Forwards seems to be the recommended direction of travel for most things in life, but some rollercoasters like to buck that trend. The concept of having both forwards and backwards has seen a major resurgence in recent years following on from the Shuttle Loops and Boomerangs of old, with compact launch coaster designs permeating many markets. But what about starting out backwards in the station, sometimes even staying that way for good? That’s a lot harder to come by.
In fact there are only a few major coasters out in the world that can offer it at the moment and based on personal experience so far – we need more of it! I’ve elaborated before on the negative effect that anticipation can have on certain coaster elements and what better way to completely remove any pre-emption than to turn the ship around and physically stop guests from seeing what’s up next?
Which way is which?
I think there’s a bit of a stigma attached to the concept currently, either being seen as a bit of a gimmick, an oversimplified marketing ploy or perhaps something to be feared amongst the age old expectation of thrill rides making people feel nauseous – not looking where you’re going will likely make those susceptable to motion sickness feel even worse. Personally I’ll advocate it all day long, as I relish every unique experience I can find in the coasting world and the simple action of turning a seat around can be both a tremendous enhancement and a well earned selling point for any attraction.
The focus today will be on any coaster that goes backwards for at least 50% of the layout (ideally more) and, as usual, those that I’ve personally tried out. Let’s see how much of an impact they made on me.
#10 Tower of Terror II (defunct) – Dreamland (Australia)
This attraction is no longer with us, though the taller American brother can still be enjoyed (twice over) at Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was originally designed as a Reverse Freefall coaster with a forwards facing launch up a vertical spike leading to, as the name would imply, a freefall in reverse, but in 2010 Tower of Terror became the first of the two models that was modified to begin the journey backwards. Accelerating to 100Mph before quickly seeing the ground run away from you sounds like quite the exhilarating experience, but although they’re rather special, I don’t particularly rate these straight lines very highly as coasters. Hence the #10.
#9 Music Go-Star – Miroku no Sato (Japan)
It was a total ordeal for me to get on this ride as the place was, in the true style of all minor Japanese parks, ridiculously quiet and they took half a day to get it up and running. I had noticed on arrival that they had turned the back two cars of the train around, something previously undiscovered as far as I was aware (along with the new name and some fountains) and this revelation made the waiting seem far more worthwhile. As it turned out, bit of a rough one. What could have been some impressive backwards airtime in the first drop and subsequent big camelback ended up rather bouncy and jarring, taking the edge off proceedings. It still made it better than your average two hills and a corner layout though!
#8 X:\ No Way Out – Thorpe Park (UK)
There’s that gimmicky feel. World’s first!, with a caveat – in the dark. This indoor Vekoma did actually start life in 1996 as a backwards experience though, finally losing that claim in 2013 to a bit of a rebrand and a train turnaround to conventional mode. It’s an unusual layout when travelling in either direction, with a lot of stop and start action on multiple block sections as the ride winds its way down inside the pyramid shaped building. The sinister feel that the original theming package carried did work rather well with the extra disorientation, though in the end it turned out to be just as enjoyable a ride when moving forwards. The audio visual effects are the real stars of the show here.
#7 Rocky Coaster – Suzuka Circuit (Japan)
Here we have another Japanese creation with a couple of cars they decided to turn around for fun. Unlike the previous entry from this side of the world, Rocky Coaster rode really well and was further enhanced by a number of factors including a sudden thunderstorm. Not only did I have no idea what the layout involved, we were half blinded by torrential rain and left with a sensory overload of a rollercoaster experience which I believe may have been significantly less remarkable had we not also been travelling backwards.
#6 Cobra – Connyland (Switzerland)
Alright, another cheat. For 2020, this unique Pax take on the shuttle loop coaster received new trains that featured both fowards and backwards facing seats. As a complete experience you obviously still get pretty much 50/50 of each direction, but the extra fun in starting out backwards in the station here comes with the higher speed carried into the two airtime hills that precede this insane element. There’s no way you can see these coming, or the following wild inversion goodness, and the ride is made all the better for it.
#5 Fury – Bobbejaanland (Belgium)
Fury offers the unique feature of presenting riders with a choice of which direction they wish to travel in throughout the ride. Voting takes place using buttons in the restraint before the train reaches a turntable within the launch track. If you wanted backwards, it’s fingers crossed for a left turn. I really wanted this for my very first try and luckily my wish was granted. Basically it’s better that way round and I love the extra jeopardy involved in the decision making process.
