Found 299 ratings (with comment) on this game

I dont even like Iron maiden that much, but dammit if this game isn't great
art work is amazing
shoots and flow... top 10

I really like rock pins and this one is one of the best. I play it whenever I am on location. Love the game and hope to own one day. After playing I started to enjoy Iron Maiden music

Iron Maiden. The pin that might be fully responsible for my adoration of the band itself. Never listened to them...until the pin. Now I can't get enough. Of the music or the pin!

This game is phenomenal. I love the layout and the playfield has amongst the best artwork I've ever seen in pins. The game lighting during play just accentuates the colors of the playfield. Just wish the middle was lit better. Small gripe. The cabinet of the Pro is better than the Premium by far. The unfortunate part is the backglass is just too busy on the Pro. Ironically, the LE backglass is similar to the Pro cabinet side art. Go figure...

The theme is incredibly well integrated into your shots/play but the unfortunate part of the theme is the art of the animations are just meh. They could've been killer with the subject matter. Dudes at Stern should've just watched some IM music videos and found a way to work it into the licensing deal. Anyways...Shots are exciting. The pin is definitely challenging. Less forgiving than GZ imo. DEEP. Keeps you wanting to shoot and get better.

Endless replayability. Great integration of theme. FUN to headbang to the music while playing! LOTS of energy! Love it and will own it eventually!

The Pro plays fast. It is void of some of the fancy mechs but in some cases those have been issues to deal with. My favorite game in my collection. The up the middle shot can get redundant. Zombie Yeti does a great job with the art.

The game

I am a huge fan of Iron Maiden. This table somehow falls short for me. I feel like I don’t get enough Eddie in the gameplay and the music feels less pronounced to me than it should be. That isn’t to say it isn’t an absolutely amazing play. Where others in the new Sterns capture a great balance of the band with the gameplay somehow this one always leaves me feeling like the Iron Maiden side of it isn’t there. A must play when I am out, though one I don’t feel will ever be one I could enjoy at home every day.

One of the better sterns I have played. love the skill shots.

Super fun game that has alot going for it. Elwin had lots of time to put this one together as his first game. The game is flowy, shots are smooth, from a pinball perspective it's amazing. I'm not religious, but the theme and satanic overtones on this one kill it for me. I got one on a temporary trade and love the way it plays, but the theme absolutely kills it for me. From a pinball gameplay experience though this is pretty much peak pinball. To me it is jus a question as to whether you can get over the theme. It this was based on even a mildly popular license, say it was another Marvel Pin, "Thor" it would be a home run for me.

I really enjoyed the Iron Maiden Pro I played. I love the theme, have been a fan of the band since I was a kid. The shots are tough but not too tough, and the overall feel of the game is fun. This is a machine I'd love to have at home, and probably will at some point. Pretty to look at, nice features and the feel/flow of the game was suprisingly good the first time I played it. I'm a fan.

This is easily a game you can incorporate into your home collection as it makes for a great party game. The different songs you can pick from the hits offers a great selection. Overall this game is pretty fun with a nice playfield and easy to score reward system. Even if this one is around you locally. It is definitely a must have if you like the songs and entertain people every so often. If only the back glass was updated to the new digital screens! Other than that definitely worth trying if you haven’t yet.

I've played more than 100 pinball machines and I think this is the best, fast, fun, addictive, top music, top colors, the pro version is perhaps better than the premium because it's faster and has more beautiful graphics .... the only thing is that every modern Stern has a game plan that gets ruined by always presenting drafts, I don't understand how it is possible that 30-year-old pinball machines still have perfect game plans and this one with 400 games has the plan all ruined

MY go to game. Always fun. great shots. Getting a sweep on the three drop targets on the first shot is soooooo satisfying!!!

Very solid game. Unique layout. Good use of the third flipper. Theme doesn't do much for me, but it's very fun to play.

Man…I hate Iron Maiden, but love this pin. Fantastic shots and layout, great toys and mechs. It has everything you expect from Keith Elwin…one of his best for sure.

This game is damn near the total package. The layout shoots like a dream, mode objectives are varied and challenging, multiballs are a blast, and the CALLOUTS - completely immersive and adrenaline pumping! Only small quibbles are the lack of a real "toy" and maybe that some of the timed modes could be a little longer so you can hear more of the songs. I wasn't a fan of Maiden's music before, but that was only for lack of exposure. Now I can't get enough. Incredible band, incredible pin, so so happy to have it in the collection.

my favorite moder stern. Deep rules. Good fun. I love IM. Good package and will own one eventually.

