Festive Season Slots Online: Scrooge
A Victorian winter street scene forms the backdrop to the reels in Microgaming’s themed online slots game Scrooge, and the rest of the game stays true to many aspects of the Charles Dickens novel on which it is based: A Christmas Carol. No poker symbols are allowed to intrude; instead, the lower-value icons are all symbols of Scrooge’s hard-hearted avarice: a ledger, a set of keys, a safe, a clock and a pile of money.
Higher-value icons are taken from the novel’s characters; Scrooge himself, the ghost of his dear departed partner Marley, Tiny Tim, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. At the top of the screen are two counters; a Countdown Calendar and a Future Free Spins meter. Every time a player scores a winning combination on a spin, they get to pick a symbol from that combination; this choice will either increase the free spins by 1, or move the Countdown Calendar on 1 day. The free spins round is triggered when the Countdown Calendar reaches December 25, and the player get the total of free spins on the Future Free Spins meter.
This innovative way of triggering free spins is another incentive to players to play as many lines as they can afford. More bet lines per spin translates into a more frequent chance of winning, and every winning combination will lead to more free spins being triggered more often.
10 Bet Options, 50 Bet Lines
Scrooge has an unusually large number of bet lines for a Microgaming offering: 50. It also offers 10 different bets per line and variable coin denominations, meaning that high rollers can bet as much as $250 per spin, covering all 50 bet lines.
As usual, players need 3 or more matching symbols, in unbroken sequence from the left-most reel, on one bet line to win a prize. The Scrooge logo is the Wild symbol, substituting for any symbols except the Scatter to help complete winning bet lines. The “living” characters among the game symbols all have their own animations, suited to each one’s personality. These animations come to life whenever symbols end a spin as part of a winning combination.
Two Bonus Features
Scrooge has two bonus features: the aforementioned free spins round, and the Xmas Dinner Bonus. All wins during free spins rounds are doubled, and the maximum payout possible during this feature is 120,000 coins. To celebrate the round, character animations after free spins wins become much more jolly and festive.
The Xmas Dinner Bonus is triggered by three or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. Scatters also score wins in their own right, but when they trigger Scrooge’s Xmas Dinner Bonus, the action moves to a second screen. Players must match up dinners bearing multipliers to specific characters, and then a character is selected at random, with the resulting multiplier being applied to the total wager. The maximum win during Scrooge’s Xmas Dinner Bonus is 10,000 coins. With the Christmas season upon us again, real money slots Canada players who enjoy holiday cheer as much as they enjoy having a flutter on the reels will find both interests satisfied by Scrooge slots.