Piggy Riches slot review

Here is a game whose title was probably inspired by the phrase "dirty rich." It’s called Piggy Riches and features a family of pigs who live in a mansion that can fetch a top price of 360,000 coins, or 24,000x your bet.

Piggy Riches has been popular among slots players since it was first released in 2010. This isn't such a big surprise because, for one, money is a timeless theme, and two, NetEnt has found a way of presenting all that lavish excess in a comic manner.

That makes flaunting bling bling more palatable, I guess, but what's more important is the fun-loving gameplay and the extra features.

Behind the veneer of the opulent McMansion, however, NetEnt has given Piggy Riches a standard layout of three rows, five reels and 15 paylines. And because few have become rich by working hard 9 to 8 (that is PM) and then throwing profuse soirees, bets start at one penny per payline, which amounts to $0.15 per spin.

With each bet, players stand a chance to trigger wins with Mr. Pig's wild symbol and a free spins bonus with Ms. Pig's scatter. Without the help of these status symbols, the base game tends to post payouts that are low-ish, so the more you see of them, the better it is for your stock in the Piggy Riches slot.

Theme and Graphics

Poking fun at the rich has been a never-ending saga in the world of comedy and movies. That's what NetEnt are doing in Piggy Riches. You can hit a big win up to 24,000x your bet while spinning the reels that poke some good fun at the family of ‘nouveau riche’ pigs.

It’s all been done in an original manner. The set of high-paying symbols include a piggy bank, money bags, golden cards, keys to the mansion and a wallet stuffed with notes. Mr. and Mrs. Pig on the wild and scatter symbols spring to motion to enact a happy-dance about their infatuation with wealth, but that’s the pinnacle of the game in terms of design features.

Extra Features

The powerful estate of Mr. and Mrs. Pig can’t do too well without their say in the affair of playing Piggy Riches. Thankfully, both the base game and the bonus feature are given a boost by their presence.

• Wild

  The wild symbol is represented by Mr. Pig. Besides being the substitute symbol for all except the scatter, all payouts get a 3x multiplier on the bet win when the wild is part of the winning outcome.

• Free Spins

  The bonus feature is triggered by the scatter symbol, which is a portrait of Mrs. Pig dressed in lavish clothes. Three or more symbols can land anywhere on the reel set to prompt a choice between the three modes for the free rounds.

  Players can select fewer spins balanced by a bigger win multiplier, the other way around, or take the middle road:

  • 9 free spins with 5x multipliers
  • 15 free spins with 3x multipliers
  • 22 free spins with 2x multipliers

  But Mrs. Pig isn't done just yet, which is what I love about the free spins bonus in Piggy Riches. Each time her symbol lands on the reels, players get one extra spin, so it’s a game that can go into excess, and there wouldn’t be any complaints.

  I guess I am yet to mention that the scatter symbol is one that pays too, both in the base game and bonus feature.

  Two, three, four and five symbols tease out wins of 2x, 4x, 15x and a massive 100x your bet in that order - which is paid by the total bet multiplier, instead of only the payline stake.

Bets and Payouts

NetEnt has given the game medium variance and a theoretical return to player of 96.38% which I think is the perfect set of stats for Piggy Riches' maths.

The base game in my experience hasn't been too eager to trigger wins with the high-paying symbols, but the wild helped with its 3x, which gives the low-paying royal cards the boost they need so they count for something other than peanuts.

I am not saying the low-pays are terrible, it's just that you start getting your bet back with three aces and four jacks. Any other winning outcome past this threshold results in bigger payouts, such as with four aces, which pays 3.33x your bet.

On the other hand, Piggy Riches the payouts in the picture symbols category are quite solid. There hasn't been a free spins bonus where I didn't get a win consisting of these symbols, which is the medium variance showing its face in the bonus game.

The most valuable symbol is the money bags, paying 133.33x your bet for five of a kind, while the symbol next to it, the gold charge cards, pays 66.66x your bet.

Summary

Piggy Riches has gained notoriety among players because of the multipliers and extra spins in its free spins bonus. I wasn’t disappointed with the base game either, thanks to a sensible frequency of hits, which do come in unison with the wild. Overall, I think this is a classic slot by now and players will come to it sooner or later.