New Slots Round Up: 6th December – 12th December 2025

This week’s releases don’t form the strongest ever round up, but there are some bright spots that are definitely worth a look, mostly where progressive features or multipliers carry the weight.

Warlocks from Big Time Gaming feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. We know this studio can come up with amazing new mechanics when it wants to, and seeing a grid set in a castle with two battling magicians in each turret got my hopes up. Essentially, one is a Fire Warlock while the other is an Ice Warlock, and each can perform different actions on the grid.

For example, in the bonus round, the Fire Warlock can set a position on fire, which stops that position from spinning – the fire spreads outward every spin, and any prize covered by fire is multiplied. Then the Ice Warlock tries to put out the fire so that all positions can spin again. It’s the right idea but never really seems to truly get things going. If you like all ways pays slots, it could be worth a few spins though.

Detective Donut Christmas from Popiplay is a festive reskin of Detective Donut from 18 months ago. In fact, we also had Detective Donut Kickback in between, which had an 80s theme and a simplified set of rules. Yes, I find this Christmas version (and the original) a bit muddled. It works with standard paylines in the base game, but also has a hold and win round (with only two respins), and a bonus game where the Detective can grow (a lot like in Mo Mummy or Piggy Riches 3: Hog Heaven) as he chases a robber around the board. It’s quite a dry game for the most part though, so it’s questionable whether you’ll ever play it long enough to reach the exciting bonus feature.

Grunt Gold is Bullshark’s latest slot, and it hints at potential, but never quite delivers. It pulls from the Triple Pot idea, with red, blue, and green chests above the grid. Each one can assist gameplay in different ways when triggered, and they all act on the base game and the bonus game. The problem is, they never seem to do all that much.

Treasure Explorer from BGaming is one for fans of progressive meters. It plays on a 5 x 4 grid with 25 standard paylines, and the meter jumps into action every time you land a win. You’ll get a respin, while lighting up one multiplier on the meter, so the more tumbles/respins you get, the higher the multipliers climb. The bonus round has the same concept, but here the meter is longer and has extra perks along the way. It’s simple fun, but one of the better games this week – the bar is relatively low, to be honest.

We finish this section with Power Pops from Backseat Gaming, and if you’ve played Gates of Hades, you’ll probably like this slot. It is funny that the themes couldn’t be further apart, though – Gate of Hades is a riproaring, high intensity game set in the bowels of hell, while Power Pops is set in candy paradise with a relaxing, minimal vibe.

The gameplay here works around a scatter pays system, but we also have Lollipops. When these land, they add multipliers to their reels for the duration of the spin, and if at least one symbol from a scatter win is on one of those reels, the multiplier activates. In the bonus round, the multipliers are sticky and progressive rather than resetting with each spin, making Power Pops a highly volatile slot where wins can reach as high as 30,000x. All in all, this game really hits the spot when everything lines up.

Now let’s move on to our Game of the Week below.

Game of the Week

Circle of Life from Hacksaw Gaming comes as a spiritual successor to Life & Death from earlier this year. The black and white, almost occult visuals are very similar, and both slots makes use of Expanding Wild Multipliers. However, there are enough differences that the two feel like separate titles. The grids are different sizes too: Life & Death was 6 x 5, while Circle of Life is 5 x 4.

Wins in Circle of Life are formed across 14 paylines. You’ll find 10 base symbols, and a special Tree special symbol which acts as a Multiplier Wild – if a win is formed from one of these, a respin will be triggered as the Tree grows up by one row. This pattern continues until the Tree isn’t involved in a win, or it reaches the top of the grid where it will eventually fall away.

Ideally you’ll want Trees to land on the bottom row, because when they manage to stretch up across all four rows, the Circle of Life feature will be triggered. This is a wheel with six multiplier segments, and it will rotate before the next spin lands, pumping up the Tree’s multiplier until you get a skull symbol. The segments on the Circle of Life can go as high as 100x – of course, landing just one of these would give you a very worthwhile multi.

3 FS Scatter symbols triggers the Origin bonus round, which is basically the same thing as the base game, but with Trees more likely to land. There is another spin to decide the amount of free spins too, and you do tend to get quite a lot – it’s regularly 20+. Landing 4 FS Scatter symbols triggers the Eternal bonus round, and here you get a guaranteed Tree on each spin.

The music in Circle of Life reminds me of the 90s artist Enigma, in that it’s house music but with choral chants and classical motifs – it fits with the visuals perfectly, and overall this game has a sombre, esoteric feel.

To sum up the volatility, Circle of Life can go through long dry spells, but then suddenly you’ll get a huge boost from the multipliers at play. It won’t be for everyone, but some players will really like the rhythm. There are plenty of bonus buys to tweak things to your liking too.

The max win is 15,000x, while the RTP is 96.33%. Try it out via the demo below, and look out for it at a sweeps casino near you soon.

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