The Dog House (Pragmatic Play): Review
The Dog House is a silly, charming and rather simple 5-reel, 20-payline slot from Pragmatic Play. Superficially it may look like a fun pc-game for your toddler, but what you're looking at here is a highly volatile gambling machine with serious bite. It's also a perfect example of how slot developers can achieve great results without overthinking things. You can play this canine-themed slot from between 0.20 and 100 Eur per spin across all devices.
At the core of The Dog House are the 2x and 3x multiplier wilds that come to extra good use in the free spins bonus where they'll lock in place whenever they land on the reels. Being huge fans of NetEnt's Dead or Alive, a slot that has gained almost legendary status and by many regarded as superior in the sticky wilds category, we could barely wait to try this one out.
We rarely praise Pragmatic Play for their visual work and there's certainly nothing exceptionally sophisticated about this one either. Still, it's hard not to fall for the colourful and happy cartoon-style design and the over-sized symbols that defiantly refuse to fit into the framework. The waltz-style background music undoubtedly does its part too.
Picturesque suburban scenery in the midst of summer is the setting for this game. With picture-perfect houses and lawns in the background, the reels are set within a giant dog house. The reels are dominated by stylized playing cards from 10s to Aces while the more valuable symbols come in the form of bones, leads and a quartet doggos. The Doberman is the alpha of this pack and yields 37.5 times your stake if you land 5 on a payline. More important yet is the dog house wild symbol. The wilds appear on the three middle reels only and come with a random multiplier of 2x or 3x, which means they can combine to increase your payline hits by up to 9x
The Dog House (Pragmatic Play): Features
Keep an eye out for the jewel paw symbol. If it appears on reels 1, 3 and 5 simultaneously, the free spins bonus is triggered and that's where the real fun begins. Before the action starts, however, the game transitions to a shed where you'll see a Doberman spin a primitive wooden machine to reveal how many free spins you've been awarded. The lowest number you can start with is 9 and the highest 27.
In the free spins bonus, new reel strips come into play where premium symbols appear fully stacked on the reels. Additionally, any multiplier wild that lands on the reels will remain locked in place until the feature ends. This is a highly potent combination that can boost your payouts to a whopping 6,750 times your stake.
The Dog House (Pragmatic Play): Verdict
There's actually not a whole lot to The Dog House, but what's there is highly entertaining nonetheless. The theme might not appeal to everyone, though mechanically it's online slots action in the purest form, if there ever was one - simple, volatile and with potential that will keep you on your toes.
The playability is on point here and the overall quality is high. Everything runs smoothly and there are no annoying quirks that we could notice at least. Though the visuals are pleasing and gets the job done, they're nothing particularly special. However, the scene when you trigger the bonus with the dog operating the free spins machine is outstanding and helps build excitement going into the free spins.
We thoroughly enjoyed The Dog House but must also admit that we have a thing for sticky wilds in combination with high volatility in particular. Anyone who has ever landed a wild line will likely agree that it's one of the best moments you can experience when gambling. When you land and lock them bad boys on winning paylines with plenty of free spins to go, it literally feels like you're robbing the casino and what can be better than that.
Don't Miss...
If you enjoyed The Dog House, Pragmatic Play has also produced a Megaways version titled The Dog House Megaways, as well as The Dog House Multihold slot, which is a quad reel version with 9000x potential.
