Pirates. I'm not a big Iron Maiden music fan so that doesn't help in terms of me liking the game, lol. From a software, rules, audio and animations perspective POTC easily surpasses what Iron Maiden offers, not even close. Software work plays a huge part into a games perceived value and I see POTC offering multiple times more the amount of software work compared to Iron Maiden.

Also, the features and theme itself come across as much more fun with POTC in my opinion compared to Iron Maiden. I enjoy playing my pins with family and friends and because of that POTC would be the easy choice. Pirates is all about having fun while the Iron Maiden theme is mostly about death and depressing topics...I choose fun, lol.

Iron Maiden may be more tempting to get now due to it being available earlier but I see Pirates being the game that will have long term staying power. At the end of the day though I would get the pin that you enjoy playing the most.

Pirates seems pretty easy to explain and understand rule wise, probably easier to explain then Iron Maiden yet far deeper.

1. There's 5 chapter shots on the playfield representing rhe 5 movies
2. Hit the chapter shots to qualify a mode for that chapter
3. Hit chapter start area to start a chapter mode
4. Complete a movies 5 chapters to unlock it's wizard mode.
5. Each of the 5 movies has its own multiball
6. Beat and / or start everything and unlock Break the Curse super wizard mode

There's a lot more rules wise to POTC but from a basic rules standpoint that's it.

You mean upgrade? lol. The one issue I find with those adrenaline pumping games is that they get old in a home environment, at least that's how I felt with ACDC and Metallica. The games with deep story based rulesets last far longer in my collection and overall I find them to be much more enjoyable. I understand players tend to prefer one ruleset style over another though. Looking forward to getting more time in on Iron Maiden on location.