I like a modded Tron Pro in this comparison. Both fun games to play. In theme, X-men has a broader appeal but a modded Tron Pro is a thing of beauty.

If you don't plan on modding the Tron up, go XMen is just my two cents. Good luck with your hunt!

Okay- You picked the two closest pins possible in terms of fun and price. The play is actually rather close. There's probably more to do on the XMLE, but Tron has that special something. Price-wise, they're almost identical. You're looking at @ $4900-$5300 with either one, perhaps a little more for a modded up Tron.

I would take the XMLE by a slight margin given these two choices. First, it's an LE with no premium. It has unique features that you can't get in any other version of the game. It also has standard powder coating, mirrored backglass. It's just a better overall look to me, especially the Magneto (in my opinion).

On the other hand, you can't go wrong with Tron. These truly are close machines.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA.

Tron.

I would sure try to find an x-men to play before buying. I didn't like it at all. Love Tron. Eli mod a must if you get thePro...

I've got an X-Men LE, love it. My best friend's got a tricked out Tron Pro, love it. Two completely different experiences, both awesome. Can't go wrong either way.

I bought these two NIB.

XMLE when it was new and Tron a few months later when it was re-run by Stern.

At first, I was disappointed with XMLE, and would have said hands down Tron was the better game BY FAR!!.

I still think, all in all Tron is the better game, but mostly I would say that is due to the better code. Tron's code has been really polished to a great result. It's callouts and sound effects are as good as any pinball machine ever. It's super fun and fast. In fact I was so happy with the prior code I never upgraded until just now because I wanted to enjoy the new code as something new to savor. The prior code was really sharp, the new code just made it better, more polished or improved on what was already great.

I didn't like XMLE at all, I was about to sell it, but I began to play it to get it out of my system or to see if I wanted to sell it or not. And boy did this game grow on me. It was my least favorite pin, but now it's on the top-4. I really would have to say it's only let down by some unresolved code or maybe some poor callouts etc.. Code is not bad at all, but I'm only sad because I was hoping for one final brush up. It just seems to be missing that last final once over to the code that could have made it one of the better games.

I really like the spinning magnet (on XM), love the Night crawler toy, like the moving ramp. It has a few really interesting modes such as Gambit hurry up, and really shines in the amount of things to do, 8 hero modes (if you count NC and Gambit as such), has many different Villains to battle and has two wizard modes four multi ball modes. The machine itself which has more stuff than Tron and more things to do. But it's sad that it has almost great code while Tron is totally great.

To sum up:
XMLE more stuff to do, more shots, more toys, more code. But slightly let down buy the code which is 80% there but not exactly where I'd hope.

Tron, Less stuff to do, less shots, less code. But overall just fantastic in every regard. Much like IM which I really love as well, maybe not the most shots or the most amount of code or rules, but working within a short rule tree it manages to be magical.

Tron and IM really kind of short and not a lot of toys, but makes up for it by being super fun. XMLE more of a longer journey to get through a lot of modes.

I have 7 games, like them all very much.

At this time: Tron and IM tied for first place followed immediately by XMLE and AcDc premium or AcDc premium and XMLE in some order but not much difference to me.

I have both machines you can play if you ever want to take a road trip.

Price wise….XmenLE is low 5K and a nice modded TRONpro is probably around 6K and up

So, if I had to pick one I'd be Tron, but XMLE is really a heck of a great game IMO and may be rated lower than it deserves.

Well, I have AVLE as well so its a trifecta……my least fav of those 3 titles though.

In my opinion XMLE is better. The game is underrated.
Sadly the wolverine toy is way bigger respect the size it should be and that's the only reason why the game is not in the top 5.
I have played tron several times but didn't get into it. Quite average game

LOL that's not the only reason.

Blasphemy!

^What he said

I own them both. A modded Tron is beautiful and MEAN. A stock XMLE is beautiful and tons of features.

Comparison
FEATURE----------TRON------------XMLE
Cabinet Art----------0----------------1
Playfield Art---------1----------------1
Ball Speed-----------1----------------0
Features-------------0----------------1
Play Again?----------1----------------0
Light Show----------1----------------1
Sounds--------------1----------------0
Combo Shots--------0----------------1
The kicker for me, that makes Tron a winner is it's a shorter, meaner game.
XMenLE has a light show that is equal to modded Tron, but the longer gameplay is a slight turn off for me. The cabinet feels sturdier on the XMLE, maybe it's just psychological.
They both have similar layouts, but they play way different. X-Men LE has tighter shots, with 1 more shot in its layout (xavier). The only shot that I would say is easier(wider?) on X-Men would be through the pops to the orbit.
You should play them both - they are both great pins - awesome themes.

Tron all day every day. Not even close, IMHO.

Though the one thing X-Men LE has that Tron doesn't is a moving crossrail that will dump your balls SDTM.

That used to happen quite a bit on my game but the last code update seemed to have cured that issue

Sorry I can not comment on Tron but I tried to love my Xmen Magneto and could not. I found the layout and the game really repetitive. I sold my XMLE and have not missed it. For this reason I would have to say to stay away.

Why is it in your current collection then?

Ooops forgot to remove it. Now removed (happily). Haha.

Is this a trick question?