#4 Swarm – Thorpe Park (UK)
For a limited time only Thorpe Park introduced two rows of reverse facing seats on the Swarm trains dubbing the experience ‘Brave It Backwards‘. I already liked this coaster even though it can be considered more graceful than exhilarating for the most part, but I was not ready for how big of a difference the new seating arrangement would make. As soon as I found myself being dragged through that first inversion, totally unexpectedly, I was thrown into an uncontrollable fit of joyous laughter. With no idea what was happening throughout, the result was amazing, infectious even. I only wish that this feature had become a permanent one.
#3 Eejanaika – Fuji-Q Highland (Japan)
Hmm… Who can really say which direction this monster has it’s victims facing once things get going. A large part of what I adore about this ride is never knowing which way is up and the mystery surrounding that isn’t going to stop me from including it on this list, though perhaps with a slight penalty in ranking position. Where the backwards significantly enhances Eejanaika is the first turn out of the station and the lift hill. It teases and terrifies from the moment of dispatch, tipping riders right back almost onto their heads before levelling out the seats again. The steady 250ft reverse climb is an absolute nervous nightmare, never knowing when the first drop is actually coming to kill you. All you can do is attempt to distract yourself with the scenery or try and find something to hold onto – not much at all.
#2 Hollywood Dream – Universal Studios Japan
Hollywood Dream alone is a great coaster and I totally fell for the aesthetic of this ride upon arrival with it’s mould-breaking B&M hyper styling, satisfying visuals, selection of onboard audio (via buttons in the restraint again) and unorthodox layout. Since 2013, as advertised by the Backdrop suffix, a separate queueline has been introduced that leads riders to board a backwards facing train. We finally tried this out late at night, right towards the end of a very long day and something totally magical happened. I’ve never felt airtime like this on a B&M, before or since, arms and legs were uncontrollable flailing everywhere and it was such a special series of moments. For such a simple idea, it truly is a top notch enhancement.
#1 DC Rivals HyperCoaster – Warner Bros. Movie World (Australia)
DC Rivals is the current king of backwards. Where others above have simple dabbled with the idea or played it safe with middling hardware, this ride started out as a world class coaster and has carried a reversed final car from day one. Mack achieved greatness on so many levels here, providing both Australia and by extension the Southern Hemisphere with an attraction to finally brag about on the global stage. It’s also the manufacturer’s largest rollercoaster project to date, offering ridiculously twisted vertical first drop, bucketloads of airtime and a massive non-inverting loop. Oh, and for a small fee you can experience all of that backwards. It’s honestly amongst the best single (well, several) ride experience I’ve ever had. So many surprise moments, so many forces that the direction of travel happens to make even better and, most importantly, so much fun. At this stage I’m willing to believe you can improve absolutely anything this way.
Japan have been trying to dominate this list but Australia have made it their own. Thanks to this striking beauty of a coaster, all the parks on the GoldCoast now seem to have latched onto the idea and we’ll soon be seeing competition from a Gravity Group woodie with the back of each train reversed. If this rides like any of my currentfavouritesplus all the good stuff outlined above, then I’m definitely not ready for it and words can’t describe how excited I am by that prospect. More please.
Mystic Manor is a trackless dark ride found at Hong Kong Disneyland that opened in 2013 along with the surrounding themed area of Mystic Point. Its closest relatives at equivalent Disney properties are the well known Haunted Mansions and Phantom Manor, though in this case the smallest park in the chain opted for an entirely fresh narrative – a highly welcome change as far as I’m concerned, I do love a unique experience.
And this ride certainly is that. The striking exterior dominates Mystic Point, particularly as it is the only attraction of note in this ‘land’. A lot of care and attention has clearly gone into making this attraction fit into its own suitable surroundings and have a real atmosphere. This is also something I greatly admire, as I believe the biggest and best highly themed rides deserve a certain presence that extends beyond the boundary of the building that contains them. Immersion doesn’t have to start at the queueline entrance, you can already be vibing off of the attraction the moment you set eyes on it.
That’s exactly how I felt as we stumbled up to this one for the first time on a miserable rainy day. Never mind the wet shoes, seeing this in person is a wow! moment to make you stop and admire the intricate details. Does that spiral staircase even function? Due to the weather it was unnervingly quiet for such a major theme park and, I don’t know if this usually happens, staff were at the queueline entrance dressed in maid outfits ready to personally escort guests from this point and into the first preshow. The extra attention was certainly welcome.
