Both are great, but JJP POTC is top 3 of all time for me. JP2 would win out against most other games for me, but not up against JJP POTC. That said, I would love to get a JP2 someday because it is a great game that I think would keep my interest in a home environment for quite sometime.

No, I haven't changed anything. In fact, I believe that the difficulty settings aren't adjustable in the game as it sits currently even if someone wanted to.

The thing about JJP Pirates is that to have a great game, it has to be a longer game since there is so much to do, but with no ball save the game can be and is brutal at times. I can't imagine a casual player who has no idea what to do lasting more than a couple of minutes tops. For me, on a really good game, I normally get 3 EBs or more...but...I will have at least one ball, sometimes two, where it is basically plunge and drain. That never fails. Normally those plunge and drains happen when I have a big skull hold carried over, that wizard mode lit and a 6x bonus that isn't currently held, so they are all lost. A really good game for me is 5 million + and that takes usually takes 25 minutes or more, average game for me maybe 10 minutes. I've had a LOTR though and ball times aren't that long in comparison. Those 25+ minute games never get boring for me though, because there is so much on the line with every ball and you want to make sure you take advantage of it. Got to play that last movie mode to get that wizard mode lit, got to get a skull hold to carry that movie value over, got to get the bonus held, need to make sure you have a bunch of souls and don't lose them in Liar's Dice...and make sure you have your playfield multiplier built up to 6x potential and actually get 6x started when you start all the fun. It's still quite the adrenaline rush for me. JJP POTC really starts getting difficult as you complete movies and wizard modes since you have to really start shooting specific things. When you are focusing on specific shots and not just taking what the game gives since all the wizard modes are single ball and timed, it can be very unforgiving.

The wrinkle that JJP POTC throws in to a longer playing game discussion is that you had 22 characters to pick from which each help or hinder you in some way. That helps keep it fresh because depending on the character, your scores and progress can vary wildly even with a similarly played game.