Seasonally-themed slots used to be considered a sort of speciality release, intended as one-off novelties to celebrate the year’s holidays. With online slots more popular than ever and hundreds of software providers vying for attention, though, players looking to spice up their 2024 St Patrick’s Day have more options than they know what to do with. It makes sense, in a way – there’s a natural connection to be seen between the Luck of the Irish and online gaming.
One of the most interesting St Patrick’s slots in 2024 is Push Gaming Shamrock Saints. Besides a fun name and some top-notch graphics, the game is positively bristling with interesting ideas and features. This immediately got our attention because we believe that seasonal slots should not rely on their theme as a crutch. An online slot game can celebrate the season but still deliver a great product that can be enjoyed at any time of the year. We’re happy to say that this applies to Shamrock Saints, which frankly has a lot to offer.
Even the theme is a bit more interesting than the usual leprechauns, pots of gold, and four-leafed clovers. The game is set in gang-filled back alleys and appears with a mix of eerie tension and typical St Patty’s cheer. It’s a unique take, to say the least, though we probably shouldn’t think too much about the implications of leprechaun street gangs.
Further down in this Shamrock Saints review, we’ll get into the gameplay and features of the game and see how it holds up.
The base game is a straightforward 5×4 board and 20 active paylines. You know what this means – match symbols along one or more of the active paylines, and you win. Combinations are made from left to right starting at the leftmost reel, and you typically need at least 3 matching symbols.
Bets in Shamrock Saints start at $0.10 and can go up to $100. It’s a solid limit range that can accommodate most players. Also, note that the total payout for any single round has a hard cap of 10,000x your stake. It’s theoretically possible to exceed this amount, but the round ends as soon as you hit that number.
However, things get a lot more interesting once you start considering the special features and symbols. Let’s go through the most important ones.
We’ll start by mentioning that this Push Gaming slot features Wild Symbols. As usual, they substitute for other non-special symbols. You can also make a winning combination of 3 or more Wilds on a payline, in which case they’re the highest-paying symbol in the game.
Mystery Symbols are essentially hidden symbols that reveal themselves once the other reels are done spinning. They can turn into regular paying symbols, Wilds, or Golden Leprechauns.
What’s so special about that, you might be asking? For starters, Mystery symbols appear in vertical stacks of 4. All positions within a single stack always reveal the same symbol, drastically improving your chances of hitting paylines.
Additionally, these mystery stacks stick to the board for a while. Every time you hit spin with a stack on the board, it’s “nudged” downward a single position while all other reels spin normally. This process repeats itself until there are no more mystery symbols left in the game. However, every time the mystery symbols are moved, they reveal a new set of symbols.
If Mystery symbols reveal the Golden Leprechaun, a special bonus is triggered. All positions containing the Leprechauns re-spin to reveal one of several possible special icons. These can be:
You can get free spins in this game by hitting 3 or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the grid. Free spins in this game kick off with two Mystery Symbol stacks on the board. These are nudged downward as usual, and the free spins last as long as there are Mystery Symbols still on the reels.
Every time the Mystery stacks are nudged during free spins, a running win multiplier increases by +1. It applies to all wins until the end of the free spins bonus.
The number of Scatter symbols used to trigger free spins determines the size of the starting multiplier. 3 Scatters start you off with 1x, 2 Scatters kick off with 5x, and 5 Scatters will set you up with a 10x initial multiplier.
Some Shamrock Saints features allow you to trigger a special round of free spins called Shamrock Mode. It functions the same as other free spins in most regards. However, the initial multiplier is always 10x, and Mystery symbol stacks are nudged up 3 times, which makes it last a lot longer.
A special Chest symbol can appear on reel 3. Alternatively, it can be revealed on any reel from a Mystery symbol. Once this happens, players are given the option to pick between 5 hidden rewards. These can be free spins, Shamrock Mode, Golden Leprechanus, or other rewards.
Another crucial part of the Shamrock Satins slot game are collectable tokens. These can appear over regular symbols on any spin. If they do, they’re added to the pot which you can see at the top of the screen. They stay there throughout the rest of your session.
Once you collect 100 tokens, the pot reaches its maximum level. If another token lands, there’s a high chance that the Shamrock Mode will instantly trigger.
Last but not least, there are multiple forms of feature buy in Shamrock Saints by Push Gaming:
There are 8 regular symbols in the game – 4 low-paying ones and 4 that are considered high-paying. This results in a surprisingly high hit rate and less volatility than one would expect from such a feature-heavy game. That said, most low-paying symbols won’t even cover your stake unless you hit 5 of them, which is something to keep in mind.
The maximum payout in Shamrock Saints is 10,000x. Once you hit this limit, the round ends immediately no matter the circumstances.
Shamrock Saints RTP is 96.3%, which is generally quite high. However, it’s important to note that the game’s RTP varies depending on the level of the golden pot. The more you play and the more tokens you collect, the better the game’s RTP. This ranges from 95.59% RTP for the initial pot to 96.84% with a level 5 pot.
Buying features increases the average RTP in almost all cases. As per the official numbers, the basic 3-scatter buy is the best option with 96.81% RTP.
Shamrock Saints is a top-notch holiday slot, mostly because of how inventive Push Gaming decided to be. It’s a truly action-packed release with a lot of unusual features you’re not likely to find anywhere else. The most interesting parts of the game are undoubtedly the Mystery Symbol stacks and the Collectable Tokens. The former are a multi-faceted feature that hits often enough to impact the whole gaming experience. Collectable Tokens, on the other hand, add a whole new layer to the gameplay. Think about it – how often do you play online slots in which earlier spins directly affect the current round?
At its worst, the game can feel a bit bloated. Like Push Gaming had a bunch of good ideas but decided to cram them all into a single game. Also, the Tokens have a clear downside – when you play Shamrock Saints slots for the first time you essentially have lower RTP than the figure displayed by Push Gaming. You’ll need at least 60 tokens, after which the game will outperform most of its competition in terms of RTP.
All in all, even the worst aspects of this online slot are at least interesting. It’s a very innovative game and a perfect chance to try out your luck this St Patty’s Day.