Wins of Winter: Slot Overview

Time to pull on the gloves and grab a woolly hat, because this one is properly frosty. Swedish studio Fantasma Games has created a wintry backdrop for its cold-season online slot Wins of Winter. It isn’t strictly a Christmas slot, but it can easily work as a decent alternative, and like many festive-themed titles, Wins of Winter is based on an earlier release. Here, the starting point was the mystical slot Magikspell. That said, this isn’t just a simple reskin. Fantasma Games has reworked a number of elements, so while it’s not quite a totally new game, the overall feel has been noticeably reshaped.

The biggest shift is the location: a bitterly cold corner of the world where the wind screams and the sky glows in strange colors—the kind of place where tossing boiling water into the air would make it fall as snow. Magikspell featured an outstanding soundtrack, and although Wins of Winter doesn’t reach the same peak, its music is still enchanting and would sit perfectly in something like an animated movie. The scene is filled out with huge trees, ice, and floating crystals. A bit odd, a bit magical—let’s keep moving.

What does carry over into Wins of Winter is the 5 reel layout set in a 3-4-5-4-3 formation. Running across it are 20 fixed paylines, where wins can form with 3 to 5 matching symbols. As before, the math model is highly volatile, while the RTP now sits at 96%—a touch lower than previously. The maximum potential has also been reduced, landing at 5,000 times the stake. Wins of Winter is playable on any device, with stakes ranging from 20 p/c to $/€160 per paid spin. Keep in mind that Frozen frames, Golden frames, and the Progression meter are stored per bet level when you adjust the stake.

As for symbols, 10-A card ranks make up the low pays, paying 0.75 to 1 times the stake for five of a kind. Above them are purple gems, green gems, yellow gems, red gems, and a wizard-like character as the premium symbols. The high pays deliver 1.25 to 3.5 times the stake for a five-of-a-kind win. Wilds are included too, though they only enter the grid via the Winter Wild feature. Their main role is substituting for regular paying symbols. Wilds may land on any reel and can pay up to 3.5x the bet for a five-wild combination.

Wins of Winter: Slot Features

Wins of Winter’s feature set blends familiar ideas with fresh tweaks, including a Progression meter, the Winter Wild feature, a Mirror feature, the Chest feature, and a bonus game.

Winter Wild Feature

Whenever a Snow symbol lands, it leaves a frozen frame on the spot where it hits. There’s also a chance the Snow symbol randomly becomes a Golden Snow symbol, which leaves a Golden frame in its position. Cells marked with Golden frames transform into wild symbols on the following spin. Any neighboring positions with Frozen frames turn into wilds too, along with the position beside them. Both frame types remain on the reels until they are consumed during a wild conversion.

Progression Meter

In addition, each time a Snow symbol appears, 1 point is added to the Progression meter. Once the meter hits 50 points, the Mirror feature triggers; at 100 points the Mirror feature triggers again; and at 150 points the bonus game multiplier is upgraded in this order – x1, x2, x3, x,5, x7, x10, x12, x15, x20, x25, x30, x40, x50, x60, x80, and x100. Every time the multiplier increases, the Progression meter resets to zero. If more than 150 points are collected, the surplus carries into the next progression cycle. Once the multiplier reaches x100, points stop accumulating. After the bonus game ends, the multiplier returns to x1.

Mirror Feature

When it activates, Frozen and Golden frames on reels 1 and 2 are replicated onto reels 3 and 4. The same happens in reverse, meaning Frozen and Golden frames on reels 3 and 4 are copied to reels 1 and 2. Golden frames place Frozen frames, and if a position already contains a frame, that placement is skipped. The Mirror feature occurs after the Chest feature but before the Winter Wild feature.

Chest Feature

Chests can land on the rightmost reel during the base game. When one appears, it will either adds 3-6 points to the Progression meter or drop 2-4 Frozen frames into random positions.

Bonus Game

Landing 3 bonus symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 in the base game triggers the bonus game. In this round, players receive 9-18 clicks are awarded. Each click reveals a value of 0.5 to 20 times the stake. All revealed prizes are totaled, and then the bonus game multiplier is applied to that sum before the payout is granted.

Wins of Winter: Slot Verdict

Wins of Winter is less about Christmas specifically and more about icy weather with a touch of fantasy. Still, with a little imagination, players can treat it however they like. It definitely feels as though someone had a very particular wishlist for how Magikspell should be adjusted, for better or worse. Better, perhaps, if you’d rather have pick-me mechanics than hold ‘n win features, or if snowflakes appeal more than gargoyles. Even so, it feels like we have to work quite hard to justify choosing Wins of Winter over Magikspell if you’re looking for a diamond-shaped grid and a contagious wild-driven mechanic.

Putting the comparisons to one side, Wins of Winter did land well in certain moments during testing. It can deliver a genuinely magical atmosphere. The graphics look good, and the soundtrack is as grand and sweeping as you’d expect. That said, in our view it still didn’t hit the same heights as Magikspell, and it was difficult not to measure the two against each other throughout. Unfortunately, Wins of Winter often came across as the less engaging option. To finish on the numbers, its win potential is also far behind, offering a 5,000x max win versus 20,000x in Magikspell.

Unless you’re completely taken with Wins of Winter’s setting, there aren’t many standout reasons to pick it over the earlier game. Fantasma Games has dialed back nearly everything, from the bonus round multiplier to the overall win potential. As a Christmas substitute, or if pick ‘n clicks beat hold ‘n wins for you, then sure—it could fit. Otherwise, it comes across as a weaker entry.