Christmas Plaza DoubleMax: Slot Overview
Hey folks, it's time for developer Yggdrasil Gaming to leap on the Christmas clone wagon with an entry titled Christmas Plaza DoubleMax. The name got us thinking, initially, about two things. Number one, the DoubleMax in the title is an indicator that this is indeed essentially a clone of the dino-themed multiplier bonanza Raptor DoubleMax. As such, all the gameplay which made the original great is back, such as Dropdowns, added wilds, progressive multipliers, and free spins with their associated gamble option. The second was more to do with the theme.
Specifically, the 'Plaza' thing brought to mind the classic Christmas flick Die Hard, where Bruce Willis went up against Hans Gruber's band of thieves as they attempted to rob Nakatomi Plaza. Not that there's really much about Christmas Plaza DoubleMax's appearance to suggest an association with the 80s action movie. Instead, Christmas Plaza DoubleMax has a sort of ice skating in the city look about it. Maybe New York, but it could be anywhere there are skyscrapers, a plaza, and the weather's cold in December. There's also snow, gifts, and decorations, so it looks a lot more Christmassy than the former game's prehistoric jungle location.
Now for the business end of Christmas Plaza DoubleMax, where stats have basically stayed the same as before. This means players can expect a default return value of 96% and a highly volatile math model. As before, the action is played on a 5-reel, 3-row game panel with 25 paylines for stringing winning combinations across. Any device may be used to get the Raptor on ice crossover, where regular stakes range from 20 p/c to $/€50 per spin.
For pay symbols, Christmas Plaza DoubleMax supplies eight regular symbols, divided into four low pays and four high pays. The lows are Christmas decorations in the four card suit shapes, paying 1 to 1.2 times the stake for a five-of-a-kind win. Rising to 2 to 5 times the bet for five of a kind are the high-pay bottles, canes, snow globes and bells. Not huge values on their own, but Christmas Plaza DoubleMax is a game that can drop in multipliers like no one's business when it's firing; let's see how.
Christmas Plaza DoubleMax: Slot Features
Christmas Plaza DoubleMax isn't a hugely sophisticated game, but the features it has complement each other like a charm and have the brute force to theoretical ability to go bananas under the right circumstances.
Dropdown
It starts when a winning line hits. Firstly, the winning symbols are removed from the game board. Then a wild symbol appears in one of the empty spaces while other symbols Dropdown to fill the rest. Wilds are able to substitute for any normal pay symbol. In addition, each Dropdown doubles the win multiplier. This process repeats until no new win hits. The win multiplier begins at x1 and resets back to x1 between paid spins.
Free Spins
Landing 3, 4, or 5 gift box scatter symbols in the base game awards 7, 10, or 13 free spins, respectively. If 7 or 10 free spins were awarded, players can choose to gamble them for the chance to win more – or collect and go straight to the bonus round. To gamble, players pick one of two gift boxes. If it contains 10 or 13, free spins are upgraded to that number. If the box contains a zero, then all free spins are lost, and it's a trip back to the base game. The most which can be won is 13 free spins. During free spins, the win multiplier does not reset between rounds - it can only stay the same or improve after a win. Scatters only appear in the base game, so free spins cannot be retriggered.
Golden Bet & Bonus Buy
Where available, players may activate the Golden Bet, which increases the spin cost by 25% whilst also doubling the chance of triggering free spins. Or, if present, hitting the Buy Bonus button let's player buy 7 free spins for 100x the bet. Once bought, players can gamble if they like. There is no mention if the Golden Bet or buying free spins affects RTP.
Christmas Plaza DoubleMax: Slot Verdict
'When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer.' He might have been a despicable homicidal thief, yet it's hard to deny Hans Gruber operated with a level of style. And so does Christmas Plaza DoubleMax. It might be yet another Christmas clone, but Yggdrasil Gaming has picked a devastating game to remake. Christmas Plaza DoubleMax's look is arguably less unique than Raptor DoubleMax's was, and the doubling multiplier wasn't as eye-popping at a repeat look, perhaps. However, Christmas Plaza DoubleMax remains capable of delivering every inch of its predecessor's white-knuckle gaming when it has a solid roll-on.
This is probably most likely to occur in free spins since that's where the win multiplier does not reset. Loads of games offer a vaguely similar sort of thing in theory; progressive multipliers are de rigueur in a significant number of Megaways slots, for example. However, few go down the doubling route, and this method can be a real sight when it's in motion, posting big multiplier numbers. Of course, there are checks and balances, raw symbol values are modest, and using paylines rather than ways provides a measure of control. However, the DoubleMax mechanic has the technical capabilities of blasting off as well, where the original game packed a max win figure of 20,000x the bet.
Christmas Plaza DoubleMax would make a fine Xmas choice for players after a highly volatile slot with one of the more insane multiplier features on the market. It's not quite as satisfying as the original, perhaps, but it felt like it still flowed better than Florageddon, Yggdrasil Gaming's follow-up to the feature. All up, it's a bit like Argyle said in Die Hard, 'If this is their idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Year's.'
Being a Raptor clone, Christmas Plaza DoubleMax does what it's supposed to do and pulls it off well.
