Christmas Catch

Christmas Catch: Slot Overview

It's no secret kids love Christmas, shoot how could they not what with all the gifts and the food and the family, the lucky ones at least. It seems, though, that casino game makers are just as jazzed about the season. Bolstering this supposition is another Christmas-themed gambling release titled Christmas Catch. Celebrating the special day this time is Australian-based designer Big Time Gaming, and to get into a holidaying mood, the studio has reskinned its fishing slot Golden Catch to do so.

Where Golden Catch took place out at sea, naturally, since it's where fish tend to get caught in large numbers, Christmas Catch is firmly land-based. How Christmas Catch gets into the theme is by housing its game grid in a brick-built building with 'Santa's Workshop' spelt out in neon lights over a wreathed doorway, framing the reels in flashing lights, and landing reindeer dragged Sleighs on the rooftop. These are needed later on for collecting cash prizes. As a spirited addition, Jingle Bells jammin' in the background provides the final jingly touch, helping make Christmas Catch cheerfully Christmassy.

After a bit of scrutiny, about the only numerical or statistical difference between Christmas Catch and Golden Catch is that gamblers now get a wider range of bet choices from 20 c to a max of $/€30 per spin. The rest is familiar, such as an RTP (when normal betting or bonus buying) of 96.53% produced by a highly volatile math model. Utilizing the Megaways mechanic, the active grid set-up consists of 6 reels, each landing 2 to 7 symbols on a spin, providing a dynamic number of ways to win climaxing at 117,649.

Hitting matching symbols from the first reel onwards over adjacent reels creates a win. This triggers the reaction mechanic that removes all of the winning symbols from the reels, letting symbols fall down from above to replace them. After each reaction, any Sleigh visible above the second reel is removed, while any other Sleigh moves one reel to the left. The regular pays are 9-A card royals as the lows and 4 socks/stockings as the premium symbols. Landing a 6 OAK winning way awards 0.25 to 0.5 times the bet for the lows or 0.6 to 50 times the bet for the socks. Occurring on reels 2 to 5 is Christmas Catch's wild symbol, good for substituting all symbols except the scatter.

Christmas Catch: Slot Features

The features part of the game now, which involves Sleighs, Gift Bonus Prizes, free spins with an unlimited Sleigh multiplier, and the Win Exchange.

Sleighs and the Gift Bonuses

On each spin or reaction, a Sleigh may appear above reels 2 to 5. Whenever winning symbols are removed, one or more Gift Bonus Prizes may appear. Gift Bonus Prizes are awarded for each Sleigh no matter where the Sleigh is. Gift Bonus Prize values can be worth up to 500x the bet, depending on how many symbols are on its reel.

Free Spins

Landing 3 Christmas pud scatters in the base game awards 10 free spins, plus players get +2 free spins for each extra scatter in view beyond the third. The first Sleigh that lands in free spins has a multiplier of x1, the second Sleigh has a multiplier of x2 and so on. Gift Bonus Prizes are multiplied by all of the in-view Sleigh Multipliers. Whenever 3 scatter symbols hit, players get an extra +4 free spins, plus 2 additional free spins for each scatter beyond 3.

Win Exchange

A regular BTG addition, the Win Exchange gives players optional ways of entering the free spins round. One is when you win 100 times the stake or more; you are able to exchange 100 times the stake for 10 free spins. The other is when winning between 25 and 100 times the stake. Then, you can wager the amount for the chance to win 10 free spins on a gamble wheel.

Christmas Catch: Slot Verdict

Being based in the wide brown land of Australia means that come Christmas Time, the lads and ladettes of Big Time Gaming are basking under the summer sun while countries in the Northern Hemisphere are battening down the hatches to ward off the chill. While wind, rain, and snow lash the north, those down under are throwing another shrimp on the barbie before heading to the beach to catch some rays. Apologies for the cliches, but it would have been kind of cool, kinda original if the team had delivered a different slot version of Christmas rather than the traditional cold, wintery one of Christmas Catch. Not that there's anything wrong with the view at all, and to be fair, since Christmas Catch is located outside Santa's Workshop, the snow-capped brick building makes a whole lot of sense. Just pondering out loud.

In action, there's little to nothing separating Christmas Catch from Golden Catch. The game can give, and it can tease. Gift Bonus Prizes often appear when no Sleigh is in sight, therefore winding up dropping away and doing nothing. Sometimes, a lot of Gifts will appear, not be collected, then a Sleigh will land on the very next spin. Ho, ho, ho… you got us. To put a positive spin on the many near misses and straight-out misses, at least cash collection is a possibility in the base game. Fishing slots with a money symbol collect feature often aren't available at all until free spin trigger, so that's something. And really, with base game max exposure of 10,550x the bet, Christmas Catch eclipses a lot of fishing slots/cash collecting games already. Wait till free spins trigger, and the figure is jacked to 31,430x the bet, making this one of the bigger winning potential Christmas slots bobbing about the place.

Christmas Catch isn't all sugar and spice and all things nice, though; in fact, it could produce downright mean results. But theoretically, Christmas Catch's combination of rising multiplier values in free spins, retriggers, and Gift Bonus Prize collections, has the capability of powering out some seriously good cheer, if you're lucky.