As the title suggests, the Deck the Halls slot from Microgaming is designed with gamers in mind who enjoy mixing their slots entertainment with festive cheer.
Microgaming excels at creating compelling artwork for its titles, and Deck the Halls is certainly a visual feast. Rich red, green, silver and gold predominate in the colour palette. Against luxurious scarlet drapes, the five reels hang like an Advent calendar, framed in deep green tinsel sparkling with Christmas lights. The 30 pay lines are enumerated in multi-coloured Christmas-tree ornaments down each side, with the red, green and gold theme continuing to the game controls below.
Beautifully Rendered 3D Symbols
The Microgaming focus on arresting visuals extends to the symbols on the Deck the Halls reels, all crafted in colourful, realistic 3D. With a wealth of Christmas iconography to choose from, Deck the Halls has no need of the overused poker symbols. Low-value prizes are all delivered by matching combos of Christmas-tree ornaments: pine cones, a lantern, shiny tree baubles, a reindeer and an incandescent star. All require matches of three or better in succession from Reel 1 on a pay line to win, and a run of five stars wins the top minor prize or 80 coins.
Deck the Halls also uses five major symbols: a stack of artfully wrapped presents under a tree, a roast turkey with all the trimmings, a cheery fireplace hung with wreath and stockings, a decorated Christmas tree, and Santa Claus checking his list. Five Santa’s on a pay line wins the top prize among the ordinary icons: 1,000 coins. Santa arrives stacked, covering all three windows on a reel, in both base play and free spins.
Stacked Wilds can Trigger Biggest Wins
The Deck the Halls logo serves as its Wild icon, so it can replace any other symbol except the Scatter in a winning combination. When a Wild substitution creates a win on a pay line, the prize is doubled. The Wild also wins its own prizes for matching Wilds running from Reel 1 on a pay line: 10, 200, 1,000 or 4,000 coins for two, three, four or five of a kind.
During the free spins round of online casino, the Wild stacks in the same way as the Santa icon does. This allows it to form multiple combinations with other symbols on several pay lines, as well as some big potential matched Wild wins. Deck the Halls is available at a number of online gambling casinos, so those who want to keep their Christmas spirit topped up all year long can access it anytime.
Scatter Awards Multipliers and Free Spins
Another Christmassy icon, a red ribbon securing gold bells and a sprig of holly, is the Deck the Halls Scatter. In any position on the reels, two, three, four or five Scatters wins a multiplier of the total spin bet: X2, X3, X10 or X100. Three or more Scatters trigger a round of 10 free spins at the same time, during which all wins are doubled. Stacked Wilds in combos with other symbols during free spins add a X4 multiplier to the win.
In theory, if the player has 10 free spins in which stacked Wild logos fill all five reels on every spin and the free spins multiplier is applied, the player will win the game’s advertised top prize: 2,400,000 coins. Statistically possible, that is hugely unlikely, however. Nevertheless, the combination of Scatters, stacked Wilds and free spin multipliers in Deck the Halls can still deliver impressive prizes.