Piggy Riches Megaways (Red Tiger): Overview

Lady Pig and Gentleman Pig are back on the reels in a refreshed take on the classic Piggy Riches slot. The outrageously wealthy piggy pair return for yet another unapologetic showcase of riches and possessions. This time, the revival arrives through the joint efforts of NetEnt and Red Tiger. If you didn’t catch the backstory, NetEnt recently bought Red Tiger for a princely amount, and the Megaways license came along with that acquisition. The first release from this partnership is a pig-themed title that’s been brought up to date. The visuals and mechanics have both been expanded, and Piggy Riches now also features the hugely popular Megaways engine. Naturally, that makes this version feel like a very different ride. Time to get those piggies going and see the bacon sizzle.

From the outset, it’s clear the presentation has changed a lot—which you’d certainly expect, considering the original Piggy Riches launched at the beginning of the last decade. Even so, the connection between the two games is still obvious. Built by the Red Tiger production team, the action unfolds on the grounds of Piggy Manor, an over-the-top mansion overflowing with fountains, statues, and wrought iron gates. The biggest shift is the layout. With Megaways in play, you get 6 reels with up to 7 symbols per reel. At maximum capacity, that puts 117,649 win ways on offer. It also introduces a cascading win mechanic, where winning symbols disappear and new ones drop into the empty spaces. This allows multiple wins to chain from a single spin, and the effect really shines during the free spins. As is typical for Megaways titles, the betting range is relatively modest, running from 10 p/c each up to $/€10.

As a neat callback to the original, the standard pay symbols are the same as before. The lower-value 10 – A icons keep their flashy, gaudy styling. The premium symbols also return, including the piggy bank, stuffed purse, car keys, and gold card. These pay when you land three or more. The only exception is the bag of loot, which needs just two to form a win. It’s also the top-paying symbol, awarding 20 times the stake for six of a kind. By comparison, the other high pays top out at 1.2x – 5x, which is a sizeable gap. Cascades and multipliers help make up for those smaller base values. The Gentleman Pig wild plays a major role too, since these are Mega Wilds. When they appear, they expand to cover an entire reel and carry a win multiplier of up to x7. Up to three can land together, and their multipliers stack for stronger payouts.

Piggy Riches Megaways operates on a medium to high variance profile, which suits the bigger wins it can deliver. Following what’s become a familiar Red Tiger approach, the RTP sits slightly below average at 95.71%. The outcome is a nicely tuned math model that provides regular smaller hits to maintain momentum while you wait for the more rewarding features to arrive.

Piggy Riches Megaways (Red Tiger): Features

Beyond the stacked wild, the other main highlight is the Free Spins feature. Just like in both versions, Gentleman Pig serves as the wild, while Lady Pig returns as the scatter. Land three of her anywhere on the reels to activate the Free Spins round. Before it starts, you’ll spin the Free Spins Wheel. The wheel is split into two parts: the outer ring shows numbers for the amount of spins, and the inner section determines the multiplier. Once it stops, the highlighted values set the opening conditions for the bonus. That means you can begin with up to 22 free spins and a starting win multiplier ranging from x1 to x10.

During free spins, every winning combination increases the win multiplier by +1. There’s no stated cap on how high that multiplier can climb. You can also hit the multiplier wilds, which can combine with the win multipler to ramp things up further. Lastly, any scatters that appear during the feature add one extra free spin to the remaining count.

Piggy Riches Megaways (Red Tiger): Verdict

Piggy Riches Megaways is a genuinely solid slot. It looks great, the math model feels well put together, the features are worthwhile, and the game offers a strong top-end potential of a little over 10,000 times the stake. Put simply, it does most things right. That said, given the names attached to it, it’s hard not to hope for something a bit bolder. This isn’t a criticism of the quality, but it doesn’t really push boundaries. For an early release from two heavyweight slot developers working together, it plays things fairly safe. Dropping Megaways onto an older title isn’t exactly a leap forward in innovation. Still, it remains a thoroughly respectable game. Mr and Mrs Piggy have never looked better, and it’s clearly an upgrade over the aging original. And since the first Piggy Riches was well liked, most fans should be happy with this remake.

Looking ahead, it would be great to see both teams fully unleash their creative and design strengths. The NetEnt/Red Tiger collaboration has started well with Piggy Riches Megaways, and hopes are high for what comes next. Will 2020 be the year we get a flood of NetEnt Megaways remakes? It certainly seems likely.