Piggy Fortunes Pokies
Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf? Well, anyone who doesn’t like complicated bonus rounds could be afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf feature in Microgaming’s Piggy Fortunes pokie, but don’t panic, as it’s really quite simple to follow.
Piggy Fortunes is, of course, based around the 3 little pigs who built houses of straw, wood and brick, and then had to suffer them being blown down by the wolf. The pokie has some high quality animated images of these characters across the 5 reels and comes with a couple of additional features alongside the main one, with scatter wins and wild substitutions helping players to get extra winnings.
The whole game appears to have been well designed, with a backdrop of a garden and the title above it all, complete with a little pig incorporated into it. Under the reels are the buttons used to set bet sizes, with players having the option to stake as little as 0.25 on a spin, while the maximum is 15.00, which makes it one of the lower one we’ve seen. This will make it fine for casual players, but anyone who is looking for substantial payouts on their bets is going to be pretty disappointed with Piggy Fortunes.
Moving on from this though, we find that all 25 lines are permanently enabled, so any time a winning combination lands on the reels, players will qualify for the payout. Wins occur with 3 or more of the same type stopping across a line running from left to right.
The lower value symbols are the classic J, Q, K and A, while the straw, wooden and brick built houses make up the higher value ones. The pigs are together on a scatter symbol which can land anywhere on the reels to make up a winning spin and the wolf is suitably cast as the wild symbol. Unlike most wins which are calculated as a multiple of the number of coins staked per line, scatter wins are multiples of the total bet.
Piggy Fortunes
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The wild wolf is able to act as all except the scatter if that will complete a winning line, although unlike many pokies, the wild doesn’t have any value on its own.
He does however, make a welcome appearance in the Big, Bad Wolf feature which is triggered by 3 or more scatters appearing at once. It’s a very interesting round which can go on for some time, but what happens is that whenever the wolf appears next to a house he will blow down all examples of that type, which will then appear as destroyed houses.
If 3 or more scatters land, that type of house will be re-built, so the more times this happens the longer the feature plays out for. It only ends when all 3 types of house have been blown down without the scatter turning up to re-build any.
The main advantage of being in this round however, is that whenever the straw house is flattened any wins created by the wild will be multiplied by 2x, while the wooden house will equal 3x multipliers and the brick one being blown down means wild substitutions are worth 4x.
It sounds more complicated than it really is, but put simply, flat houses mean bigger potential payouts. To make it a little easier to follow, which houses are destroyed and which are still standing is displayed at the top of the game while it’s in effect.
This bonus feature is the only one that players are treated to here, as there’s no free spins game, or gamble round.
Will Players be Blown away by this Pokie?
Piggy Fortunes certainly follows a fun theme and it’s all been put together very well, with nice computer generated images of houses, pigs and the wolf. Normal gameplay is perfectly good, with some big potential wins possible with the scatter symbol, but it’s a shame the wild doesn’t pay anything out when it stops across a line.
The feature game is very different, and Microgaming should be praised for delivering something that hasn’t been seen before. With so many pokies now on the market it must be difficult to come up with something new, although it’s not necessarily the most rewarding of bonus rounds, with extra payouts only possible when the wild completes a winning combination. So it’s not like a free spins game, more of a continuation of the regular game, with extra multipliers thrown in.