Money Sleigh

Money Sleigh: Slot Overview

You know the current year is close to wrapping up as the temperatures start to plummet, a festive spirit pervades the air, and casino game makers start raining down Christmas slots in a blizzard of candy canes, reindeer, and Santas. Relax Gaming is one studio that has utilised the festive season before, of which the retro-designed twee village of Santa's Stack is an example.

This time, the studio has pulled out one of its choo-choo slots (Money Cart 3), torn off the train skin like an enthusiastic youngster ripping the wrapping off a Nerf Gun, or whatever, then essentially slipping the game engine into a slinky pair of elf tights. The result is Money Sleigh, a good name and one which regularly slings players into a version of the fabled Money Cart/Money Train respins round.

Instead of a terrifying locomotive pulling up on the tracks at the beginning of the game, a sparkling sleigh slides into view to display its wares. That is, it displays a 5-reel, 4-row reelset which switches between a reward-less base game and a hold 'n win respins round. As for the theme, okay, not bad, Money Sleigh throws in some snow-covered trees, a charming house, and a metallic red nosed reindeer to invoke the spirit of the season. Hard to argue with that.

Next on the agenda is setting a stake, and the options are 10 c to $/€100 per base game round. Money Sleigh does not offer the chance of buying the bonus round, but this isn't really necessary once you read over how the rules work. Other important pieces of information to know are that the game is a highly volatile one and comes shipped with a default RTP of 96%.

Money Sleigh: Slot Features

What you want to happen in Money Sleigh is to land at least 3 symbols on the game grid. When this happens, 3 respins are awarded, with the triggering symbols locked into the position they landed. Special symbols triggering the feature reveal a value and play their effect before the first spin. If new symbols land on a respin, they also lock in place and reset the spins count to 3. If a whole reel gets covered in locked symbols, an extra reel is added to the side of the grid. Up to 2 reels can be added like this. The bonus round ends when respins go to zero or the win cap is smashed into.

The symbols landing in respins are either money symbols (also called normal symbols) worth 1 to 10 coins each or special modifier symbols:

• Gatherer – gathers all values in view on the reels and adds them to itself.
• Gatherer/Giver – selects 3 to 5 symbols to be targets, adds their values to itself, then pays out this new value to each of the targets.
• Helper – doubles the values of 3 to 8 other symbols. It can act on the same symbol more than once.
• Santa – revives 2 to 7 already used non-persistent special symbols (Gatherer, Gatherer-Giver, Helper, Super Helper, or Super Giver). It can do this to the same symbol more than once.
• Snow Bank – pulls all of the normal symbols, removing them from the reels. Special symbols are not banked.
• Super Helper – picks one random symbol, then doubles its value 2 to 6 times.
• Super Giver – reveals a coin value of 5 to 100 and targets a random symbol, adding the revealed value to it 3 to 10 times.
• Eternal Gatherer – gathers all values in view and adds them to itself at the end of that spin and each following spin. It does not collect its own value.
• Eternal Helper – doubles the values of 3 to 8 other symbols at the end of the current spin and each following spin. It can double the same symbol more than once.
• Eternal Gatherer-Giver – picks 3 to 5 symbols to be targets. At the end of that spin and on each following spin, it adds their values to its own and pays the new value to the targets.
• Eternal Santa – revives 1 to 7 used non-persistent special symbols (Gatherer, Gatherer-Giver, Helper, Super Helper, or Super Giver). It can do this to the same symbol more than once.
• Eternal Mystery – becomes a different special symbol after each spin (Gatherer, Gatherer-Giver, Helper, Super Helper, or Super Giver).

Money Sleigh: Slot Verdict

The way Money Sleigh and the Money Cart games are set up are essentially quicker ways to organically enter the bonus/respins phase of play compared to their Money Train counterparts. As such, generally speaking, you do get to experience the respins part of the game more often than in a regular Money Train version, but there are weights and counterbalances. One is that the base game itself goes nowhere since there are no regular pay symbols and no way of making any dough. It's either dead spins or respins triggers, with nothing in between. This isn't really a major issue, however, since, as noted, triggering respins happens quite frequently, thereby making the base game a formality rather than a painful chore. Interestingly, the Money Cart series was originally developed as an alternative to Money Train for UK players, who were unable to access bonus buys.

As always, there are no guarantees, especially in slots as volatile as those Money Train/Money Cart type games. Money Sleigh's other caveat, more so for newcomers, is that it operates on a coin system. So, instead of symbols displaying straight bet multipliers, symbols display coin values. Helpfully, the value of each coin is clearly displayed at the top right corner of the reels. This is most useful for recognising that the advertised 100,000 max win is the total number of coins it is possible to win, translating to 10,000x the bet  - something that tends to confuse a lot of players as much as it tends to annoy them. A fraction of what Money Train 3 doles out when its win cap has been steamrolled, but a tidy sum nonetheless.

Replacing a 100 ton juggernaut of a train with a plush red and gold sleigh means some of Money Cart 3's excellently hefty, dieselpunk attitude has been traded in to celebrate the holiday season. But, beneath the skin, Money Sleigh remains a fairly punchy game that can zing when its famous special symbols are slinging their modifying abilities back and forth across the reels, weaving their magic.