I'm not a Metallica fan, but it is a great pin--if I liked their music I'd have one.

Both great games. Can’t lose either way

Buy the nib Metallica now, play it and have fun. When you’ve played it for a while and get tired of it, trade it in with a distributor/pinsider on the new Iron Maiden.

I had MET Premium for 3 years. Loved it but eventually got tired of bash bash bash to get to Crank It Up modes.

Maiden Pro looks amazing from the Dead Flip stream I watched.

Been waiting for Iron Maiden to be released myself, to see which I would buy.
If Iron Maiden looked poor, I was going to get Met.
After seeing the info and stream today, I think it's Iron Maiden.
Metallica is a great game though.

No brainer get the Met....jury is still on on IM although it looks like a fun pin...

IM for me

MET - all day long. It’s proven, finished code and you are a fan of the band. One of my personal favorites.

Trust me, you will learn fast to not get caught up in the excitement. Learn to wait, read/see the feedback and more importantly, play the damn game before you buy.

MET. If you buy Maiden now you'll be at the back of the line for awhile. Met is awesome.
As they've said above, play it, rock it, sell it, buy Maiden

why get either? get KISS instead.

You are a bigger Metallica Fan and it's a great game - stay with that.

Why get Iron Maiden if you like Metallica music better?

Said no one ever

I love the hype machine. One of the best games ever Metallica. Suddenly a shiney pretty thing called Iron Maiden shows up and everyone says OMG this is the best thing ever.....yet no one has played it........chill a bit and enjoy, maybe it’s good......time will tell

Why the fear of missing out?
MET pro is a great package, Stern has been cranking them out for five years.
Enjoy your game! Plenty of Eddie pros to come too.

Keep the Metallica! Best Stern in recent history, Iron Maiden has to dethrone it first, not be crowned on reveal.

Metallica is the real deal. Nothing but good things to say about that pin which is bolted to my floor. It's a winner and well passed the flavor of the month status.

Which is not the case for Maiden. Don't get me wrong Maiden is my dream theme and hope nothing but the best for it but we know nothing of how the game will end up. Polish code ? Abandonned ? We hope the best but we never know for sure.

But I understand your dilema cause today I'm feeling freaking excited and wanna buy Maiden for sure. But my brain just left the building 8 hours ago and my passion and heart is speaking.........not and educate move to make lol.

Need to see more code first

Metallica. Wait and play Iron Maiden and of course wait for the code.

Metallica is great and you already ordered it. Have patience because no one has played Iron Maiden yet and see what happens. Plus Metallica is SAM system and IM is Spike 2 for what that’s worth.

Both.

I enjoy MET the least outof my small collection

IMO this does mean something

I have had Metallica for 2 years now and still like to play it. I am curious about Maiden but I just got a NIB AS and GOTG and I'm not the most impressed with the new cabinets.

Dont take notice of the poll results. I would listen to what most people are saying.
You cannot compare a machine thats been around for years, has had hundreds of thousands of games, very polished code, and still stacks up as one of the best Pro's ever released, against a machine that no-one other then in Stern circles has yet to play or review (and most importantly you!!!).
Also, player comments toward MET as 'its all bash, bash, bash' either only played on old code, or didn't bother to really learn the code.

As most of the comments suggest, go with your first gut instinct and dont get caught up in the hype train.
Metallica is a proven fantastic game and Iron Maiden may end up being one also, but if it does then Stern will be making them for a long time so nothing lost.

Cant believe the hype after a few pics and few hr vid.....pinside is crazy . Go with a proven winner.... met pro is a excellent pin and sterns overall best imo.

It’s a shame Stern abandoned SAM for SPIKE, I think SAM was their best platform ever.

I agree with what most people here are saying - Metallica is awesome, and if you love their music more, that's even better (although not required). Buy it, play it, love it. And if you want to swap it out after a few months, go for it. I've had it since October and I still can't get more than one CIU, but it still pulls me in.

I'm very happy they made Iron Maiden with the layout they did as many people wanted something other than the "same old layout". This puts variety into the hobby and that's never a bad thing. That being said, I've owned MET pro for about 9 months now and still play it very often. I love the layout and the code is excellent. Still to this day I find myself chipping closer to End of the Line, but still no where near getting there. I'll never say anything is bolted to the ground, because things change, but I don't see MET leaving anytime soon. Iron Maiden looks top notch though and I can't wait to play one, to see for myself.

Edit: Also after watching the stream last night I do think Iron Maiden has put the new style LCD to the best use, but I rarely have time to look at that screen when playing.

Agreed - let maiden prove itself in your hands first before choosing oven a proven winner. It's not like maiden is a low production count game - in fact the more you wait the cheaper it will be!

Just to go against the grain I will be the second to say it. Kiss is a fantastic game....forget the talk of more code needed. The shots are great and is just a fun shooter.

But Metallica over Maiden for sure. Maiden will be around for a while to see if it a better game. Metallica is proven for most.

MET is a great game. Its been out awhile now and eventually it will not be made. Iron Maiden... just being released, just ramping up production, code will need to be worked on from day 1 as usual (like anything else).

Get the MET and enjoy. Lots of cool mods to add if you want. Iron Maiden will be around... new in box or second hand in a couple years HUO is the way to go.

Agree with others. Go with the proven game with rock solid code. However, I admit I am feeling the hype. Iron Maiden does look amazing and love the 4 flippers. I have no interest in the band but felt the same about Metallica. No way am I making any decisions without getting a lot of gameplay. It took me many plays to really get MET and finally decide to get one. The last Stern game I got excited about on release was GB. I thought I was for sure going to get one after a few plays but after many plays I had zero interest. Gameplay just couldn't hold up. I've had my MET for a few years and still love playing it. It can be a bit of a bash fest if you don't know the rules.

Stick with MET for a few years. See how Maiden works out and if any issues with playfields, node boards, or whatever. If it's a good game, it will be on sale for a long while and plenty will be out there to get on the 2nd hand market for less. You should have no problems selling MET when the time comes or you get sick of it. Better yet, keep MET and save up for Maiden down the road.

As someone who also just ordered a NIB Metallica Pro (waiting on delivery) I was also in the same dilemma. I am not a huge fan of either band actually, care more about the games. I have two other machines with multi flipper, but what kept me to Metallica were two details. Baked code and the reliability and ease to work on a SAM system vs the new SPIKE system. With this being my first NIB buy, I wanted something I knew I would want to play for a long time and I would be comfortable working on to keep it in good working order. Not trying to start the SAM vs SPIKE debate, but that was a big reason for me personally. I think the look and PF of IM is awesome, but MET is tried and true. Won't leave the top 10 anytime soon IMO.

metallica is the easy choice here. plays great, code is done, you like metallica more than maiden. until maiden code is done you really cant compare anything but artwork and music.

I love the layout on Metallica, I am more of a fan of Maidens so want to try the pin first

As great as i think Iron Maiden is going to be, i still think you should go with whats a proven winner in MET. Pinball doesn't get any better than Metallica and even if Maiden turns out to be better, no way is it going to blow MET away, no way in hell. The other thing is MET is not being made anymore i dont think and Maiden will be available for 3 years at least. You could always sell the MET to fund the Iron Maiden pin later if you wanted to.

After just playing Maiden a bunch this weekend I've changed my mind. Awesome game, best new pin I've played in a long time. I'm buying one--I like it that much!