The preshow itself introduces the premise of the ride – the owner of the mansion (and his pet monkey) are inviting us to view their museum collection of artifacts obtained from extensive travels throughout the world via a design of his own invention, the clever carriages that form the basis of the ride hardware. A narrated, projected slideshow becomes extraordinary at the point in which the animatronic monkey, Albert, appears for the first time. This is classic Disney theme park magic at it’s finest, an endearing character and awe-inspiring piece of technical design all rolled into one.
Now that the scene has been set, we can be escorted once again to the carriages that await us. We’re already at the third level of wonderment for me here as I just love watching trackless ride vehicles going about their business, particularly in the station area. With sensors working overtime and no real fixed path to follow they hustle and bustle about the loading areas, pausing to let each other by as they approach in a wonderful display of artificial intelligence. This alone continues to entertain me throughout the entire ride sequence as the cars are usually dispatched in batches of four that travel together. Each one will follow a slightly different route to the others in the group, splitting off at certain intervals to view ares from separate angles and perspectives, enhancing the rerideability factor. When they aren’t paused to observe a particular scene or following one of the more linear paths in the attraction the opportunity is often taken to dance around each other, maintaining a satisfying flow and dynamic feel to the attraction, there’s never a movement that feels out of place.
Technological distractions aside, the scenery and soundtrack on this ride is phenomenal, of course. In the first room we meet the real animatronic Henry Mystic before Albert pops up again and ends up disturbing one of the trinkets, unleashing some magic dust that begins to make all the other artifacts come to life. The automated tour begins regardless and guests become witness to several areas of the collection all animated and spiced up in any manner of inventive ways, from projection trickery to physical effects. The deeper we travel into the exhibits, the greater the peril, particularly for our monkey friend who runs into a number of dangerous mishaps alongside us, you really do start to feel for him. It culminates in a spectacular sequence in a room surrounding a central statue who conjures up a storm. The vehicles whirl about in chaotic fashion as the walls themselves begin to tear apart all around, the music and sounds build and soar along with this and everything yet again becomes just wondrous to behold, a real ‘this is why I love this hobby’ freeze frame in time. Luckily, the strange powder manages to end up back in its container and they all lived happily every after.
Mystic Manor took Disney dark rides to yet another level for me. Sadly it’s been a fair few years since I last visited this attraction, though it remains firmly embedded in my mind as an extremely standout experience and their greatest attraction with its own unique story conjured up specifically for the park. From a purely selfish perspective, I did wish sometimes they would strike more of a balance between original ideas like this and the Intellectual Properties that dominate the park lineups. My personal bias lies in wanting to see all the creativity stem from the theme park itself rather than relying on other sources of media (or business sense) to do the thinking. The forming of this opinion is actually mostly owed to Mystic Manor itself, though it has been opened to deeper consideration as the years have passed – after all they did go and prove me wrong a couple of years later!
Contrary to the model name – the Suspended Looping Coaster, these rides have since been classified (amongst enthusiast databases at least) as ‘inverted’ rollercoasters. The first layout debuted in 1994 in the home nation of manufacturer Vekoma, just two years after the introduction of the popular ‘Batman’ B&M Invert. The key difference these inverts had when compared to the ‘suspended’ designs seen throughout the ’80s was that the train is rigidly attached to the track and could therefore perform tighter manouevres, including inversions, and achieve compact layouts on flat land more easily. They also had the novelty of dangling guests legs in the air and thus threw in a bit of intimidation factor for good measure. This new concept soon became a staple investment to be included in any thrill ride lineup and Vekoma’s lower cost alternative managed to tap into a significant portion of that market.
While great news for the manufacturer, this successful business strategy has only ever manifested itself somewhere in between lamentable and loathsome for the coaster counters among us. The ride type is frequently regarded as one of the worst on the planet due to a combination of poor tracking and unforgiving oversized shoulder restraints that commonly result in ‘headbanging’ or ‘earbashing’. In short, the experience is generally unpleasant and not one that leaves you wanting more.
But more is the hand we’ve been dealt. The now prolific Vekoma SLC has been built 33 times while spanning an unusually long career for any coaster model, with the latest having been installed in 2017. Sadly throughout all this time there have been no more than a few variations in layout. There are currently 20 of the standard ‘689m’ version, several other ‘extended’ or ‘bonus helix’ editions of the same original design and a small handful of grim alternatives.
To add insult to sometimes literal injury (purely from this silly author’s selfish perspective), the early 2000s saw various Chinese manufacturers double down on this idea of low cost, highly repeatable SLC design and even ended up replicating both of the standard Vekoma layouts for the vast majority of their installations. With Golden Horse alone now ahead of Vekoma on quantity of sales for this ride type and several other companies striving to do the same, latest estimates would put the number of SLCs worldwide at over 100. A harrowing thought for anyone whose game is to catch ’em all.
