of playing the original.

Not a bad side goal to shoot for, but being a Dream Drop game means the Mega no doubt remains the main focus. In that regard, players in the mood for a Jackpot slot using a cluster-paying dynamic should find Santa's Stack Dream Drop provides an entertaining, all-bleeping 8-Bit vehicle with which to chase wins down, or try to at least.