Santa King Megaways Slot Review
Snow drifts over a deep blue Christmas night, presents pile up at the foot of the reels, and the gold frame is wound in garland and baubles with snow settling on its scrollwork. For a game this festive, Santa King Megaways is remarkably shy about paying: the artwork spends freely and the paytable doesn’t. It’s Inspired dressing a familiar engine in tinsel, and the tinsel is carrying more weight than it should have to.
The game runs on a 6×4 grid with an Extra Reel above the main reels, up to 117,649 ways to win, high volatility and an RTP of 95.56%. Inspired know this engine well, with Reel King Megaways, Reel Lucky King Megaways and Centurion Megaways all in their catalogue. Whether the seasonal dressing earns a spin is what the rest of this comes down to.
Ways, Extra Reel and Cascades
Wins pay left to right across adjacent reels, starting with the leftmost reel, regardless of symbol size. The award is multiplied by the number of symbols that occur per reel in the winning combination, so a win with several symbols stacked on a reel pays for every one of them. Only the highest award is paid per winning combination. Wins on different combinations are added together.
The Extra Reel sits above the main grid and adds an extra symbol to reels two, three, four and five on every spin. Because it feeds the middle of the board rather than the edges, it’s often the reel that turns a three-symbol win into something bigger. It also carries the only special symbol in the game.
The wild appears on the Extra Reel in both the base game and free spins, and substitutes for all symbols. There’s no scatter and no second special to chase. The wild is the whole of the symbol-level interest, and it only ever arrives on that top reel.
Cascades
Every winning symbol is part of a Cascade. Winning symbols are removed and new ones drop in from above the reels and from the right along the Extra Reel. If the refill creates another win, that win cascades too, and the chain keeps going until no new combination forms.
Cascades run in the base game and during Reel King Free Spins alike, so a single spin can chain several wins together as the board keeps refilling. On a high volatility game with a modest paytable, those chains are where the meaningful wins have to come from; the top symbol alone won’t carry a session.
Symbols and Payouts
The paytable is a familiar split: one themed symbol, a run of royals, and classic fruit symbols doing the low-paying work. The Gift Sack leads the table and is the only symbol that pays for a two-symbol match. Payouts are multiplied by the base bet, so the values below are multiples of your stake.
- Gift Sack – 2.00x for two, 5.00x for three, 10.00x for four, 25.00x for five, 50.00x for six
- A – 1.00x for three, 2.00x for four, 2.50x for five, 7.50x for six
- K – 0.25x for three, 1.00x for four, 1.50x for five, 2.00x for six
- Q – 0.25x for three, 0.50x for four, 0.75x for five, 2.00x for six
- 10 / J – 0.20x for three, 0.40x for four, 0.60x for five, 1.75x for six
- 9 – 0.20x for three, 0.25x for four, 0.60x for five, 1.00x for six
- Watermelon – 0.15x for three, 0.25x for four, 0.50x for five, 1.00x for six
- Plum – 0.15x for three, 0.25x for four, 0.50x for five, 0.90x for six
- Cherries – 0.10x for three, 0.20x for four, 0.40x for five, 0.80x for six
Below the Gift Sack, six-of-a-kind pays drop straight from 7.50x to 2.00x. The fruit symbols pay under a single stake for anything but a full six across the reels, and the royals and fruit overlap heavily: K and Q both top out at 2.00x, and the Plum barely edges out the Cherries.
What that leaves is a paytable where the Gift Sack’s 50.00x for six is doing nearly all the work at the top, with everything else bunched between 0.80x and 2.00x. That’s a thin spread for a game rated high volatility, and there’s no published win ceiling to point at beyond it.
The King Features
Alongside the reels sit three side buttons labelled MEGA KING, SUPER KING and REEL KING. They’re this game’s bonus layer, and their names hint at a tiered structure: Reel King at the bottom, Super King above it, MEGA KING at the top. What each tier triggers and what it pays isn’t spelled out anywhere, so there’s an element of discovery the first time each one fires.
The one King feature named outright is Reel King Free Spins. The round uses the same reels, the same Extra Reel and the same wild placement as the base game.
The cascades keep running during the free spins, which matters more than it sounds. With the board refilling on every win and the wild landing on the Extra Reel, a good run inside the round can stack several paying combinations into a single spin. That chaining, rather than any named prize, is where the round’s real value sits.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 6.1/10
Playing Santa King Megaways is like spending an evening somewhere beautifully decorated where not much gets handed out. That’s the one reason to pick it: it’s a Megaways engine you already know, wearing the best Christmas outfit on the strip.
The strength is the presentation. Snow, garland, baubles and a pile of presents done with real care, on top of an engine that runs without a hitch. The weakness is everything underneath the wrapping: the paytable thins out fast below the Gift Sack, and the King features never explain themselves well enough to feel like the event they’re clearly meant to be.
It suits Megaways players after seasonal charm, especially anyone who enjoyed Reel King Megaways the first time round. Anyone hunting big ceilings or a fresh mechanic will find the presents under this tree mostly empty boxes. Come December, though, it’s an easy one to like – just don’t expect it to pay for the decorations.
Santa King Megaways FAQs
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What is the RTP of Santa King Megaways?
Santa King Megaways runs at an RTP of 95.56%. -
Is Santa King Megaways high volatility?
Yes, Santa King Megaways is a high volatility game, so wins tend to be less frequent but can be larger when they land. -
How many paylines does Santa King Megaways have?
Santa King Megaways doesn’t use paylines. It’s played with up to 117,649 ways to win, with only the highest award paid per winning combination and wins on different combinations added together. -
What is the grid size of Santa King Megaways?
Santa King Megaways uses a 6×4 main grid with an Extra Reel above it that adds an extra symbol to reels two, three, four and five. -
When is Santa King Megaways released?
Santa King Megaways’ release date is 7 December 2020. -
Who makes Santa King Megaways?
Santa King Megaways is made by Inspired, the studio behind titles including Reel King Megaways and Centurion Megaways. -
What does the wild do in Santa King Megaways?
The wild substitutes for all symbols and appears on the Extra Reel in both the base game and free spins. It’s the game’s only special symbol. -
How do cascades work in Santa King Megaways?
Each winning symbol is removed from the reels and new ones take its place, dropping from above the main grid and sliding in from the right on the Extra Reel. Any win formed by the refill sets off another cascade, so chains of wins can build from one spin, both in the base game and in Reel King Free Spins.
