Before becoming the most notable designer in modern pinball, Keith Elwin was a masterful player who, at different times in his heyday, was considered the best pinball player in the world. His game Archer eventually got picked up by Stern, which became Iron Maiden, spurring Elwin to greatness as he signed on with Stern as a game designer. The rest is history, as Elwin would design several more masterpieces including Jurassic Park, The Avengers: Infinity Quest, and Godzilla. Though Jurassic Park and Godzilla seem to have more notoriety these days, with the latter being dubbed the best game ever according to various reviewers, YouTubers, and current Pinside Top 100 rankings, Elwin’s Iron Maiden flows more fluidly than his other games, presents a bevy of unique shots achieveable from various approaches on the playfield, and feels like a perfect mesh of old-school and modern pinball objectives to reach the wizard modes. In short: An excellent game and one of the greatest games ever created.
One great quality is that Iron Maiden has innovative shots. The two loop shots, one that uses a small flipper and is the most difficult to hit of the two, and one that loops from the right upper flipper, are satisfying but challenging to hit. With the right upper flipper, it’s feasible to hit sequential loop combos to lite the loop jackpot. This flipper can also feed into the left orbit and into the captive ball. The left orbit and the captive ball contain an interesting shot of their own. You can hit the captive ball to spell mummy, grazing it as it goes into the left orbit for a combo shot that will add the mummy (an extra ball) to Trooper Multiball. The Pharaoh shot is also very satisfying to hit, and it functions as a sort of jump ramp target at the back of the machine. These shots have probably been done in some form on past machines but probably not in such a complementary way among themselves on a single table. The ramps don’t feel particularly special, but hitting the left ramp through the pop bumpers is immensely enjoyable.
Iron Maiden also shines in its code. Reaching “Run to the Hills” wizard mode requires a combination of completing old-school types of objectives within the game modes combined with the modern concept of progressing through the modes themselves. You’ll need to hit a certain number of jackpots but also make it through each song and its corresponding scenario to progress. These modes utilize all the shots very well and have a healthy mix of multiballs within them, some which require specific shots to start the multiball and others that begin multiball as soon as the mode starts. The rules for the multiball modes are great. However, if I had to mention a possible blemish in Iron Maiden’s design, it would be how the design of the playfield itself handles multiballs. You don’t have any safe places to send any balls while you attempt to make shots. The balls are always screaming back down at you from the top of the playfield. However, this design does teach the player to practice good ball control, cradling, and flipper skills during multiball modes.
Another possible negative is how Stern’s Insider Connect fumbled this game, but I do not hold it against the game itself. Some of the achievements, such as getting ten Loop Jackpots in a single game, seem a bit ridiculous, but perhaps it does increase replay value for some players. The achievements just seem so unachieveable in some cases that it gives me “why bother” syndrome. Again, it is not a fault of the game but the Insider Connect team, I guess. Again, the Insider Connect features in no way take away from the fun flow fest here.
You really have to play Iron Maiden to understand how buttery it flows and how well it justifies the use of the Iron Maiden brand. I began listening to the band a few months before I rented the machine, and their music grew on me. Though metal had not been one of my favorite genres, I’m starting to love it, and Iron Maiden has become my second favorite metal band behind Metallica. The pinball machine does an excellent job taking Iron Maiden’s established Eddie character and mythologizing him further, bringing him to life in the various scenarios within the game, scenarios connected directly to the songs themselves. The animation is great; the integration of theme is excellent; and the table artwork from the playfield, the cabinet, to the back glass impresses. I haven’t seen a band game mix real-life music with fiction on a pinball table so well, and with perfect gameplay, it is, in its own way, an unparalleled masterpiece.