Merry Hog

Having an ease of mind and calm atmosphere are just one of the important parts of the Christmas spirit. There should also be joy of your piggy banks being filled to the top of 5,000x the stake.

In case you’re lacking the latter, then make sure to take the Merry Hog online slot for a test drive. Software provider Belatra Games implement a range of thrilling bonuses whilst enabling you to enjoy a Christmassy atmosphere on a 5x4 board with 20 lines.

Theme and Symbols

With all sorts of riches and piles of gold coins lying around, the Merry Hog online slot takes on a snowy festive scenery. Players will get the opportunity to enjoy not only visuals but also an energetic Christmas-style soundtrack in the background.

Merry Hog is the most lucrative Icon on the reels, followed closely by 3 Goofy Characters, DIamonds, Bells, Christmas Tree, Cookie and Candy Canes. The Merry Hog is also the Wild Symbol while the Piggy Bank represents the Scatter.

However, there’s an array of other Special Symbols as well, covered in the following section of this review.

Betting Options and Features

The title is played with 5 reels, each being 4 rows high, and 20 pay lines, offering players a betting range of 20 - 5,000 credits per spin. According to the studio, the game is of very high volatility and has a best odds ratio of 96.08%.

The latter is not uncommon when it comes to Belatra Games online slots. On top of that, rollers can walk away with pockets full of wins of up to 5,000x the stake.

Magic Safes - These are a group of 4 symbols that can appear partially or entirely on the base or Free Spins reel and, as long as there are Safes on the reel, the Open and Nudge bonus is activated.

Safes then open up, revealing either one of the paid symbols or the Golden Hog Icon which in turn plays additional prizes at each position: Coins, Scatters or freezing the reel in the Free Spins using the Police Control Icon.

The Safes move down one position at the start of the next round. Important to note is that the position of the reels is remembered for each bet. This means that should you change the bet before the next round, the reels switch to another position and vice versa.

Coins - Coin Symbols take on values of 1-2,500 and pay out the number of bets according to its value.

Police Control - Police Control Symbol is present only during the Free Spins round. It works in a way where it freezes the Magic Safes drum it dropped on for 3 scrolls. If the Police Control Icon lands on an already frozen reel, the counter is reset back to 3.

Multipliers - Once again, these symbols can only appear in the bonus game, increasing the accumulative Free Spins multiplier. The values are either x1, x2, x3 or x5.

Scatters - There is a Bonus Scatter which is used to trigger the Free Spins game and there is the +1 Scatter. The +1 Scatters move all Magic Safes up 1 position. However, it does not work in case the reel is held by the Police Control Icon.

Free Spins - 3 or more Bonus Scatters are needed to engage players in the bonus game with an accumulative multiplier. It starts at 1 and increases by 1 with each Free Spin.

The round continues for as long as there is at least one Magic Safe on the reels. Of course, the round is also accessible via the Buy Bonus option, impacting the RTP and increasing it to 96.12%.

Wrapping Up

We feel like the Merry Hog online slot tells its own story about Christmas. It doesn’t hit us as an ordinary Christmas experience at all, although there are indications that the festive atmosphere is all over the place.

In terms of the gameplay experience, punters will be thrilled with an array of exciting bonuses this online one-armed bandit comes equipped with. Want to see more games like this from Belatra Games?

Check out the Master Of Xmas release.