Calling all Charles Dicken’s fans! It’s the classic tale of Scrooge retold and this time it’s Betsoft’s turn to take up the challenge. This isn’t the first Christmas Carol slot game out there you see. Pair that with the fact that it’s based on a famous book with several major motion pictures to its name. You can pretty much understand why Betsoft has had big shoes to fill. Has the software provider been successful though? We’re about to find out in this A Christmas Carol Slot review.
A Christmas Carol Details | |
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House Edge: 5.42% | Return to player: 94.58% |
Autospin: Yes | Softwares: Windows download, no download - instant play, mobile, Mac |
Released: December 14, 2015 | Min Bet: 0.25 |
Max Bet: 125 | Scatters: Yes |
Gamble: Yes | Max Coins: 5 |
Reels: 5 | Paylines: 25 |
Spins: Yes | Bonus Rounds: No |
Wild: Yes | Software: Betsoft Gaming |
A Christmas Carol comparison | ||
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A Christmas Carol | AVG | |
Rating: | 4.0 | 4.2 |
House Edge: | 5.42 % | 3.68 % |
Return to player: | 94.58 % | 96.32 % |
Paylines: | 25 | 25.0 |
Bonus Features: | 4 | 3.6 |
A Christmas Carol is a 5-reeled slot with 3 rows and 25 paylines. Nothing particularly new here but then again players will have something to relate too. Learning the ropes should be pretty plain sailing.
If you haven’t played any Betsoft games recently, you might’ve forgotten that the minimum coin size is usually 0.02. They seem to have stuck to industry standards with A Christmas Carol Slot though as the minimum is set at 0.01 as in most other video slots, whereas the maximum is 1.00. Raise the stakes by placing up to 5 coins per active line and a maximum bet of 125.
The game falls under the family of high variance slots. In all honesty, the game is too volatile for our taste. The hit rate is low; however, the bonus features do get triggered quite often. The prizes are big but just don’t let that long losing spree get you down. There’s always some light at the end of the tunnel.
At 94.58%, A Christmas Carol RTP is far from the best we have seen around. It isn’t the worst either though. If you are a die-hard Christmas slot fan though, then you will find ones with a higher return to player. Take Secrets of Christmas Slot by NetEnt. It was released less than a year after Betsoft’s slot yet the RTP is over 2% higher. It all comes down to how much RTP matters to you though. It’s a handy value to be aware of but it’s not like its ever going to predict when you’ll hit a win.
The story of Scrooge, A Christmas Carol is a true classic. Are you ready to face your ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future? Scrooge is reckless, please don’t be like him. From a design and game play perspectives, the game is amazing. We wish we could say that about the loading speed of the game. Make sure you don’t have any scheduled meetings because the loading time for the bonus features takes a whole eternity.
In many ways, A Christmas Carol bares a strangely familiar resemblance to Playtech’s, Ghosts of Christmas Slot, but who are we to point fingers. For what it’s worth, the latter was released 3 years prior to the Betsoft slot, it’s starting to show its age. However, in our opinion, the winning element of A Christmas Carol Slot is the superior graphics which have become Betsoft’s trademark. It’s a small price to play for that longer load rate.
In terms of both sound and graphics, the slot truly captures the festive element. Christmas just got a whole lot closer and it goes by the name of A Christmas Carol. You can almost smell those chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Or at least you could if this wasn’t a story about greedy old Scrooge. We really like that he is visible throughout the entire game play. After all, Scrooge is the star of the game. The three symbols that represent the Ghosts of Christmas are the driving factors in this game. Triggering the bonus features activates special visual and audio effects that are admirable. Not to mention the fact that each of them perfectly fits the respective bonus feature; which brings us to our next section.
If you’re familiar with the Dicken’s classic then you shouldn’t have a hard time understanding the in-game bonuses. Even if you aren’t familiar with the Christmas tale though, things have been kept quite simple here. The roast chicken symbol is the wild and it can substitute for any other symbol except the Ghosts of Christmas which take the role of scatter symbols. Now this may be handy and all but similar to the actual tale, it’s the Ghosts that count with A Christmas Carol slot game.
Hitting any 3 identical Ghosts of Christmas triggers one of the special features, specifically Past Winning Spins, Future Winning Spins and Present Wilds. Christmas Past is represented by the yellow ghost. Whereas the blue and green ghosts symbolise Christmas Future and Present respectively. Below is a list of how the various features work.
The good news is that in-game bonuses can be triggered even during other bonus features. What we really like though is that Betsoft found a way to implement the background of each of the Ghosts of Christmas accordingly. A Christmas Carol slot game tells the story to the tee.
If you’re familiar with slot gamble features, then you’ll understand A Christmas Carol slot double down. It’s practically the same, except for the actual name. It can be triggered whenever you land a win and only takes tossing a coin to double your wins. The only problem with this is that you can just as easily lose everything. We tested this out for ourselves and quite frankly, we do not recommend using it. Yes, the prizes are stunning, but we prefer enjoying the company of the Ghosts of Christmas and good old Scrooge.
They’ve done an impeccable job of sticking to the original storyline. And we aren’t just talking about audio-visuals! We didn’t fault those either in our A Christmas Carol Slot review. We did however have even nicer things to say about their unique approach to the in-game features. Then again there’s that awfully high variance to watch out for. Entering a losing spree kills the fun and the satisfaction. It’s far from a deal breaker but if you do opt for A Christmas Carol slot game, we’d recommend playing with caution.