Christmas Catch

You know we’re getting close to Christmas when we’ve got 2 seasonal releases to review in one day. This time around, it’s courtesy of Big Time Gaming, who are revisiting their 2022 release, Golden Catch. This release turned out to be a very popular one for the team, offering a new look on the classic idea of a fishing game. So much so that Big Time Gaming went on to release Gifts of Fortune in 2023 with the same core mechanics.

Now, it’s time for Christmas to get a look in on this mechanic as we leave behind the pyramids of Sanctuary and find ourselves hunting for presents rather than fish in Christmas Catch.

With a fixed RTP of 96.53%, this highly volatile release can produce wins up to 31,430x bet.

Christmas Catch Base Game

We’re in front of Santa’s workshop today, as indicated by the pink neon sign above the emerald green door. It’s a more unique view on the workshop than a lot of people might have, but Big Time Gaming do usually go for a pretty realistic art style, like that of Wild Unicorns, so that makes sense.

Regardless, most of the space in the background is taken up by this large red brick building with snow on the roof. Wreaths and some fairy lights do a good job of making it feel festive, along with a variety of stockings on the reels. It’s all finished off with a Christmassy soundtrack to help tie it all together.

Christmas Catch Offers Players up to 117,649 Ways to Win

Christmas Catch Base Features

Taking place across 6 reels, wins are formed on Christmas Catch by matching at least 2 or 3 symbols on adjacent reels, beginning with the leftmost reel. Each reel can hold up to 7 symbols, producing a maximum of 117,649 ways to win. Symbols available begin with non premiums, with 9s, 10s, Js, Qs, Ks and As, awarding wins between 0.05 and 0.15x bet for 3 of a kind matches, increasing to values between 0.25 and 0.50x bet for 6 of a kind wins.

At the premium end we have four stockings, starting with green, blue and red. Land 3 of a kind of any premium to see wins between 0.20 and 0.30x bet, increasing to values between 0.60 and 2x bet for 6 of a kind matches. Purple stockings are the highest paying symbol and the only to pay for 2 of a kind, awarding wins between 1 and 50x bet for matches between 2 and 6 of a kind. Finally, Wild Christmas trees are available to substitute for all symbols except Christmas Pudding Scatters.

Gifts Bonus Symbols May Appear During Reactions

Reactions

There are a few different features to cover in Christmas Catch, starting with reactions.

On every spin, all symbols involved in winning combinations will be removed from the reels, with all remaining symbols dropping down to the bottommost available position on their respective reels.

New symbols will then drop in from above to fill the remaining gaps, with reactions continuing until no new wins are formed.

Scatters are not removed from the reels with reactions.

Gifts Bonus Prizes and Sleighs

Working hand in hand with reactions is the Gifts Bonus feature.

Each time winning symbols are removed from the reels with reactions, one or more Gifts Bonus Prizes may be shown.

On every spin or reaction, a Sleigh may appear above reels 2-5. If a Sleigh is above the reels in any position, it will collect any Gifts Bonus Prizes that are revealed.

After each reaction, any Sleigh above reel 2 will drop off and all other Sleighs will move one reel to the left.

All Sleighs hold multipliers of x1 and only collect the Gifts Bonus Prize value with the exception of Golden Sleighs, which multiply any prizes they collect by 10.

It is possible to have multiple Sleighs above the reels at once.

Land Sleighs to Collect Gifts Bonus Prize Values

Gifts Bonus Prize Value

The value of any Gifts Bonus Prizes in view is determined by the number of symbols on the reel where they occur.

• 2 or 3 symbols – prizes up to 500x bet.
• 4 or 5 symbols – prizes up to 3x bet.
• 6 or 7 symbols – prizes up to 1x bet.

Win Exchange

Win Exchange is available in the base game of Christmas Catch. With Win Exchange, whenever you win 100x bet or more, you have the option to exchange 100x bet for 10 Free Spins. If you have won more than 100x bet, only 100x bet will be exchanged, and the remainder will be added to your bonus win.

If you win between 25 and 99x bet, you have the option to exchange the entire win for a chance to be awarded 10 Free Spins by gambling. The chance of winning the gamble is represented by green on the wheel, and the chance of losing is represented by red.

The higher x bet the win, the more green will be present on the wheel.

Christmas Catch Win Exchange

Christmas Catch Bonus

Land 3 or more Christmas pudding Scatters to trigger 10 Free Spins, plus an additional +2 spins for each Scatter beyond the third.

During Free Spins, any time a Sleigh appears above the reels it will have a multiplier that is +1 higher than the previous Sleigh. Regardless of how many Gifts Bonus Prizes a Sleigh collects or how many reels it travels across its multiplier will remain the same, but the next Sleigh to appear will have a +1 multiplier.

All Gifts Bonus Prizes collected by Sleighs will have the Sleigh multiplier applied.

It is possible to have multiple Sleighs above the reels at once.

There is no upper limit on how high a Sleigh multiplier can climb.

Land 3 Scatters during Free Spins to trigger +4 spins, plus an additional +2 spins for each Scatter beyond the third.

Sleigh Multipliers Increment in Free Spins and Do Not Reset

Bonus Buy

Players in appropriate regions can skip straight to the action with the Bonus Buy, whereby paying a cost of 100x bet will award 10 Free Spins.

RTP remains the same when using Bonus Buy.

Whilst Big Time Gaming usually opt not to place a win cap on their games, the maximum win observed so far in Christmas Catch has been 31,430x bet.

Christmas Catch Free Spins

First Impression

Well, that was easy. There haven’t been any features changed between Golden Catch and Christmas Catch, with the latter acting as more of a festive re-skin than anything else, but we’ll go over things for those who haven’t tried Golden Catch. Firstly, artwork has had a nice seasonal do-over, but it continues to be surprising that we’re seeing the exact same non premium symbols in every release from this team, and it feels like more could have been done to tie those into Christmas.

Reactions work alongside Gifts Bonus Prizes (weird name, right?) and Sleighs to award cash values in the base game, alongside actual symbol wins which can reach heights of 50x bet. This, combined with Win Exchange and special Golden Sleighs with x10 multipliers, help to keep the base game moving in the right direction and feel exciting, but it’s Free Spins where things come into their own.

With Sleigh multipliers incrementing each time a new one appears with no upper limit and prize values up to 500x bet available, it’s easy to see how Christmas Catch could kick off if it wanted to. When the right combinations occur, wins are possible up to 31,430x bet – the same as that of Golden Catch, which would indicate no mathematical changes.

Finally, RTP is fixed at 96.53% and maths is highly volatile, so no complaints there. All in all, if you liked Golden Catch, you’ll like Christmas Catch, and that’s pretty much it.

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.