3 Lucky Hippos

3 Lucky Hippos: Slot Overview

Despite the name, 3 Lucky Hippos is not a continuation of 3 Lucky Witches or 3 Lucky Leprechauns. In fact, 3 Lucky Hippos is from a completely different software provider altogether. Where the latter two slots came from provider 4ThePlayer, 3 Lucky Hippos was made by Games Global partner Pear Fiction Studios. Will 4ThePlayer mind the similarity in titles? We wait with bated breath to see if there is a response. Till then, time for a playthrough, and 3 Lucky Hippos comes with a gaggle of LockNWin variants – Multiply, Jackpot, and Supreme, as well as combinations of them.

3 Lucky Hippos might be located in the African wilderness, but it still possesses bags of the sort of bright colouration Pear Fiction Studios likes to paint its slots with. Think of games like Granny Vs Zombies with its neon-bathed undead and head-banded nana character. Pear Fiction Studios also likes its jackpot prizes, of which 5 are available in 3 Lucky Hippos and are listed next to the active gaming area. The background is taken up by a pond, lush grasslands, acacia trees, and Mt Kilimanjaro-like mountain ranges, presenting a colourful view of Africa, more mid-day though, rather than the sunset or sunrise time of the day that these slots are often captured in.

The gaming area is constructed using 5 reels holding 3 rows each, providing 243 ways to win, yet thanks to the power of Split symbols, this can grow to 6 rows high where 7,776 ways to win are in play. A very highly volatile game, the default RTP value for 3 Lucky Hippos is 96%, but it is also available in two lower settings and takes bets of 20 c to $/€50 per spin.

Winning ways begin on the leftmost side of the gaming area and pay from left to right on adjacent reels. Brightly coloured is one way of describing 3 Lucky Hippos' pay symbols, which consist of 10 to A card ranks as the lows, then dice, chips, a bag of loot, gold bars, and a safe as the high pays. Not things you usually see in an African nature slot, but there you go. Hitting a 5 OAK low pay way awards 0.6 to 1 times the bet, or 2x to 5x for a 5-matching premium symbol win. A golden vault door type thing is 3 Lucky Hippos' wild, substituting for all regular pay symbols.

3 Lucky Hippos: Slot Features

On this safari, be on the lookout for Cash collects, a Multiplier, Split symbols, Lotus symbols, LockNWin rounds, Jackpots, and feature buys.

Cash Collecting

Green Cash symbols land with values of between 0.2 to 100 times the bet. When the frog Collect symbol lands on reel 5, it collects any Cash symbols in view.

Multiplier

Landing Orange Coins increases the Multiplier up to x10. The Multiplier applies to Cash collects, and it multiplies any Orange Hippo LockNWin round. After the Multiplier has been applied, it resets to x1. The Multiplier is stored per bet level.

Split Symbols

Split symbols land on the top row. Each one can add up to 3 rows to the reel they land on, and Split symbols are carried over to LockNWin features.

Lotus Symbol

The Lotus symbol lands on the top row as well. Collecting a Lotus symbol on each reel triggers all 3 LockNWin features. Lotus symbols can be collected over several spins.

LockNWin

When Orange, Yellow, or Pink Coins hit, they can trigger a LockNWin. Once in, 3 respins are awarded, and all symbols are removed except Cash, which locks to the reels when it lands. When a Cash or Jackpot Coin lands, the respin count gets reset back to 3. When respins run out or the reels are full, the round ends. Each LockNWin can be triggered individually or in tandem with one another.

• The Multiply LockNWin - can be triggered by collecting the Orange Coin. The Multiplier is carried over to the Multiply LockNWin, and at the end, it is applied to all Cash.
• The Jackpot LockNWin - can be triggered by collecting the Yellow Coin. When all spaces of a Jackpot are completed during the round, the corresponding Jackpot is awarded at the end of the feature. The Mega (5,000x) takes 6 spaces, the Major (500x) takes 5 spaces, the Minor (100x) takes 4 spaces, the Mini (20x) takes 3 spaces, and the Micro (10x) takes 2 spaces to fill. Jackpots are not multiplied by the Multiplier or collected by the Orange or Purple Cash symbols.
• Supreme LockNWin – can be triggered by collecting the Pink Coin. Orange Cash collects all Green Cash, and Purple Cash collects all Green and Orange Cash.

Buy Feature

From the feature buy menu, players may buy individual features or combinations of them, with the prices of each marked on the screen.

3 Lucky Hippos: Slot Verdict

If there's one thing Pear Fiction Studios goes in for its LockNWin rounds, having shown up alongside zombies, squealin' piggies, piranhas, and now hippos. They've all been relatively different, definitely different in terms of theme while offering various ways of hitting and locking certain symbols to the grid during bonus rounds to collect Cash wins and Jackpots. 3 Lucky Hippos is also quite close in some ways to fellow developer All For One Studios' POWER COMBO range of slots. Like POWER COMBO slots, 3 Lucky Hippos provides the chance of triggering LinkNWin rounds with individual abilities, or 2 or maybe all 3 Coins will trigger the feature, making extra powers available at once. Or there's the bonus buy to pick 'n mix the features you like best.

It means 3 Lucky Hippos is a pretty busy game, what with the Split symbols growing reels and the accumulation of the multiplier. Get lucky, and some of these extras will be carried over to a LockNWin round to potentially enhance the experience. At its heart, 3 Lucky Hippos is a hold 'n win style game, so the main thrill comes from chasing Cash symbols and Jackpots - climaxing in a 5,000x the bet max win. But, there are numerous ways to go about doing so, a common trait found in these LinkNWins from Pear Fiction.

None of the studio's LinkNWin games so far have aimed for big-time heavyweight status or designed to take on the champions of the genre, so are better suited for going after the bulging middle ground. As such, this obviously isn't a Money Train 4 competitor, but players attracted to the variety and the bright colours found in Pear Fiction's previous releases get the chance to get another dose of that in 3 Lucky Hippos.