Well, we've had Black Rose for a little over a year. It's true that it isn't the most complicated play. It does have 3 video modes that are very easy, so it's more fun for folks coming over just to casually play. (I'm not counting "killing Polly" as one of the video modes.) We've been lucky in that the cannon on ours has given us no trouble. You'd want to fire it up and make sure Davey Jones' locker opens by hitting the skill shot, you can load the cannon and then you can fire the cannon all the way to the hole in the back- that's how you sink ships. If you can't aim the cannon, or ball hits playfield edge on way out of cannon, it does not bode well for game fun. I can hit the back hole with our cannon just about every time reliably.
Of all the pirate machines, I consider it the most "piratey". It has lots of "aaargghs" and "aaayyes" and I like the back ground music to it the best of the 3 modern pirate machines (Hook, Black Rose, POTC). Yes...... Black Rose does seem to be wearing a strapless leotard to plunder and pillage in. And I do think the "Fire" button takes some abuse due to the video modes, but we haven't had much trouble with it besides basic adjustment. Of the pirate machines, it's the most basic. POTC and Hook have more going on. Hook's almost too cluttered. POTC has best multiball. But for around $1000 it's a really fun little novelty machine...... and it has a lot of cows if you enjoy cows mooing and fencing, etc....