A Christmas Story Pokie
There’s plenty of Christmas themed pokies around, but A Christmas Story, from Aristocrat, is a little different, as it’s based on the 1983 comedy film directed by Bob Clark and features many iconic images that featured in it.
There’s the Bumpus hounds who cause so much chaos in the film, the broken glasses, a roast turkey and even the leg-shaped lamp across the 5 reels and 40 fixed paylines of this bonus-packed pokie.
Games based on movies are big attractions, and this one can be found at casinos around the world, although the film was a particular hit in the USA, so that’s where players are going to see it the most.
For those who don’t know the film, it’s a simple tale of a boy who wants a BB gun for Christmas, while sub-plots involve the local bullies, next doors’ dogs, his parents disagreeing over the lamp and a foul-mouthed rant from his father at a malfunctioning boiler.
Playing A Christmas Story
The game has a standard layout, but some symbols will be stacked on the reels, or stretched across several rows to improve the odds of landing a winning combination, with players picking up a prize whenever they land 3 or more of the same symbol type on adjacent reels on any of the 40 lines running from the left side.
It’s presented in the green and red shades that are often associated with Christmas and although the symbols are not taken directly from the film, and tend to be realistic drawings of the characters and props, there’s real video clips that play out when winning lines are made.
That famous lamp is stacked 4 rows high on a reel, which makes its job as a wild symbol easier, as it can complete winning lines by acting as any other symbol, or extend lines of 3 or 4 matching icons into higher-value lines of 4 or 5.
This is also the highest-value symbol when it makes up a line on its own, while the members of the family featured in the movie are also worth big prizes when they line up in the right places, but the real highlights of this pokie come from the many bonus features that are gift wrapped for players and can be triggered at any time.
A Christmas Story
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Unwrapping the Bonus Features
Some of these will occur randomly, with the Bumpus Hounds feature seeing the dogs running across the screen turning random symbols into extra wilds, resulting in a guaranteed payout.
Another randomly occurring feature which works in exactly the same way is the It’s A Clinker round which is based around the failed furnace and again sees players awarded a prize with extra wilds.
In the Deranged Bunny round, the reels expand up to 8 rows high and 16 extra lines are added to the 40 normal ones, while several reels will turn fully wild. This can lead to some great rewards, while landing the bonus symbol in any of the features covered so far will open the Head Honcho round.
This sees a screen full of presents, with players clicking them at random to enter any of 4 additional side games. Uncovering any 2 of the same feature symbols triggers the extra game.
There’s the Queen Mother of Dirty Words free spins game that lines up winning combinations in any positions on adjacent reels, the Black Bart Bounty, where players pick from the burglars on screen to win prizes or even enter a further pick game, and the Triple Dog Dare free spins that can also lead to a pick a prize round.
On top of all this, we have a Golden Twinkling Wheel of Mechanized Electronic Joy feature, which is a very fancy way of describing a wheel of fortune type game, or there’s the similar-looking Progressive Decoder Wheel which can spin up Mini, Minor or Major progressive jackpots.
These won’t be huge jackpots, but are certainly nice prizes to claim anyway.
Sacks of Christmas Joy?
A Christmas Story could well be one of the most feature-filled pokies that people are likely to experience, with so many additional games offer that it’s perhaps a little overwhelming to start with. That said, they can be a little tricky to trigger, and with the exception of the Bumpus Hounds and It’s A Clinker wild features, they may be spinning the reels for a while before entering an extra game.
But it’s worth the wait, and anyway, the base game can be very rewarding, with the potential for lots of winning combinations landing across the 40 lines of this colourful and festive pokie.