How well (badly) have I fared so far then? In terms of the original Vekomas I’m just shy of halfway through the list at 16. By almost actively avoiding anything of this nature in China I’ve also managed to sample just 5 locally built equivalents across 3 separate manufacturers and I shall continue to try and stop myself from making it any more of a habit. For what it’s worth, here’s how these occupational hazards rank from miserable to manageable and any tangential anecdotes that may have helped me in making such ground-breaking judgements.
I rarely use the phrase ‘burn it down’ about anything in the theme park world, but I have done here. Fantawild Adventure parks have a tendency to bring out the worst of me in general and then this ride decided to commence proceedings with two sharp punches to the skull during the first drop and turn. There’s literally no merit to this when it simply stems from poor implementation of a common as muck design. We’re off to a good start.
#20Twister (Beijing Jiuhua Amusement Rides Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) – Quancheng Euro Park (China)
This was an abomination of equal magnitude but it had certain quirks working in its favour. It’s a requirement to wear a green padded vest for this ride, which they supply you with in the station, so clearly they already know that this piece of hardware has the potential to cause physical injury. At least they aren’t afraid to admit this and embrace the fact that it’s going to continue. It’s also not a layout inspired by any Vekoma and contains this weird poorly shaped inversion that throws at least one interesting sensation into the mix. The bad? The cars bounced back and forth really badly while negotiating the track, a usually minor trait that you’ll see later on I had come to even enjoy a little for comedy reasons. This very pronounced equivalent of the effect was rough and unpleasant on the innards as well as the outtards.
#19 El Condor (Vekoma) – Walibi Holland(Netherlands)
The prototype that started it all. What a mess. It had the henchest restraints I had ever seen when I rode this thing and as they are literally already making physical contact there was absolutely nothing to be done to prevent them from gnawing away at your ears from first drop to brake run. Guests audibly swear on this ride more than I’ve heard on anything else in the world.
#18 Dragon In Clouds (Vekoma) – Happy Valley Chengdu(China)
I don’t think I disliked the ride itself as much as I despised the circumstances of this one. The queueline is made up of disgusting metal cages and the staff in this park (by far the worst in China for me) were having arguments with me about pointless seating nonsense while I’m dying inside, desperate to get the stupid thing over and done with. Oh, it was rough though.
#17 Odyssey (Vekoma) – Fantasy Island (UK)
Not even uniqueness can make this one shine in a sea of sludge. The tallest SLC in the world is pure custom goodness and I didn’t like it one bit. They clearly weren’t designed to handle such unprecedented speeds and that only adds to the calamity in this particular case. Odyssey is notoriously hard to catch due to either technical issues or being susceptible to the awful weather on the North East coast of England so there is some joy to be found in all of this – I’m glad I’ve crossed it off the list.
#16 Suspended Coaster (Beijing Jiuhua Amusement Rides Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) – Window of the World Changsha(China)
Having to do the notorious ‘Happy Valley exercises’ in preparation for some of the finest coasters in production is an entertaining laugh and a character building experience. Having to do them for an SLC is an insult and once again I was just dying to get this thing out of the way. It was far newer than the equivalent layout I had already ridden, from the same manufacturer, and therefore hadn’t yet been reduced to a terrible state. Give it time.
#15 Arkham Asylum – Shock Therapy (Vekoma) – Warner Bros. Movie World (Australia)
If I was being cynical I could claim that we had to revisit this park just to ride the SLC and complete the creds. We were actually just being smart and prioritising time spent on DC Rivals over queuing an hour for nothing but the coaster count (I’ve done far worse of course). Having caved and come back anyway there was no queue at all, but that didn’t stop this from being a bad experience. My first encounter with vest restraints on these proved that they do nothing but highlight how sub-par the overall track quality is. These rides aren’t good, in case you hadn’t noticed yet.
#14 Limit (Vekoma) – Heide Park (Germany)
If I was being cynical I could claim that we had to revisit this park just to ride the SLC and complete the creds. Actually I was just being smart and prioritising time spent on B&Ms and Intamin Woodies and then the weather decided to hail and thunderstorm the place into a full closure. Having caved and come back anyway, there were other things to add to the count as well, but that didn’t stop this from being a bad experience. This was still early days for me and I certainly had noticed, these rides aren’t good.
