Saint Nicked Slot Review

Lucksome’s 2022 Christmas-themed video slot presents us with a very different Santa Claus who’d rather get wasted in an alley than hand out presents. Saint Nicked comes with win multipliers, wild symbols, free spins and a 5,000x max win.

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I’ve been reviewing video slots for years and in that time, I’ve developed a way to efficiently analyse and evaluate these games, giving you user-friendly, informative and factual content.

Firstly, I focus on a video slot’s features, delving into its mechanics, special bonuses and any innovative features it may bring to the table. Next is the math model, where I look at the slot’s RTP, volatility, bet levels and maximum win cap. Visuals and graphics are also important and I take the time to point out great presentation in video slots.

💡Pro Tips

With its medium to high level of volatility, you can afford to bump up your bet levels a bit, just as long as you still get the chance to trigger the free spin bonus several times. This is made easier thanks to the advent calendar feature.

Saint Nicked Slot Bonus Features

This debaucherous Christmas slot presents you with a rather standard grid, made up of five reels and three rows that contain a total of 243 ways to win. This setup remains in place for all base game spins, but you get an enhancement during the free spins bonus, which I’ll discuss in detail below. Wins are put together by having a minimum of three identical symbols on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel. The more symbols you have in a combination, the bigger the payout.

Speaking of which, Saint Nicked has a great mix of both low and high-paying symbols. The lower side of the paytable is covered by your usual royal card symbols from 10 to A, covered in frost and snow, paying out up to 1x your stake for five matching symbols. Higher up the ladder, you get more themed tokens which include a pair of fluffy handcuffs, a bag full of wrapped presents, a drink with a gingerbread man floating in it and an intoxicated reindeer, holding onto a pint of beer. When landing five of a kind of these premium symbols, you can get wins of up to 40x your stake, making them far more lucrative than their lower counterparts.

This covers all of the online slot’s basics, but the action truly kicks off once Saint Nicked’s special features kick in.

Wilds

The game’s most coveted symbol is its wild, which is represented by Saint Nicked himself. This version of Santa isn’t someone you want to mess with but whenever he lands on the reels, he can step in for any missing pay symbols that could form a winning payline. He can also enhance existing wins, helping you get to even bigger payouts.

The wild symbols in Saint Nicked also have a value equivalent to the highest paying symbol in the game, paying out 4x of your stake for five matching symbols. They can land in both the base game and free spins.

Santastic Multipliers

Santa bestows his favour through Santastic multipliers which are added to any wins that include a reindeer or Santa symbol. Whenever this happens a random win multiplier is applied to all wins made during that round. This figure gets boosted further during the free spins bonus.

Bar Meter

During the base game spins, on the left-hand side of the grid, you’ll find the bar meter. This can be filled by sub-symbols that attach themselves to regular symbols on the reels. On every round, these sub-symbols are collected by the bar meter and if you manage to hit the required trigger value, you activate an advent calendar reward.

The meter resets after every spin, whether or not the reward gets claimed. Even so, the bar meter has several safe points and if you manage to get past them, then the bar will reset back to them and not to the very beginning.

Saint Nicked also gives you the Happy Hour feature, which can randomly trigger on any base game spin. This will add a random number of sub-symbols to your reels, increasing your odds of triggering the next advent calendar reward.

Advent Calendar

Whenever you fill the bar meter, you trigger the next reward from the advent calendar. This starts from one and goes all the way up to 25, which completes the calendar. The prizes are random and can either give you access to free spins or instant cash prizes. Once you hit the 25th prize, you’ll only be able to access the final, star prize and the safe point will now be locked at 60.

Scatter Symbol

Scatter symbols provide one of the paths to unlocking the online slot’s free spins bonus. You’ll need a minimum of three scatter symbols to access the bonus rounds, with three, four or five scatter symbols resulting in an initial five, 10 or 20 free spins. Scatters don’t have a pay value of their own and only land during the base game spins.

Free Spins

Whether triggered by scatter symbols or the advent calendar, free spins transport you from the derelict alley setting of the base game to what seems like a county jail. This new setting adds two more locked rows, and you’ll need to land key symbols to unlock them. Should you manage to unlock all the new rows, you get a full five-reel and five-row grid with a whopping total of 3,125 ways to win.

The biggest benefit you get during these free spins is that the Santastic multiplier is now increased to a maximum of 25x your win. You can also add more free spins by landing soap and key symbols. One symbol adds one more bonus round.

In certain regions, the game also comes with bonus buy options. These include the deluxe offer, which costs 100x your bet and triggers free spins with a 9/10 volatility, as well as the double lux offer, which costs 300x your stake and activates free spins with a 7/10 volatility. If your combined win from the double lux offer is below 60x your bet, the free spins bonus will automatically re-trigger for a second time.

Saint Nicked Slot on Mobile

I wanted to experience the madness of Saint Nicked on mobile too, so I fired the game up on a Chrome browser using my Android phone. The experience was fantastic, with an enhanced interface that made playing on a smaller screen with touchscreen controls immensely easy. The mobile version of the video slot has all the same features, graphics and win potential, so you get a seamless experience across all devices and platforms.

Saint Nicked is also compatible with tablets and runs on Android and iOS platforms through several modern mobile browsers.

Conclusion

Around Christmas time I play loads of Christmas-themed video slots, both for reviewing purposes and for my entertainment. And while I generally enjoy these games, the snowy theme can get tedious after a while. Which is why Saint Nicked managed to make such a great first impression.

Lucksome has gone for a completely different vibe here and rather than add a winter filter over a pre-existing release, the developer has created a fun and alternative Christmas slot, filled with dark humour and enjoyable features. Although the game may not be a technical achievement from a graphical level, it looks great, and the irreverent humour is perfectly balanced out by the cheerful Christmas tune that plays throughout.

I’m also a fan of the feature set, which manages to fill up both the base game spins and free spins with all sorts of mechanics. The sub-symbols and advent calendar proved to be a fun special feature which kept me engaged with the game as I pushed to hit the free spins bonus. I also liked the changes that came with free spins which added a sense of progression, rather than rehashing the same gameplay loop from the base game.

The math model is quite balanced too, with a medium to high level of volatility and an RTP of 96.2%. There is a lower 94.5% version out there, but I recommend playing the higher option instead. The maximum win cap is lower than I would have liked at 5,000x your stake, but with a maximum bet level of £200, you can still score some fantastic wins.

Saint Nicked is a fun, original and largely satisfying Christmas slot, and despite a relatively low max win cap, it can offer you a great time on the reels.