"Smashing piggies for coins that pays off, then clocks out"
About
Bills Must Be Paid is a short active incremental game from Rike Games, priced at under five euros. An incremental is a game built around growing numbers: you earn currency, spend it on upgrades that earn more, and repeat. Here the earning is manual, not idle. You swing a hammer at piggy banks, they burst into coins, and you use the money to clear a mounting stack of bills before bankruptcy catches up. Between the smashing sit an upgrade tree, a prestige system that resets progress for a permanent boost, and light roguelike runs that offer three choices at a time. Gambling side-mechanics like a coin flip and a shuffled-pig guessing game let you double your haul or lose it. A full run to a debt-free finish takes most players three to six hours.
Verdict
Bills Must Be Paid knows exactly what it is and hits that mark. The smashing feels good, the sound design does most of the heavy lifting, and the whole thing is clean and near bug-free for a budget release. The reservations are real but small: progression stalls in the back half, the gambling is pure luck, and once the debt is cleared there's little reason to return. At this price, none of that stings much.
You'll like it if …
- +You want a satisfying earn-and-upgrade loop you can finish in an afternoon
- +Chunky hit feedback and jackpot sounds are their own reward for you
- +A five-euro game that respects your time appeals more than a hundred-hour grind
You'll dislike it if …
- −You need an incremental that scales into runaway exponential numbers
- −RNG gambling for your earnings frustrates you
- −You measure value in replay hours and shrug at short experiences
Breakdown
- +Swinging the hammer and watching piggy banks burst into coins carries real tactile weight, and the loop of earn-upgrade-earn-more keeps its momentum
- +Controls respond cleanly and runs are quick enough that a new upgrade feels earned rather than waited out
- −Late-game earning slows to a crawl for some players, so the exponential jump that defines the genre never quite lands
- −The coin flip and pig-shuffle gambling lean on luck rather than any skill you can build
- +The upgrade tree, prestige resets and three-choice runs give more strategic room than the premise suggests
- +Roguelike run variety keeps individual sessions from feeling identical
- −The skill tree flattens into a path where the cheapest upgrades dominate, and late choices stop mattering
- −With a three-to-six-hour finish and thin randomness between runs, there's little pulling you back afterwards
- +The broke-and-smashing-piggies premise holds together thematically, and the ending is given a proper send-off
- +Dark humour lives in the character names and the whole debt-panic conceit
- −Bills repeat as generic demands rather than distinct problems, so there's no story pulling the numbers along
- +Hammer thuds, coin splashes and jackpot chimes give every hit a payoff, and the music stays cheerful without grating
- +Colourful, stylised look with charm that carries the short runtime
- −At least one player found the full release stutters where the demo ran smoothly, denting the calm the game is going for
- +Reviewers report a near bug-free build, with clean translations rare at this price
- +Menus and onboarding are straightforward, so nothing sits between you and the next swing
- −The green piggy's shuffle animation runs so fast that tracking it by eye is barely possible
- −Minor snags reported: a bomb-piggy damage display glitch and occasional delay on the ignite skill
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