#13 Vampire (Vekoma) – Walibi Belgium
Cheat! The only one on the list that never received the privilege of my photographic recognition. Instead this is a cheeky shot through the trees of the original Walibi SLC from earlier in the list. I’m sure you get the picture by now. They’re almost all the same. Sadly we had to resort to paying for fastrack to add this to the collection, only to be thwarted in our cred running efforts by another Belgian park that day anyway. I remember absolutely nothing of the ride experience.
#12 MP-Xpress (Vekoma) – Movie Park Germany
What an eyesore. This was the first time I noticed the weird motion (mentioned above) that the trains can sometimes do on these which involves pumping backwards and forwards rather than the usual side to side that causes headbanging. In minor doses it doesn’t actually do a whole lot and I found it rather amusing, along with the whole setup of this ride. It’s unashamedly ugly, from the gravel service roads to the tin shed station.
#11 Kumali (Vekoma) – Flamingo Land (UK)
I believe I somewhat liked this one back in the day. It was a glorious time in which I didn’t count coasters, obsess over them on the internet or even comprehend that one day I’d be forced to subject myself to the many, many more ‘Kumalis’ out there. Basically it had character and individuality to me, before all this worldly knowledge that I’m spewing out here ruined that illusion – you’re welcome.
Just cracking the top ten (what an honour) is my favourite Golden Horse in the list. I had some fun running to this one like a man possessed in order to squeeze in the +1 before an appointment with a timeslotted dark ride elsewhere in the park. It was a rather windy day, to the point of threatening ride closure and I actually felt the impact of this on ride through a somewhat unnerving almost-stall in one of the inversions. This particular Flare Meteor performed just fine overall and didn’t leave me with any more than the usual worry about other SLCs from the manufacturer – oh how they would prove me wrong.
#9 Mind Eraser (Vekoma) – Six Flags America
By far the most aptly named of these rides out there, this one promises to do what many further up in this post actually achieve. Fortunately it doesn’t deliver on the promise and was one of the most inoffensive around. It even looks rather nice, comparatively.
#8 Nio (Vekoma) – Greenland (Japan)
Nio is another of which I remember very little about in terms of the ride experience so it was likely fine. The dominating sensation here was that of intense joy – my first day in Japan (and what a way to spend it).
#7 Soaring Dragon and Dancing Phoenix (Beijing Shibaolai Amusement Equipment) – Nanchang Wanda Theme Park (China)
This one has a few things in its favour – they were playing K-pop in the station, it’s (finally) a custom layout and that crude phoenix on the front makes it by far the best attempt at a themed train on any of these that I know of. All of that combined with no major upsets make this my current king of Chinese built SLCs.
#6 Riddler Revenge (Vekoma) – Six Flags New England (USA)
We’re back in vest restraint territory again and I can now say that when paired with adequate tracking, the experience becomes a lot more… inconsequential. Fair play to this one, we saw certain guests choose to ride it more than once.
#5 Golden Wings In Snowfield (Vekoma) – Happy Valley Beijing(China)
I think for some reason, as yet unknown to me, that I slightly prefer this ‘Shenlin’ layout that was born out of another Happy Valley park, when it isn’t trying to hurt me. This one comes with bonus helix and an exceptionally long and well themed queueline that it doesn’t deserve in the slightest.
As does this one. You could get lost for hours walking in the general direction of the station through decorative temple ruins and that would actually count as a good excuse to not board the ride. This was the original ‘Shenlin’ installation, no bonus helix, and I don’t honestly know why it’s stuck with me as one of the better ones. Perhaps some foolishly naive nostalgia about it being my first day in China. Is it possible to have a gut feeling about such a gruesome topic? I have since passed on the opportunity to reride it during a subsequent visit – leave the memories alone.
Straight out of the Vekoma catalogue that forms half of the park lineup at Energylandia, this is the newest build of a Vekoma SLC that I’ve ridden and it seems now that the vests are here to stay. I was welcomed into the station with a complement from a friendly ride host about how beautiful Liseberg is (courtesy of whichever of their shirts I happened to be wearing, sadly I don’t exude such an aura without visual cue just yet). That alone is almost enough to win this list.
My very first SLC experience and unlike any other in the list I’ve unashamedly ridden it several times (though not in recent memory). It’s one of the better behaved ones, not necessarily in a standout way but I guess I just like Blackpool, I like that it’s over water and… nope, that’s everything nice I have to say about it.
#1 Blue Tornado (Vekoma) – Gardaland (Italy)
Three trains. This bonus helix layout was operating with three trains on track. When observing the operational efficiency of a rollercoaster is the most entertaining aspect of the entire experience, you know you’re onto a winning design.
