Pirates and I have a weird history. At first I hated the game....I thought it was slow and boring. ...then, I started to understand the rules and realized that not EVERY game has to be flow-flow-flow ...Pirates works well for what it is - a collection & multiball-stacking game. It's very challenging to fill up the compass & achieve 4-winds, and getting a Kraken, Heart, and Tortuga multiball all going simultaneously is very rewarding and fun. I ended up respecting the game, and then craving to play it! I finally bought one 3 or 4 months back. It's a nice "change of pace" game in my collection. That being said, I'm not sure it's a long-term keeper. When I play my other games, I definitely like Pirates' slowness is its Achilles' Heel and I'll end up replacing it w/ something else down the road.....for now though, I'm playing the hell out of it and trying to get to 4-Winds!!!!