A Winter’s Tale

A Winter's Tale: Slot Overview

What was already a bountiful supply of Christmas-themed online slots just got one slot more bountiful with the release of A Winter's Tale from LeoVegas-owned software provider Blue Guru Games. If you're the sort of person who likes to settle in for a long, winding tale full of twists, turns, and intricate characterisation as it delves into the human psyche, A Winter's Tale might appear closer to a light anecdote than an in-depth saga. In fact, it might appear pretty light in just about all regards. We'll expand on this assessment in due course as we dissect an online slot packing two main features in the form of a Gift Unwrapping Bonus Game and a Sticky Wild Bonus Game.

A Winter's Tale starts quite warmly, presenting a rather joyous representation of the holiday season. The game looks quite nice, with a multi-pack Christmas Card-type lightness throughout. Centre stage sits a 5-reel, 4-row game grid next to a cosy-looking house out in the countryside covered in snow, which is about to be visited by an elf (or Santa?) dragging what is presumably a sleigh loaded with presents. It's not without a dash of unique charm and was handsome enough to wonder what the game might be able to deliver next.

Onto the nittier grittier side of A Winter's Tale, and numbers are not really this game's strong suit. It might be okay for players looking for a low volatile Christmas slot to plough through, whereas the RTP value of 95.15% is nothing super exciting to write home about. The return value is the same whether playing normally or when buying either of the two bonus rounds. All devices can be used to play A Winter's Tale, should it suit, while stakes can be set from 10 p/c per spin, up to $/€100 at the most.

In total 20 fixed paylines make their way across A Winter's Tale's game grid, creating a win when identical symbols land on a line on at least three consecutive reels from the left. Hitting five of the low-pay J-A card royals in a winning line is worth 2-5 times the stake, while a five-of-a-kind premium win made up of baubles, a tree, or a goat, will get you 10 to 30 times the bet. A rosy-cheeked chap, who might well be Santa, is used as the wild, appearing on all but the leftmost reel. Wild symbols are able to replace any symbol except the scatter.

A Winter's Tale: Slot Features

Scatter symbols land on all reels and are the gateway to unlocking the two bonus rounds – the Gift Unwrapping Bonus Game and Sticky Wild Free Games.

Gift Unwrapping Bonus Game

Land a scatter symbol, and it is added to the collection pot next to the reels. In addition, collecting a scatter triggers a respin. The collection resets when no more respins occur. If at least 5 scatters are collected, the Gift Unwrapping Bonus Game is awarded. The number of gifts you get to unwrap is equal to the number of scatters collected, up to 12 at the most. When gifts are opened, they contain cash values, multiplier values, or free games bonuses. When all of the gifts have been opened, the multiplier is applied to the total prize value and awarded.

Sticky Wild Bonus Game

Getting 1, 2, or 3 free game prizes from the Gift Unwrapping Bonus Round awards 5, 7, or 9 free spins, respectively. During free spins, when wild symbols hit, they are locked to the reels, where they stay until the feature ends.

Feature Buy

If the feature buy function is available in your country, players can buy the Gift Unwrapping Bonus Round for 50x the bet or the Sticky Wild Bonus Game for 70x the bet. As noted above, the RTP is 95.15% for both buys.

A Winter's Tale: Slot Verdict

A Winter's Tale was a game that got more surprising as the action, such as it was, unfolded. Unfortunately, the surprises weren't really of the positive variety. The game started okay; the visuals were quite nice, the characters possessed an innocent charm, and the scene was a warm Christmassy one. From there, though, it was all pretty much downhill like a runaway toboggan. It's no secret how numerous Xmas slots are, so unless a game doesn't do something exceptional, there is a danger it will get overlooked in a wash of competition. A Winter's Tale's main selling point appears to be its low volatility which hasn't been a hugely common trait in the Christmas slots that have come our way recently.

Apart from that, there isn't much else in A Winter's Tale prompting a return visit. The Gift Unwrapping Bonus Round is kind of odd. Instead of a traditional pick-me feature, you literally just click the screen, and gifts open themselves one by one to reveal their goodies. Free spins, should they trigger or be bought, are okay at best. Sticky wilds are there, but the game is hampered by an overall max win figure of 1,556.4 times the bet. Couple that unexciting figure with a relatively unexciting RTP, and A Winter's Tale comes across as one of the least appealing gifts under the Christmas slot tree. If the math model and relatively singular visuals don't win you over, and fair dues if they do, then the game feels a little like a straight-to-DVD film you might stumble across when you scroll to the bottom of your streaming service's Christmas section.

In the bulging sack of options that is the Christmas online slot category, it is hard to think of many ways A Winter's Tale distinguishes itself from the bunch. Whilst it does possess a certain charm and warmth, unless something low-volatile, low-potential is of personal interest, there is a stack of more compelling options out there to choose from.