Ghosts of Christmas
We are all familiar with the Charles Dickens novel ‘A Christmas Carol’ and in December 2012 the story of Scrooge being visited by 3 ghosts got the online slot treatment in the form of the Playtech game Ghosts of Christmas. With all the usual suspects of the story included in this game, it is a novel way to enjoy this Christmas story while trying to win some big cash prizes.
Ghosts of Christmas by Playtech is a 5-reel and 3-row online slot that has 20 adjustable pay lines. This means you can have has little as 1 pay line active if you wished. Why you would we are not sure but the option is there. The game has some familiar Playtech slot features and these include a wild symbol, a scatter symbol that can activate a free spins bonus and a separate bonus symbol for a Ghosts of Christmas bonus feature. With a top prize of 10000x your line bet, there is a lot to play for in this Scrooge-themed game.
How to play Ghosts of Christmas Video Slot
When the game loads you will be treated to a brief animated movie which sees Ebenezer Scrooge being visited by Marley and the 3 ghosts. However, it does appear as though they are just trying to cheer him up for Christmas with decorations, bright lights and of course a Christmas Tree. Then when the main game board has loaded you will find Scrooge sat in a chair on your left underneath the old grandfather clock. With buttons as books and chests and an overall Victorian feel, this is another high-quality game from Playtech.
The game uses just a few standard card type symbols and these are the Q, K and A. These symbols alongside a picture of Tiny Tim & Bob Krachet as well as a sorry looking duck on a plate, form the lower value symbols of the game. Higher value symbols include the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. The scatter symbol is Marley and Scrooge acts as the wild. Finally, the face of the grandfather clock is the symbol for activating the Ghosts of Christmas bonus feature.
Before playing the Ghosts of Christmas online slot you should set your cost per spin with the + and – symbols under the line bet option. This sets the cost per line from 1p all the way up to £50. You will then need to set the number of active pay lines, which can be from 1 up to 20. Both of these settings together allow for a cost per spin from 1p (20p for all pay lines to be active) up to a maximum of £1,000.
To start playing Ghosts of Christmas you just need to select the locked chest ‘Spin’ button in the bottom the right-hand corner. This button is used for playing the game manually but you can use the ‘Auto Play’ button instead. This enables you to program in 10, 25, 50 or 99 automated spins. There is also a Bet Max button which will initiate a spin at your current coin value per line multiplied by all 20 pay lines.
When playing the game you have a Playtech version of an almost familiar Christmas tune playing in the background. In between this, you have the sound of the cold wind howling around the house. The game is certainly atmospheric and this helps make it enjoyable to play. In the base game, you are looking to match symbols on an active pay line and this can include using the wild symbol. The wild will substitute for all other symbols apart from the scatter symbol and the additional bonus symbol.
If you land 3 or more of the bonus symbols on an active pay line, these are the clock faces, then you will activate the Ghosts of Christmas Bonus feature. Here you will randomly be awarded the chance to win cash prizes by one of the three Ghosts being Past, Present or Future. The number of picks you have is determined by how many of the bonus symbols you landed to active this round. Simply make your selection and you will receive the relevant cash prizes.
The biggest cash rewards can be achieved in the Marley’s Free Games bonus round which is activated when you land 3 or more Marley’s anywhere on the reels. Once activated you must select one of the Marley symbols and this will reveal how many free spins you have won. This can be as many as 15. All wins during this feature are tripled. If during the free spins you land 3 or more Marley’s again, then you get a further 10 free spins. You can continue this way indefinitely. Once all free games are complete you are returned to the base game.
Ghosts of Christmas Video Slot Tips
There is a book with the word ‘info’ in the bottom left. Selecting this reveals a series of 4 information screens. You can find out how the game works and what the features do. You will also be able to see the payouts for different symbol combinations and see the bet line mappings.
As well as playing for real, you can play Ghosts of Christmas video slot in demo mode at one of our recommended online casinos. This is a good idea if you want to learn exactly how the game works before taking the plunge with real cash. You can play Ghosts of Christmas for free at Paddy Power Casino.
Is Ghosts of Christmas the right video slot for you?
The Ghosts of Christmas video slot has a theoretical RTP (return to player) of 92.33% with all 20 pay lines active giving a house edge of 7.67%. This is a low RTP compared to many other slots and as we played the game over 100 spins at a £1 cost per spin we certainly felt the effect. Scrooge was certainly looking after his own coins, that’s for sure.
We did feel as though we were playing better than we actually were as the wins came quite frequently. We never had a dry spell of more than 6 spins without a win but these cash prizes were always small on the whole. Ghosts of Christmas is set to the medium to high variance range so it will suit you if you are happy to wait it out for the free spins bonus feature to land. This is where the big cash prizes can be found. The triple multiplier means you can win up to 30,000x your line bet. Therefore, you may be best using a free casino bonus if you have one available. This will help you extend your play whilst waiting for the feature to land.