New Holiday Online Casino Games: Polar Paws And Naughty Santa
The holiday season is upon us, and developers of online casino games are feeling as festive as ever. The latest to release new online slot games for Aussie pokies players are Quickspin and Habanero Games.
Just last month, two holiday-themed games were released early. Realtime Gaming (RTG) offered up Rudolph Awakens for those with a darker sense of holiday humor, and iSoftBet introduced some partying characters for its Raging Reindeer slot.
This week, we’re introducing more holiday games but of a different nature.
Quickspin put a lot of time into creating Polar Paws, a light-hearted winter-themed game with polar bears and a generous elf.
Habanero, on the other hand, offered up a different version of Santa, one who ogles beautiful women. And those women appear on the reels in skimpy lingerie. Naughty Santa: Milk and Cookies is a bit on the risqué side but appealing to many online slots players.
Polar Paws Introduction
As Quickspin’s first foray into the Christmas-themed games, Polar Paws is a classy way to do it. The music is light and graphics are traditional but with modern twists.
Lead artist Tom Bernardes revealed that the idea for Polar Paws came from classic 2D animations that provided a cozy feel. The character drawings were the most fun part of the process for him, especially the animation in the bonus symbol, while the background graphics were the toughest to do.
“Polar Paws was a really fun game to work on, and it was a smooth process from start to finish!” he said.
When the game was finally released this week (December 3), Quickspin CEO Daniel Lindberg said it was exciting to release the first Christmas game. “It feels great to be able to offer this slot to our operators and players,” he said. “With its beautiful graphics and popular game mechanics, we’re confident that Polar Paws will keep players entertained long after the holidays are over!”
Polar Paws Basics
The 5-reel game has three rows and 25 paylines. Its RTP is 97.84%, and also with medium volatility.
The minimum bet allowable is $0.25 per spin, and $100 is the max bet.
When playing the minimum bet and hitting five symbols on a payline, these are the payouts:
- Polar bear with glasses (red background) = $2.50
- Polar bear with neck wreath (purple background) = $2.00
- Baby polar bear with bow (green background) = $2.00
- Polar bear with scarf (blue background) = $2.00
- A and K = $1.00 each
- Q, J, and 10 = $0.75 each
Regular wilds are the holiday wreaths, but the bowls of candy indicate they are multiplier wilds. The elf is the scatter symbol and loves to throw candy that turns into winnings.
Polar Paws Features and Gameplay
There are several features in Polar Paws, starting with the wilds. The regular wilds substitute for all symbols except the other wild and scatters. The multiplier wilds, though, serve as a wild but also a multiplier of 2x, 3x, or 4x the line win.
When three of the elf scatter symbols appear on the reels, they trigger the free spins. That takes players into the bonus round and 10 free spins.
Speaking of elves, players collect them – as well as bears and wilds – during the free spin sessions. As they accumulate on the trackers on the right side of the screen, more elves equal more free spins. Additionally, they eventually turn polar bears into wilds.
Naughty Santa Basics
The soundtrack for Naughty Santa makes it sound like a party is happening in the background. The red screen is adorned with martinis and Christmas decorations. It is as festive as can be, complete with bells ringing and jingling when paylines hit.
With five reels, the slot has a unique set of rows, with three normal sized rows and the bottom one only featuring symbols on the left and right reels. There are 432 paylines, and the game also offers an RTP of 97.98%.
Players can spin rather inexpensively with the bet level at 1 and coin value at $0.01, creating a minimum bet of $0.30. The bet levels increase to 2, 5, 7, and 10. The coins go as high as 20, making the max bet a whopping $6,000 per spin.
With the betting at a minimum, these are the symbol payouts for hitting five on a line:
- Scatter (milk and cookies) = $6.00
- Wild = $2.50
- Blonde woman with gifts = $2.50
- Multi-colored-haired woman with ornaments = $1.20
- Red-haired woman = $0.80
- Blonde woman holding champagne = $0.40
- Decoration with purple background = $0.25
- Decoration with blue background = $0.20
- Decoration with pink background = $0.15
- Decoration with green background = $0.10
Naughty Santa Features and Gameplay
The wilds are different versions of Santa, which can substitute for any symbols except the scatters. And when the basic Santa wild appears in a winning combination, he expands to cover the entire reel. He only appears on the first and fifth reels, though.
If the basic Santa wild expands, it can also turn into a “Naughty Santa” wild, which multiplies all wins in that combination by x2.
Speaking of multipliers, the missing part of the bottom row at the bottom of the reels is replaced by a multiplier meter, which spins with ever reel spin to offer multipliers of up to 10x.
The decoration symbols, also known as crackers, can explode at random to reveal wild symbols. Up to four of them can explode at one time.
Another feature is that the women can appear as 2×2 or 3×3 symbols during any spin, at random.
Scatters, which are the milk/cookies symbol, can appear on any reels and trigger free games. Three of them award 8 free games, four scatters garner 12 games, and five scatters also wins 25 free games.
Where to Play Holiday Slot Games
These two new holiday-themed slot games are at a number of Aussie online casinos.
