Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven: Slot Overview
It seems like just the other day we reviewed Red Tiger‘s Piggy Riches Begins, an online slot that helped fill in the background of the Piggy Riches story; now here we are about to dive into the wealthy world of Mr and Mrs Piggy once again. The game this time is Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven, and it comes from associates NetEnt, the original designer of the first Piggy Riches slot released in 2010. This time, players can join a winged, top hat-wearing pig in a cloudy sky bonus round, while respins, walking wilds, and colossal wilds keep them busy on the ground.
Piggy Riches base games generally occur outside, where players get to bask in the glory of Mr and Mrs Piggy’s fabulous pad. In Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven, players have the privilege of peeking inside the Piggy residence, where red carpeted stairs sweep to the left and right in a sort of heart shape, and giant piggy statues decorate the place. If you were wondering what the heaven part of the title refers to, spoiler alert, when the bonus round triggers, it takes place in a cloudy, heaven-like place up in the sky. Why? You got us there. Maybe it’s a comment on no matter how many riches a pig does or doesn’t have, it pretty much always has to end sometime?
Played on a 5×3 gaming area, Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven is a highly volatile slot with 20 paylines to create wins along. It is possible to wager 20c to $/€40 per spin, as well as buy several features from the Elevate bonus buy menu. The max RTP is 96.06%, though three lower configurations are available, as well.
Swankily designed 10-A card ranks are the low pay symbols, awarding 0.75x to 2.5x when forming a 5 OAK win. Next are bags of dough, bottles on ice, gold bars, and diamond symbols, paying 5x to 30x for a 5-of-a-kind winning combination. Wild symbols in Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven substitute for anything except the scatter. They appear as Mr Piggy Wild or Mrs Piggy Wild and have the same payout value as the diamond.
Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven: Slot Features
Mr and Mrs Piggy Wild are connected to a respins feature, while the main event is a unique collector bonus round, which players may buy along with other features from the Elevate section.
Walking Wild Respins
Mr Piggy and/or Mrs Piggy Wild symbols hitting on the reels in the base game activate Walking Wild Respins. At the start of each respin, wild symbols move horizontally to the next position until they disappear from the reels. Mr Piggy Wilds move to the right while Mrs Piggy Wilds move to the left. Respins end when no more wilds are left on the reels.
If Mr and Mrs Piggy Wilds collide on the same row, they transform into a colossal wild symbol, which will randomly move left or right until it disappears from view. The colossal wild is 3×3 if the collision happens in the middle of the reel or 3×2 at the top or bottom of the reel.
Any wild symbol appearing on the reels has an x1 multiplier that increases by +1 when the wild is part of one or more winning combinations on a respin. When wilds with multipliers of x2 or higher are part of the same win, their multipliers are added first. Colossal wild multipliers add the multipliers of the colliding wilds together.
Free Spins
In the main game, landing a Golden Pig Scatter activates 10 free spins on a 5×5 game area. In the feature, only Coins, Jackpot symbols, x1 multiplier, +3 free spins, Pearls, Level Up symbols, and Mystery Wheel symbols may appear.
At the start of the round, a 2×2 frame is placed in the bottom left corner where it collects any symbols that land within its borders. When a Pearl lands outside the borders, the frame moves to collect it and any other symbols within the new borders. Pearls have values of 1.25x to 25x the bet. In addition, collecting 5, 9, or 12 Pearl symbols increases the colossal symbol in size to 3×3, 4×4, and 5×5, while awarding an extra +2, +3, and +4 free spins, respectively.
When a Level Up symbol is collected, the collection bar fills to the next available gem, and the frame expands its size accordingly, up to 5×5. When the meter is full, no more Pearl or Level Up symbols are collected by it. Collecting the +3 symbol awards +3 free spins, while collecting the x1 symbol increases the multiplier counter by +1 up to a maximum of x10.
Coin symbols have values of 2.5x to 50x, while Jackpot symbols have values of 1,000x, 2,000x, or 5,000x the bet. Coin, Jackpot, and Pearl symbols that appear on the reels are multiplied by any applicable multiplier before being collected. A collected Mystery Wheel symbol spins to award either an x1 multiplier, +3 additional free spins, a Level Up, or Coins.
Elevate Feature
In-game features may be bought from the Elevate menu. They are the Golden Pig at 5x the bet to increase the chance of landing a scatter. Walking Wild Respins may be bought for 10x, or Colliding Wilds, which guarantee Mr and Mrs Piggy collide during respins for 30x. Free spins cost 100x or 500x buys free spins with an x5 multiplier, and after free spins end Walking Wild Respins is activated with a guaranteed Mr and Mrs Piggy collision.
Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven: Slot Verdict
It was slightly odd reviewing two Piggy Riches slots so close together, especially considering ten years passed between the original slot and Piggy Riches Megaways. Piggy Riches 3 Hog Heaven returns to NetEnt, and the studio has used the opportunity to make a decent addition to the lineup. For starters, the atmosphere is about as spiffing as one could ask from a couple of cashed-up pigs, and being let into the house for the main game is quite an honour. Again, why the bonus round heads to the clouds is a puzzle, but the theme shake around complements the gameplay rejig.
Walking Wild Respins brighten up the base game, but when collisions occur and the big 3×2 or 3×3 wild is created, it might be good to prepare for it to walk to the right a lot. A colossal wild is probably more likely to link wins when it heads to the left, so don’t count on that happening a lot of the time. The seemingly forever rightwards walking actually got a bit silly after numerous Elevate buys, but it is what it is. The opportunity to annoy or thrill is alive in kicking in the bonus round, too. While there were presumed hold ‘n’ win elements, it’s not that sort of feature at all. And watching prizes go to waste because they’re just out of reach of the collection frame might get on the nerves. It was fun collecting prizes within the frame, though, especially when the frame is expanding and moving about the place, and this system is something new for the Piggy Riches series.
That in itself should have piggy fans lining up to give the game a crack, as a 10,387x max win, an unusual theme choice and new mechanics combine to breathe an extra breath of life into the Piggy Riches range, assuming the piggies are still alive?
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