What a mouthful of a name. OCT Thrust SSC1000 is derived from both the jet car (ThrustSSC) that holds the world land speed record and the operating company of the park in which it resides (who knows about the 1000). OCT run a number of theme and amusement properties throughout China, the most well known of which are the Happy Valley parks and this particular S&S compressed air launch coaster lives within Wuhan’s contribution to the chain. This is the most recent installation of the ride type at any OCT property, with the opening of the next at Window of the World Changsha still TBA, and the layout is a mirrored clone of Bullet Coaster from their Shenzhen park – we’ll come to the reasoning later as to why the original won’t be receiving as much of the spotlight here today.
Do-dodonpa – Fuji-Q Highland
The ride is also one of only 7 rollercoasters operating throughout the world with such a launch system. Compressed air launches found fame (notoriety) back in 2001 with the opening of both Hypersonic XLC at Kings Dominion and Dodonpa at Fuji-Q Highland. The former was plagued with reliability issues and had a rather short lifespan for a rollercoaster, sadly I never had the chance to try this one with only 6 years in operation, though the latter has managed to successfully retain the world record for fastest acceleration on a coaster and will celebrate its 20th birthday later this year. It took a whole ten years before the concept was revived and purchased again by Happy Valley themselves but, more importantly, it was also vastly improved upon.
These originals relied on the unprecedented intensity of their launch systems to provide the main thrill, the selling point of the ride and the layouts were much simpler in design. You may well know by now that I’m not a huge fan of this idea, the sensations of a launch alone have never been enough for a coaster to enter my personal big leagues. I believe these specific S&S creations are solely to blame for my current mentality as the Chinese installations introduced a more varied and interesting sequence of elements into the mix. Not only is the launch sequence the most terrifying and violent on the planet, we now have an amazing coaster to complement it, to make good use of all that potential energy. When I first experienced acceleration like this it was unlike anything else that had come before and by the end of the ride I was physically exhausted. I had to sit down on a bench and recover for a while, as opposed the usual run straight back round for a reride. This rarely happens to me at all now, if ever, especially for those exceptional rides which I deem ‘worth’ any physical duress these days. Subsequent launches have invariably felt inferior too (including the king). In other words, I’m broken.
On to the actual ride then. OCT Thrust begins with the train, which now by the way also has 3x the seating capacity, making the power of the launch seem even more ridiculous with all that extra weight, pulling forward onto an unassuming launch track underneath a TV screen you might well find anywhere else in the park that usually shows off some generic Happy Valley promo shots of the ride (poorly edited amongst others from the chain). The train negotiates back and forth a couple of times as the catch car comes into place while unnerving mechanical noises are made. After a tense pause, riders are then mercilessly blasted into the first top hat at an incomprehensible pace. The stats are yet to be officially verified to my knowledge but due to the technology we can assume they most likely sit somewhere between Dodonpa’s world record and the equivalent fastest accelerating hydraulic or LSM launches of the theme park world, so ~80Mph in significantly under 2 seconds.
The launch may as well be instantaneous, as it certainly feels that way, but now the fun begins. Thanks to some open seating design and lap bar restraints, the powerful airtime on the first element can be fully enjoyed as the ride plunges over 220ft into a tunnel below some pathway – a great moment for riders and spectators alike.
Keen eyed readers may have spotted the trim brakes on that first drop but do bear in mind that I would be the first to report on and complain about any negative impact they had on the ride experience – there was none. The exit of the tunnel leads into a banked upwards turn culminating in a second strong airtime moment as the train dives towards ground level again.
As though taking inspiration from more conventional hyper coasters, this track is designed for airtime moment after airtime moment, the third of which comes with a twist at the top providing some satisfying lateral forces in addition to the now expected out of the seat sensation.
The fourth and final hill breaks the mould yet again by being banked completely to the right at 90° to the ground. This gives the unusual feeling of the body being kicked sideways against the will of gravity in an attempt to leave the train and is a feature that has later been included in and popularised by several RMC creations, amongst other coasters.
The last element in the sequence is a tight and twisted double turnaround, this time intense in the positive G department and culminating in a rather brutal snap (possibly unintentional, but I call it character) into the brake run. It feels a little soon but I believe the whole point in this style of ride is to leave you a little dazed and breathless, which it achieves all too well with that ridiculous launch and subsequently ending almost as quickly as it began. The important thing is that all the moments in between are of the highest quality. Why has the ride (and the sky) changed colour? Well I didn’t have a picture of this final section of track for OCT Thrust and so I’ll cheat and say that this is a good point to segue into the key differences with the original installation of this layout – Bullet Coaster.
