Rock Star Santa MultiMax

Santa’s got a pretty sweet gig when you think about it. The elves pound away in the workshop making toys while the big guy heads out one day per year to deliver them. What does he do the rest of the time? There’s only so much supervising the workers or checking the naughty and nice list. If Yggdrasil Gaming has any say in the matter, the bearded dude is actually quite a muso who has his sights set on dominating the world – through tunes. Well, maybe not. According to the game info, Santa gets his Hard Rock Band together to let off steam once all the presents have been delivered. You’re invited, want to take a look?

Also included in the title is the word ‘MultiMax’, meaning Rock Star Santa is a distant relative of games like Multifly, Shadow Raiders, and Crystal Falls. This one’s quite different from those slots, though, and not just because Santa and his group of headbangers are the stars of the show. No, Rock Star Santa MultiMax uses a cluster pays system for awarding wins rather than the ways and lines methods which have usually preceded it. We’ll get to the hows and whys soon, but for now, let’s take in the gaming grid, with its 6×6 dimension, set on a stage surrounded by tree-twisted scaffolding, lighting, plus trees and speakers bobbing about the place. As for Santa’s tunes, eh, not bad. They’ve got a rhythmical 80s feel, and if that’s Father Christmas on the guitar, he’s not too bad, either.

Ripping into Rock Star Santa MultiMax like a box under the tree, we find a highly volatile math model with a 96% default RTP whether playing normally or buying features. Stake range is 20 c to $/€100 per spin, plus there’s a Golden Bet that increases the stake by 25% when activated, doubling the chance of triggering free spins. Hitting 5 or more matching symbols connected in horizontal or vertical directions creates a cluster win at a hit rate of 22.55%.

It’s hard to say what the low-pay symbols are. Maybe hard rock, punk baubles? Anyway, there are 4 of those low-pay baubles, then a blue elf, a pumpkin-like head, a purple elf, and Rudolf as the 4 high pays. Landing a 5 OAK winning cluster will pay 0.25 to 1.5 times the bet, while the biggest 14+ sized clusters are worth 4 to 9.25 times the bet.

Rock Star Santa MultiMax: Slot Features

Avalanches are one of Rock Star Santa MultiMax’s key components, as are its wilds, multipliers, free spins, Present symbols, and bonus buys.

Avalanches

When a cluster lands on the grid, the avalanche mechanic removes the winning symbols and drops others down to fill any gaps on the board. If a new win is created after the symbol drop, the avalanche mechanic triggers again. In addition, each time you get an avalanche win, a wild is added to one of the winning positions before the rest of the gaps are refilled. Wilds substitute for all regular pay symbols.

Multiplier

When wilds spawn, the reel they appear on has its multiplier increase by +1. The multiplier is reset after each losing spin or avalanche in the base game, but in free spins, multipliers do not reset.

Free Spins

In the base game, landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols awards 7, 9, or 11 free spins, respectively. Players are then able to gamble the free spins they won for the chance to win more on a gamble wheel (unless they have already won 11 free spins). Successful gambles increase the amount. Failures send you back to the main game. Multipliers are reset when entering free spins, but they are not reset until the feature comes to an end.

Present Symbol

The Present symbol may land in the base game or in free spins. When it hits in the base game, players may win 5x-100x the bet, 7, 9, or 11 free spins, or +4 wilds. If a Present symbol hits in free spins, players can win 5x-100x the bet, +1 free spin, +1 multiplier on all reels, or +4 wilds.

Buy Into Free Spins

From the bonus buy menu, you can get 7-11 random free spins for 75x the bet, or 11 free spins guaranteed for 250x the bet.

Rock Star Santa MultiMax: Slot Verdict

It’s always nice when a studio does something new for a Christmas slot, and such was Rock Star Santa MultiMax’s newness that it didn’t immediately bring to mind any of the other MultiMax games on the market – initially. No, with its cluster paying grid setup and rockin’ out ethos, the first game bubbling out of the subconscious was Play’n GO’s musically minded slot Twisted Sister. Memory’s a funny thing, though. Research has shown that even on major life event days, details in the mind can change, become confused, or simply be erased, and it didn’t take too long to clock that, oh, Rock Star Santa MultiMax is actually a MexoMax clone. So successful has the Yggdrasil design team been in throwing a fun theme over the proceedings that it took a while to realise where the game sat on the MultiMax family tree.

Not a bad game to clone for a Christmas slot, too, and Yggdrasil Gaming has made the most of things. It’s hard to think of any reasons one wouldn’t want to settle down by the fireplace on December 25 and plough through a plateful of leftover turkey meat while trying their luck in a cluster pays game via Rock Star Santa MultiMax. The combination of cluster wins, avalanches, added wilds, and growing reel multipliers make for some exciting moments, and the 10,000x the bet potential is a significant total to aim for. Not much else to say about the gameplay, really.

The only possible concern worth bringing up is that a well-made game such as Rock Star Santa MultiMax is probably only going to fuel or encourage more Christmas clone production. Ah, well, it is what it is, and as long as the seasonal reskinning results in slots like Rock Star Santa MultiMax, then they don’t automatically feel like stocking fillers.