The Premium edition of Stern’s Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast takes Keith Elwin’s acclaimed 2018 debut design and dresses it with the premium toys collectors covet. Elwin — a six-time PAPA World Champion who brought a player’s-eye view to his first machine — built a fast, shot-dense layout that grew out of a custom game he hand-built before Stern came calling, and the Premium adds extra mechanical flourishes, including a ramp lock for the Mummy multiball, over the Pro’s already-deep ruleset.

True to Maiden’s larger-than-life iconography, the game is a shrine to mascot Eddie. Players spell out E-D-D-I-E across the white arrow shots to light modes, while rapping the captive ball spells MUMMY to qualify one of the table’s signature multiballs. Trooper Multiball, plus modes like Aces High and the epic Rime of the Ancient Mariner, give the modes a setlist of their own — though in a clever twist on the band-pin formula, the song you pick at the start is pure atmosphere, not a mode trigger.

For the tournament crowd, the skill shots reward study. A soft plunge tucked toward the left outlane hides a high-value secret award — gloriously risky, since in many competitive setups the safety net is off and a miss simply costs you the ball. Stacking single-ball modes onto Mummy or Trooper multiball is the deeper play, turning a good ball into a monster one. Loud, ornate, and built by a designer who clearly knew exactly what a great player wants, the Iron Maiden Premium is one of modern Stern’s finest — up the irons.