Strangely enough I want to like the original more. After all it came first, I rode this one first and I’m not exactly an advocate of cloned layouts around here. The Shenzhen installation looks far more attractive too, being set in a Shangri-La themed area with that much prettier colour scheme. Unfortunately this version of the ride fell victim to something which makes this whole ranking clones business a bit more of a nonsense than it already is – a revisit. A reassessment. Let’s just say this second visit wasn’t a good day in the grand scheme of theme park trips and the ride itself felt like it was vastly underperforming. I wasn’t getting the same kick, the same buzz I had since become used to getting from the ride type in general and I was upset by this revelation. The only reasonable way in which I can display this emotion is by no longer giving it the specific credit it undoubtedly deserves in a numbered list.
So it may be less easy on the eye but OCT Thrust hasn’t yet been given the opportunity to let me down (almost, but covid). It currently remains my favourite S&S air launch coaster and takes the honour of being the key representative for the layout, with Bullet Coaster sadly relegated to sitting outside my top 25. Every single moment of the ride delivered with spectacular efficiency during my time spent with it. I love the sequence of elements and the way they all hit the mark, never faltering for one second. The hallmark of coaster design at its finest.
Just to confuse things further, this same logic doesn’t apply to my score cards. The opportunity for an objectively better card (in both theming and opening year) trumps any personal feelings. Have to be sensible about these highly important matters.
It’s a wonderful world we live in when a roadside berry stand can grow into a world famous theme park. From selling jam and chicken dinner to racking up ten rollercoasters alongside an assortment of other classic attractions, Knott’s has a fascinating history, perhaps one of the best in the States. I didn’t know much about anything prior to visiting, believing it was just a quirky name and had even managed to somehow pronounce it incorrectly throughout my life until I heard it spoken aloud in a piece of queueline audio, but it was obvious on arrival – this place has vintage and charm, about as far removed from ‘concrete and rides’ in the US as you can get.
What they also have, which suits one of these lists particularly nicely, is no obvious standout rollercoaster from glancing at the lineup alone. Instead they’ve got a ‘big four’ going on that complement each other nicely, rather than just the one or two dominating signature attractions and the result is generally a very satisfying and varied line up, something you know I like to acknowledge on here. Let’s tuck in.
#10 CoastRider
We’ll start by getting the dud out of the way. Being a too common, off the shelf, Mack Wild Mouse with a bad pun for a name is the least of CoastRider’s crimes. For some reason it has offensively uncomfortable restraints not found on most other models that happen to dig right into the shin bone and ruin any potential funfair fun that could have otherwise been achieved.
#9 Timberline Twister
Being an unashamed credit counter, getting on this ride was a satisfying achievement in itself, though I didn’t take a photo of it to celebrate the occasion – you can have Snoopy and a train instead. It’s a rare childrens’ coaster by Bradley & Kaye, who only ever built less than 10 rides in the 1940s and just two remain in operation today, the other at Six Flags Magic Mountain having a strict no adult policy. Over the course of my multi day visit I patiently waited for the right (no queue) moment to give this one a go and subsequently found myself with loads of room in the car, relatively speaking, being taken on a rather wild journey throughout the unnervingly airtime laden 480ft of track.
#8 Pony Express
Much like the motorbike cars more commonly found on this type of attraction, I don’t find this horseback riding position particularly comfortable on a coaster. It may then count as mercy, but there really isn’t much of a layout here to go with it – essentially a figure of eight. I admire the attempt at interaction but sadly the neighbouring rapids ride was undergoing refurbishment during my visit, so no extra points there. Quaint though, and had some great staff.
#7 Jaguar!
Jaguar is the king of interaction for the park though. This rare, highly customised Zierer Tivoli layout winds its way absolutely everywhere, in and out of other major coasters, over the heads of guests across many pathways and through its own centrepiece of a pyramid themed station building. Though far from thrilling, I always admire this type of attraction integration and there’s just so much to look at and appreciate as it traverses the layout.
#6 Montezooma’s Revenge
The oldest Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop still in its original location and my favourite to date for the simple elegance of the launch sequence. I only rode this one in the dark, where two satisfying sequential clunks turned all the station lights out and then accelerated the train off into the night. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again though, you can only go so far with an oversimplified layout.
#5 Sierra Sidewinder
This Mack Spinner had the disadvantage of me having already ridden and loved the far more intensely themed indoor edition of the same layout in the UAE. The ride type itself is rather hit and miss as to whether you get a decent spin in the right places and therefore the experience can vary hugely from a tame little family ride to a surprisingly intense thrill coaster. My laps on this one leaned towards the former, but the potential is there. I’ll soon have another version much closer to home to try my luck with again.