No contest here. You're comparing real bacon to turkey bacon and we all know which one is the turkey.

So tron gets more points because it's nice to look at?? I'm not spending 5-6 to look at a game. I've played tron a lot, try, but can't get into it. own xm and love it. Code is there, unless you make the game easy and get to wizard modes all the time. Dots, rules and sound are all very good. Great flow, though tron also can have good flow. Tron pro to me is not worth its current price while xmen LE is.

X-Men LE to me is a let down.
Tron Pro is a good game, kinda over rated to me, but good.

X-Men LE has more gimmicks than the PRO but they don't really add much to the game play or enjoyment of it.
X-Men Pro is o.k. but not good to me.

I know with light play X-Men holds up,
I know with heavy play Wolverine falls apart.
Tron is a beast with heavy play from what I've seen,
just get ramp projectors as I've broken a part of one
while playing one on route, the thing had heavy plays.

These guys are right.
Tron is far superior, play, reliability, value, looks, pretty much everything except ruleset.

You can play Xmen forever, as it's an extremely deep game, but most players never want to.
Game has just too many flaws.

Xmen LE's often sell for less than Tron Pro's.
There's the big giveaway.

tron = the most overrated stern pin ever
x-men is a killer game !!

X-Men LE is one of Sterns best games ever made. It has it all going on with the third flipper, magnets, spinning disc, and nightcrawler pop-ups. Tron is also epic but is not as deep. I am right handed and the upper left flipper on Tron is a difficult shot that requires skill and timing. Both games are great and both are keepers. I am surprised with your collection history that you have not played these titles. Either way you go, you will be happy-good luck.

I agree with a lot of the other posts, it's all subjective in the end, after all some people like Rap music some people like Country music, some people hate both some people like both.

To me, as I've said, Tron is clearly better. It's rated correctly IMO especially with some mods such as ELI ramp lights and Arcade mod, LED kit. Without any mods it's still a great game just not as beautiful or exciting.

XMLE, has flaws no doubt about it, but a lot of great things have flaws. And to me, XMLE is fine without any mods, it's got the LE treatment, which means colored side rails, LEDs, better GI effects, pop up NC, standard lock mechanism, mirrored back glass (although a Tron with the 3d translight is also great).

Tron is a great game. It has such good flow. I know the rules are not for everyone. They even sound a little simplistic. Until you get playing it. And then it turns into magic. And normally I would say Tron by a mile and call it done. But you have never played any of the games you are thinking about getting. I don't know about you, but for me that is a recipe for buying a game that doesn't sit me. All games have finer points that you can only tell by playing them yourself. Maybe you find Gem frustrating instead of challenging. Maybe Wolverine hovering so close that he wrecks the entire left side of the game is off putting to you. You can only know those things by playing the games. Take a weekend and go on a pinball road trip. Find the games and play them. Ask around here, most are happy to open their homes to fellow pinheads. For questions like this you really need to at least have played a few games on them.

I haven't followed X-Men threads in a long time. Was the fried magnet/aux board issue resolved?

Where's RobT? I don't believe I've heard his thoughts on X-men, so shy that guy.

As far as I know every board would fry and is replaced free as far as I know, solved the problem.

Yes it was fixed with a new AUX Board & an additional Wiring Harness.

If you have an X-Men-LE & haven't had this issue YET get with Stern and make sure they get you the "Updated Kit" with a Rev. B AUX Board & the new Wiring Harness.
The FET's [BUK9529-100B] on the Rev. B Board are rated at 100V-46A
The FET's on the Rev. A Board [STP40NF10L] are rated at 100V-40A

Initially Stern sent me a new AUX Board [Rev. A] which blew almost immediately, then they sent me a Rev. B AUX Board AND the modified Wiring Harness.

No issues since.

I will say that Chas @ Stern is one of the best people I've ever encountered in Customer Service in ANY business !!

Our AUX Board issue didn't happen until we had our X-Men-LE well over a year & he still took care of us.

I hope Chas & Pat NEVER leave Stern as they really know what the "Customer" in Customer Service means !!

I haven't had any board issues at all and hope they hook me up if I do.

Good info, thx guys

Definitely play them before you make a decision. A game can look and sound the bees knees but you won't know until you stand in front of it and experience it for yourself.

Personally, I love Tron and it's my favourite Stern. It ticks all of the right boxes for me including sound, art, play, challenge and theme. The one point worth mentioning though is the challenge. It's fast, hard and not friendly. If you get frustrated easily then it may not agree with you.

I've never liked XMen in any regard. I guess the theme is ok but everything else just doesn't work with me. The sound (besides the main background music) is kind of bad, especially the call outs. The wolverine toy looks cheap and silly. The play field is way too busy with (what I perceive anyway) a million things going on. There's just one thing I like about it and that's the multi ball start sequence where they all collect in the middle of the play field, spin around and then all fly off. That's possibly the coolest magnet trick in pinball for me.

Tron all day every day.

I actually like both titles a lot. I own the Tron Pro and modded it out. I attempted to trade my ACDC Prem for and Xmen LE. I would love both titles in my collection at one point.

You won't be disappointed in either title.

I have both titles and love them both. I agree about the code on XM and it still has some quirks. I'm not sure that I could decide between the two, so my advice would be to just get both.