Piggy Pirates Slot
There is hardly anyone who has not heard or read the famous fairy tale Three Little Pigs at some point in their childhood. These characters each build a house with different materials, but the bad wolf blows the first two, made of straw and sticks, away. They escape to the third house built with bricks, and the exhausted wolf ends up with no choice but to give up on the idea of devouring these pigs alive.
Piggy Pirates reverses the fortunes of the original fairy tale, as the little pigs are turned into pirates on this slot from Red Tiger Gaming. Together you get to sail the high seas in pursuit of the bad wolf and his gold coin treasure. Place your ship right to enter the close-up battle in free spins and pillage the coins off the reels for wins of up to 2,000x your stake.
The Plundering Slot Reels
The three pigs have tracked the bad wolf down in a secluded bay and are now approaching the battle for the gold treasures. The two ships are maneuvered into place, and the wolf throws the first bomb into the water to try and scare them off. But a frameless game window with five reels, four rows and 40 fixed paylines appears. Ropes normally used by pirates to board the opponent’s ship here separate the reels while the two ships remain in position.
The graphics and animations of Piggy Pirates are stunning, as is usual on games from this provider. A sea soundtrack with splashing waves and squeaking calls from albatrosses is only interrupted by the usual reel stop and win count sounds.
Piggy Pirates has 10 pay symbols, all of which can appear stacked from one to four symbols high. Clubs, diamonds hearts, and spades crossed by two skeleton bones start off the plundering tour, paying 1.5x your bet for five of a kind. The premium symbols are an anchor, a treasure map scroll, a green bottle with a compass, a sack with silver piggy coins, and a chest bursting with colored gems. Hit five of them on a payline, and you’ll be able to collect a win ranging from four to 25 times your bet.
Gold coins act as both the top-paying and wild symbols, appearing in the free spins only and paying 50 times the bet for five of a kind. The bonus symbols are in the form of the three pigs, and these appear randomly on the reels.
The Pirates’ Stats and Numbers
The RTP of this medium-variance game is set at 96.06%. Entry to join the battle is granted for as little as 0.20 coins and goes up to a high-roller-friendly 100 coins. The maximum win in a single spin is 2,000x the initial stake for a full screen of wild symbols, which can be hit in the free spins round only.
The slot is designed in the modern HTML5 standard, making it available for play on desktop, table and mobile across all OS platforms. Auto play will allow players to select up to 100 consecutive spins with a range of options as to when the run should stop.
The Plundering Heist in Unlimited Free Spins
The three pig symbols are the key to triggering the bonus round with unlimited free spins. No multipliers or reel multipliers are active during the feature. To enter the bonus round, players need to have all three pigs on the screen. They will drop randomly onto the reels on any spin in the base game, then wander towards the outer end of the game grid if there aren’t three of them on the screen.
The pig symbols that land on the first three reels will move to the right, while any landing on the last three reels will move to the left. They might stop and doze off to extend their stay in a reel position and increase the chance of triggering the bonus round. However, they will fall into the water if not all three are on the game window before they reach the outer reel.
Having all three pigs on the reels will activate the bonus round with unlimited free spins. They are transformed into piggy banks and will collect any gold wild coins that land on any reel during the feature. But beware, the wolf won’t surrender his treasures so easily. He might appear on reel five to drop a bomb, which will end the round – but not before the accumulated wild gold coins are randomly placed on the reels, followed by one more spin.
To fill the screen with wild coins and score the maximum win in a single spin of 2,000x their bet, players need to collect a total of 24 coins throughout the free spins. In my test runs, I gathered mostly 5 to 10 coins, leading to wins which ranged from 20x to 150x my bet. This should be the average that can be expected from the Piggy Pirates slot.
Other Plundering Pirate Reels
“Avast ye, bounty ahead” is the common phrase used by pirates when they discover a ship or island worth plundering. It’s no wonder that they’ve found their ways onto the reels of video slots – after all, we slotting people like to plunder the reels for big wins. Personally, I do enjoy the hilariously funny Loose Cannon slot from Microgaming, or something more volatile like Lucky Pirates from Playson, which comes with a top win potential of 5,000x the stake.
A Reel Pirate’s Verdict
So, is it “Ahoy” or “Argh”? Piggy Pirates is definitely an entertaining slot from Red Tiger Gaming. It has a fun theme and an innovative pay mechanic that can produce mega wins in every bonus round. I do like the fact that the fairy tale roles have been reversed, and the pigs are now on the heels of the bad wolf.
The base game can be equally rewarding with a maximum win of 1,000x bet for a full screen of gem chests. However, we can agree to disagree on the cartoonish look, as it will appeal to young players who might not yet be of legal age. But overall, this is yet another exciting creation by Red Tiger Gaming that’s worth a few spins.
