Christmas is supposed to be about giving, sharing, and goodwill, yet in online gambling it often signals a wave of clones and reskins. Courtesy of Pragmatic Play, slot fans get another entry with Xmas Spark, which is essentially a clone of Candy Blitz. That means players are back to a scatter paying slot setup featuring a dedicated multiplier reel, free spins, and a bonus buy. The difference here is that Xmas Spark swaps the candy coating for an overload of festive holiday imagery.

Pragmatic Play has stripped out the sugary setting from Candy Blitz and dropped the action into a snowy winter scene. Is it the North Pole? Maybe not, but we’ll call it that anyway—expect plenty of snow, decorated trees, and gift-filled moments, along with charming little buildings where Santa and his elf crew live and build toys for well-behaved kids everywhere. As with Candy Blitz, Xmas Spark leans on a familiar theme and doesn’t do much that’s especially distinctive with its sights and sounds to mark the season.

As before, Xmas Spark is a scatter paying slot running on a 6-reel, 5-row grid. Wins land when 8 or more matching symbols appear anywhere on the grid, and they don’t need to touch or connect. The game uses a highly volatile math model, delivering an RTP of 96.08% when wagering 20 c to $/€240 per paid spin, or 96.02% when purchasing the free spins bonus round.

The tumble feature removes winning symbols from the grid once a payout is formed. Any gaps are then filled as new symbols fall from above. This continues until no further wins are created. The candy symbols are gone from the pay table, replaced by diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades for the low pays, followed by a train, a teddy bear, Rudolf, an elf, and Santa for the high pays. A scatter win with 8 matching symbols pays 0.25 to 1.5 times the bet, while the biggest scatter wins require 12+ symbols and award 0.75 to 50 times the bet. Wild symbols never appear in Xmas Spark to assist with wins.

Xmas Spark: Slot Features

Every feature from Candy Blitz has been carried across, so you’re getting the same core package again: the multiplier reel, free spins, and the buy free spins option.

Multiplier Reel

Next to the main grid sits a dedicated multiplier reel. On every spin, 5 random multiplier symbols drop onto it, with potential values of x1-x6, x8, x10, x12, x15, x20, x25, x50, x100, x250, or x500. All wins are multiplied by the value shown in the bottom position of the multiplier reel. After each tumble, the multipliers on the reel also shift down by one position.

Free Spins

During the base game, landing 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols awards 10, 12, or 14 free spins, respectively. One key change in free spins is that the minimum multiplier is x2 instead of x1. Other than that tweak, the free spins round plays largely like the base game. The feature can be extended too: hitting 4, 5, or 6 scatters grants an extra 5, 8, or 10 free spins.

Buy Free Spins

By paying 100 times the bet, players can purchase the free spins round, ensuring that 4, 5, or 6 scatters land to activate the feature.

Xmas Spark: Slot Verdict

Ho ho ho—Xmas Spark turned out about as expected. Not to knock it, but Candy Blitz is still a recent release, arriving only months before this one, so its sweet aftertaste is still pretty noticeable. Still, it seems there’s always room for yet another Christmas slot (or a hundred more—brace yourself), and now Xmas Spark is here, for better or worse.

“Better,” most likely, for anyone craving a Christmas-themed scatter paying slot. That said, it’s not the only option that could scratch that itch. Rival Max Win Gaming released Christmas Multihops, another scatter paying Xmas slot, not too long ago, though there aren’t loads of games combining scatter pays with a holiday backdrop. So, fair enough—maybe that’s justification for Xmas Spark’s existence. It does what it sets out to do: scatter wins, potentially hefty multiplier boosts for the fortunate, and plenty of festive spirit. One last highlight is the sparkling star on top of the tree—Xmas Spark’s maximum win potential of 10,000 times the bet.

In short, Xmas Spark is a Xmas slot where payouts come through a scatter paying system. As a clone wearing this particular festive skin, it offers almost no originality, but it completes the assignment its developer set for it.