Squealin’ Riches

Squealin' Riches: Slot Overview

Microgaming partner Pear Fiction Studios takes on one of the more enduring themes in the slots arena, the one where everything overflows in status symbols and dollar bills. A dime a dozen slot genre, yet to its credit Squealin' Riches has a fun, 'New York, New York' Frank Sinatra thing going on that's pretty catchy. The game looks like it's located in Scrooge McDuck's bank vault, the one filled with gold coins he dives into and swims around in. That's fitting because Squealin' Riches is one of those Mammon worshipping slots where everything relates to money in some way. From the sea of coins background to the cash related symbols and copious amounts of piggy banks. If it doesn't relate to wealth accumulation, Squealin' Riches doesn't want to know about it.

Played using a 5-reel, 1,024 win ways reel set, the action area is surrounded by all manner of wheels, features and meters. You get some heavy Blazing Mammoth vibes at first because of the prize ladder located on the left side of the screen and the bright presentation. However, the two games are quite different. Squealin' Riches is a regular hold-and-win/jackpot affair rather than the 9 Masks style of Blazing Mammoth. This one is highly volatile, too, offering a default theoretical return value of 96.05%, while hits have a frequency of 27.75%. Dipping into its vault of coins is possible on any device, where stakes of 20 p/c to $/€20 may be set.

One of Squealin' Riches positives is its 1,024 win-all-ways system. Hits occur when at least three matching symbols land left to right on adjacent reels from the left side of the grid. Eight symbols make up the regular pays on the table – four are J-A icons, the others are a stack of banknotes, a purse of gold, a bag of gold, and a safe. The latter premium symbols will pay out a reward of 3 to 10 times the stake when a line of five of a kind lands. Lending a hand is the wild, substituting for all symbols except bonus symbols or scatters.

Squealin' Riches: Slot Features

Squealin' Riches likes to dazzle players with a host of collectable, hold-and-win, triggerable, and wheel-based features. Let's look at the gold coin bonus symbols first, which award jackpots or cash prizes. Bonus symbols land on all reels and 6 or more in view trigger the Locknwin feature, starting with 3 respins. If new bonus symbols land, they are locked in place and reset the spin counter back to 3. When spins run out or the screen is full, all prizes in view are paid. Several types of symbols may land during the Holdnwin:

• Cash symbols are worth 1-25x the bet.
• Multiplier upgrade symbols multiply all coins onscreen by up to x10.
• Jackpot upgrade symbols increase the jackpot amounts by 1 tier.

Jackpot symbol awards the Mini, Minor, Major, Grand, or Epic prizes, worth 50, 100, 250, 1,000, or 5,000 times the bet at their default value, respectively.

In addition, whenever bonus symbols land in the base game, they are collected, filling the Bonus Wheel Progress Bar. When the bar is full, players spin the Bonus Wheel to win a Jackpot, an instant cash prize, or free spins.

Another way of accessing free spins is when 3 scatter symbols land in the main game. First, players spin the Free Spins Wheel to win anywhere from 10 to 30 free spins. Next, you can gamble the awarded free spins to potentially win more. If you lose the gamble, a Mystery Wheel spins to award an instant cash prize instead of playing the feature. Free spins can be retriggered and operate like normal paid spins.

One more extra before moving on is the feature buy option. If available, players can buy a spin of the Bonus Wheel for the cost of 33.24x your bet or have a turn on the Free Spins Wheel for 55.02x the stake.

Squealin' Riches: Slot Verdict

There are loads of these wealth/piggy bank themed slots floating around, and Squealin' Riches fits effortlessly in with the clique. It's one of the jazzier, upbeat entries into the genre, so players up for some money-centric gaming might be intrigued. Squealin' Riches might not offer anything revolutionary from a feature standpoint, but there is a lot happening on the grid, like, all the time, accentuated by the sound effects, which highlight every single action, no matter how small. The flurry of activity can be distracting, and after being immersed in a session, it can be a surprise to cast your eye on the balance to see it's been clobbered.

Of course, any slot can do this, yet Squealin' Riches is good at diverting attention away from your cash, ironic given the theme. It does this via a constant stream of hits, roughly a third of the time, coin collections, near misses, and a highly positive attitude. Filling the Bonus Wheel Progress Bar gives you something to look forward to as well, though it didn't amount to anything more than 10x the bet instant cash prizes during testing. Not saying this wheel can't lead to jackpots or free spins, just don't count on it. Players with luck on their side can find lucrative returns from Squealin' Riches, though – up to 13,512x the bet. Since the default Epic Jackpot is 5,000x, you'll most likely need a few tier upgrades to maximise returns.

Despite the trademarked Holdnwin feature, the extras in Squealin' Riches are all pretty standard, so there are no major innovations to try out. It is rammed to the gills with jackpots, wheels, collectables, and meters, though, so if you need to be dazzled during every moment of game time, it might scratch the itch. Squealin' Riches doesn't have quite the personality of competitor slots like Piggy Riches Megaways for example, but it does offer plenty of money-themed gameplay in one of the more chipper environments.