Unique layout. Great for tournaments.

The pro version of the game has very little in the way of toys or gimmicks. But once you start hitting those loops you forget all about it! One of the best layouts I've played and this game gets far more play than ghostbusters and TMNT which are far more "stacked"

Not a maiden fan, but this game shoots so well I kinda dig them now. Really satisfying shots, great flow, great code.

Really one of my favorit. Was my first pin and I had room for one only. Unfortunately I sold it then to have room for next one.
Maybe one day I need to have it back. I am heavy metal fan, so music is great. I really like play fear of the dark and halloween by the name modes, just great game.

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.

This game is just tops for me. I never get bored of playing it. Great balanced scoring, great memorable rules, unique layout, great visuals all around, I could go on and on. I’ve put countless plays on it as an experience player and I’m just always engaged with what’s going on in the game. Doesn’t get any better, even if you “just have a pro version” to play.

I remember my first beer... wait, I mean MGC 2018. Yep it was spring 2018 in the new MGC location downtown Milwaukee. This now classic game was brand new and there must have been 30 of them setup on the convention floor. I was a naïve 31 year old having not heard the music of Iron Maiden. This is game game I now consider the best ever made. I have grown to love the music, the art on this game is superb, the layout is perfect, and sfx and callouts near perfection too. I love trying for the hidden skill shots. Loopin up top never gets old. Shot through the pops so satisfying. Lastly the last Stern with out the annoying action button! I would buy one if one would come up for sale... they never do.

Amazing. Artwork and music opinion aside. They’re 100% appropriate for pinball. I personally love the targets on the backbox or back wall. The left ramp shot, between the pops, is consistently more difficult than you’d think. Premium/LE physical ball locks are very cool but i would absolutely love to own any version of the game. It wouldnt get old and stays consistently challenging. As a newer PINHEAD, Keith Elwin has taught me the meaning of “shot skill” in pinball. This game is no exception.

Love this game! Another Elwin masterpiece. Game plays fast and has great flow. I also happen to love Iron Maiden so the music and the artwork are all incredible to me. But at the end of the day, it's about the game, the flow and the shots - this game has it all! I've had it since it came out (I'm writing this in 2022) and I still play it a lot!

Amazing shooter. Solid ruleset. I just wish they had given more time for initial theme integration.
Great shooting game. Great flow and barely any stopping (especially when the ball locks don't seen to catch all the balls). Great tournament game and I often play this now just to practice for them and not because I REALLY want to play it.
Incredible first game from a great designer. ....but, the theme could be anything. The starting songs have no integration into the game. The shots, including the pyramid shot seems like a bit of a stretch thematically. No integrated Maiden toys. All this isn't too surprising since it's almost a carbon copy of Elwins Archer homepin. Not a lot of theme integration into the code either that i can tell. The art is cool, I'm glad they didn't have to make it too 'family friendly '. But personally was hoping it would've captured the gritting 80's/90's metal fan. You know, lots of black, those tacked on spike things, and just overall seediness (dirty leather jackets, cheep sneakers, 'smokes, scraggly hair). But I know Stern likes using every crayon in the box. I love VY work normally, but this is a case we're it just doesn't work with the theme well imo. But the theme integration, especially the lack of any original element that make you think of Iron Maiden is my biggest gripe.
Still an amazing first game from Elwin (goat player) and I'm guessing he wasn't given the full resources to integrate the theme. His theme integration has gotten so much better with each game after this and GZ has really impressed me how far he's come.
I do love how the feed comes down from the lock shot where you can often decide what flipper you want it on. And the risk/reward of using the upper flippers is some of the best in pinball. The theme integration though just seems half baked, it would've been better used with theme closer to Archer. Anything with a special agent or even a rambo type character. The only time the middle ramp seems thematically fitting is the seagul mode. And even that is just meh. Nothing against Iron Maiden the band. A few songs are real bangers and great to play pinball to, but just randomly picking the songs at the beginning with no benefit or disadvantage just makes it feel like a jukebox inside the game.
I'm obviously griping on the theme integration, and it doesn't bother me when I'm playing it. I guess I'm focusing on it more here because so many people seem to give the 'toys and gimmicks' top marks. It's just a bit confusing since most new games have at least one dedicated toy. But, I don't know, maybe people REALLY like that center ramp.
Such a great layout and shooter though, I'd love to see Elwin use this again in the future with a more fitting theme. I could see it becoming another near perfect layout like whirlwind, Metallica or Afm. It's already such a great shooter that it's easy to look past it's deficiencies. Theme integration aside, it's one of the best new Sterns.