The piggies are back, and they’ve upgraded from mansions to clouds. Piggy Riches 3: Hog Heaven by NetEnt is another entry in the long-running franchise, this time letting us peek inside the swanky estate before floating off to a suspiciously heavenly bonus round. With features like walking wilds, colossal wilds, and a growing collection zone mechanic, this one brings a few wrinkles to the usual online slots formula. You’ll also find plenty of references to classic casino games iconography… just with more velvet and pearls.
For once, we’re indoors. The piggy couple’s red-carpeted lair has clearly been designed for showing off, complete with giant statues and a love of gold leaf that borders on obsessive. The theme takes a left turn once the bonus round begins, suddenly it’s all clouds and divine lighting. There’s no clear reason for this detour, but it doesn’t exactly tone things down.
Here’s what the piggy paytable has to say. From the polished 10-A set to the lavish loot, symbols scale up in value.
Symbol | Payouts for 3, 4, and 5 of a kind |
10 | 0.30x, 0.80x, 1.50x |
J | 0.40x, 1x, 3x |
Q | 0.50x, 1x, 4x |
K | 0.80x, 1.50x, 5x |
A | 0.80x, 1.50x, 5x |
Bag of Cash | 1x, 5x, 10x |
Champagne | 1x, 6x, 12.50x |
Gold Bars | 2x, 7x, 30x |
Diamond | 3x, 16x, 60x |
Mr/Mrs Piggy Wild | 3x, 16x, 60x |
When either Mr Piggy or Mrs Piggy wild lands in the base game, a respin is triggered. These wilds then begin a slow trot across the reels. Mr Piggy moves to the right, while Mrs Piggy heads left. Each spin shifts the wild one reel further until it vanishes.
Things could get interesting when the two wilds collide on the same row. Instead of a polite nod and a pass-by, they combine into a colossal wild. If the collision happens centrally, you get a 3x3 block; on the top or bottom, it’s a 3x2. These chunky wilds then pick a direction and walk until they too exit the stage. The multipliers from each contributing wild add together before moving.
Land three Golden Pig scatters and the reels expand to a 5x5 grid. From here, you’ll be collecting Coins, Jackpots, Pearls, and more. A frame starts in the bottom-left and moves to collect Pearls, which can range from 1.25x to 25x. Gather enough and the colossal wild symbol potentially grows in size, first to 3x3, then 4x4, then the full 5x5.
There’s also a Level Up meter which expands the frame further, and various bonus symbols that toss in multipliers, extra spins, and other modifiers. Mystery Wheels spin to award surprise goodies. All collected symbol values are multiplied by the current multiplier, which can go as high as x10.
The base game plays out on a standard 5x3 grid with 20 paylines, keeping things simple until a wild shows up and starts marching across the reels. Once the Free Spins hit, the game morphs into a 5x5 setup where movement is more about collection zones. It’s a strange hybrid of traditional slots and spatial planning, not quite hold-and-win, not quite grid-based, but floating somewhere in between.
If the glitz of this piggy paradise speaks to you, you might want to take a peek at these:
There’s no shortage of Piggy Riches sequels, but Hog Heaven somehow manages to keep things fresh. The walking wilds are fun, even if they’ve got a one-track mind. The Free Spins grid mechanic manages to avoid feeling like a reheated hold-and-win round. That said, the bonus round does lean a bit heavily on proximity-based collection, which might wear thin if you miss by a square too many times. Still, there’s a lot to be said for the chaos of colliding wilds and a 5x5 frame trying to vacuum up pearls.