Sugar Rush Xmas – PRAGMATIC PLAY SLOT REVIEW

Sugar Rush Xmas: Slot Overview

Pragmatic Play, the game developer, has embraced the festive spirit by introducing a Christmas-themed slot titled “Sugar Rush Xmas.” Just like the studio’s playful transformation for the season, Sugar Rush Xmas is essentially a dressed-up and reskinned version of the immensely popular cluster-paying slot, Sugar Rush. Despite the seasonal makeover, Pragmatic Play has retained almost all of the original game’s mechanics, ensuring that participants can still enjoy the engaging cluster-paying system and the excitement of rising multipliers.

While the original Sugar Rush was set in a candy wonderland, Sugar Rush Xmas shifts its focus to a snowy, Christmas-themed environment. Fortunately, the universal appeal of candy during the Christmas season seamlessly integrates into the game’s new setting. Beyond these changes, there isn’t much more to elaborate on. Gummy bears adorn the reels, and the captivating ’70s game show music remains just as lively and jazzy in the Sugar Rush Xmas demo as it was in the original game.

One notable change lies in the expanded range of betting options. Players now have the flexibility to place bets as low as 20 cents or as high as $/€240 per spin. Despite this adjustment, certain constants remain unchanged, including the 96.5% Return to Player (RTP), applicable whether purchasing free spins or not, and a consistently high volatility rating of 5 out of 5. The game continues to initiate each spin by introducing 49 symbols onto a 7×7 gaming grid.

Following the appearance and payout of winning combinations, the symbols forming those combinations are removed from the reels. The vacant spaces are then filled by the remaining symbols and new additions tumbling down. This cascading mechanism persists if subsequent tumbles lead to new wins, creating an iterative process until no further wins occur on the grid. Operating as a cluster-paying slot, winning combinations materialize when five or more identical symbols connect horizontally or vertically. The tumble feature clears away winning clusters. A 5-symbol cluster yields rewards ranging from 0.2 to 1 times the bet, escalating to 20 to 150 times the bet for clusters comprising 15 symbols or more. Sugar Rush Xmas incorporates seven distinct pay symbols, represented by various types of candy, and notably excludes a wild symbol from its lineup.

Sugar Rush Xmas: Slot Features

The features in Sugar Rush Xmas remain consistent with the original, featuring multiplier spots, free spins, and the option to purchase a bonus.

Multiplier Spots

When a winning symbol is eliminated, it marks its position on the grid. Upon subsequent removals from the same spot, a x2 multiplier is appended, progressively doubling with each successive removal—capping at a maximum of x128. This multiplier is then applied to all succeeding winning combinations that occur atop it. If multiple multipliers contribute to the same win, they are cumulatively added. In the base game, designated spots featuring multipliers are reset at the conclusion of the spin, specifically when no further tumbles are triggered.

Free Spins

Obtaining 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatter symbols scattered across the reels during the base game grants players 10, 12, 15, 20, or 30 free spins, correspondingly. Throughout the duration of the free spins, highlighted spots and their associated multipliers persist until the conclusion of the round, diverging from the base game where they are cleared at the end of a spin. Importantly, the free spin feature retains the ability to be retriggered, following the same criteria that initiated its activation initially.

Buy Free Spins

At a cost of 100 times the total bet, players have the option to purchase the free spins round. When opting for this feature, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatters are randomly generated to initiate the free spins.

Sugar Rush Xmas: Slot Verdict

Just as Pragmatic Play excels in experimenting with various concepts, the studio also displays a skill for recycling successful elements. For instance, Sugar Rush gained recognition and became the foundation for subsequent releases such as Mochimon, Yi Sun Shin, Guarana Eyes of the Amazon, and now Sugar Rush Xmas. While some of these slots delve into unique themes, the core gameplay, statistics, and features largely mirror the original Sugar Rush slot. Whether it’s baby-level Digimons, googly-eyed plants, or Korean naval history, the decision to choose any of these over the original might lack compelling reasons since they share the same fundamentals.

Sugar Rush Xmas, in particular, stands out as a more apparent reskin compared to the mentioned slots. However, in these games, the visual theme often takes a back seat to the strategic marking of as many positions as possible to progress through multiplier values. This dynamic unfolds in the base game, acting as a prelude to the free spins round where marked multiplier positions endure until the round concludes. Witnessing clusters of symbols forming or dropping down on multipliers is a notable highlight, not only for the immediate wins but also for the potential to boost multipliers for future use. Having reached its win cap in the past, Sugar Rush Xmas offers a realistic top prize of 5,000 times the bet.

Despite the seemingly straightforward nature of Xmas reskins, like Sugar Rush Xmas, it’s challenging to feel overly critical, apart from the perceived lack of creativity and relative effort invested in its development. Pragmatic Play casino slots can play in all top Dama N.V. Casinos