#4 Xcelerator
And so begins the big four I alluded to above. Sometimes Intamin launch coasters are an invention of wonder and at other times the entire experience hinges on just the acceleration itself. Sadly for me this one falls firmly into the second category, with very little going on outside of some big overbanked turns after the signature top hat also found on lesser layouts. I’ve often said that launches alone don’t do much for me any more and this ride is a prime example of that.
#3 Silver Bullet
It may be one of the weakest of its type but can we appreciate for a moment how attractive this ride looks. I really wanted to like Silver Bullet, as I do with all B&M Inverts and it even contains some cool and underutilised elements not found on others of the same model to help it stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately it seems to me that the elevated positioning over the walkways led to a rather lacklustre first drop design and the momentum just never really gets going throughout the rest of the layout. It lacks the power and intensity that has become strongly associated with this hardware and though it’s no doubt fun and highly rerideable, I just can’t see past that.
#2 HangTime
I’ve praised my 700th coaster on here a couple of times already and I think I’m managing to fall for it more and more as time goes on. Yet again HangTime looks fantastic but the onboard experience manages to match it this time. That holding brake moment is like nothing else out there and it’s all thanks to the restraints. So many rides around the world could be made better with simple physical details like that and this one stands as a shining example to all.
#1 GhostRider
For all the things I didn’t know about Knott’s Berry Farm before I arrived, this attraction turned into the biggest shock of all. I’d seen the odd account here and there that it was big, rough and a bit past it, then of course heard the news that they closed it for a bit of TLC back in 2015 & 2016. I remained largely sceptical, with the usual fear of bad woodies killing me in the back of my mind. The sight of new GCI trains for the first time as I walked through the queue was news to me however, as was the layout, which was riding particularly well (on the right side of violent) and contained a huge amount of variety – everything that was right up my street for a wooden coaster. GhostRider was hugely popular at all times of the day and night whenever I visited and understandably so. I only wish I could have become more acquainted with this beast. It’s a winner.
Located at Disney California Adventure, this dark ride drop tower is a retheme of what was once The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a ride still found at Disneyland Paris. The original attraction was designed for the Paris Studios park but happened to open in California first due to some French financial issues. This one then closed in January 2017 to undergo an overhaul and amazingly re-opened just 5 months later.
Of course the new theme for the ride was now based on the film franchise Guardians of the Galaxy, part of the wider Marvel cinematic universe and it was the first attraction in the USA to take advantage of the media acquisition. While I enjoy plenty of Disney’s own film releases, none of them have truly been represented that well for me across their theme parks yet and I have to admit that this one was much closer to my own heart.
In the past I have often been sceptical about rethemes of rides as they are often used as a cheaper alternative to breathe some fresh life into an attraction or even craftily advertise it as ‘brand new’. While this makes perfect business sense a lot of the time, obviously I come from a world where counting new things is part of the fun and this doesn’t really fit the bill. Beyond that though, they can often come across as forced or generally just have an air of less attention to detail and care than an original attraction design.
A perfect example of this was even reinforced to me earlier in the same park when riding Incredicoaster – a ride that previously wasn’t branded with a Disney intellectual property but is now, albeit loosely, themed to the animated films of The Incredibles. A review for another time no doubt, but the changes to the original design felt a little flat to me.
So it was with this mindset that I entered the queue for GoTG – M:B! (bit of a mouthful isn’t it). Did they have a solid plan going into this retheme? Does it have a decent and relevant reason to exist as an attraction in it’s own right? Have they gone above and beyond just assigning it with a more recognisable brand in order to interest a wider audience? The answer to all of these is: yes!
This stunning piece of architecture is home to the Tivan Collection, an extensive assortment of artifacts kept by The Collector, a side character first seen in the film Thor: The Dark World, most prominently in Guardians of the Galaxy of course and then again in Avengers: Infinity War. Somehow he has managed to capture the now famed Guardians themselves and has included them as part of the display. Where do the guests fit into this narrative? We’re here to view the collection as tourists of course.
The first indoor queue area contains a few display items and a video greeting from The Collector himself welcoming patrons to the facility, alluding to how he managed to trick the Guardians and introducing us to the tour, including an important piece of guest interaction that will get us into the first preshow room – we need to raise our hands to be scanned.
Once in this room, The Collector’s office, the next video is interrupted by escapee Rocket the Raccoon who needs our assistance in breaking out the rest of the team. Now that our hand scan gives us access to places, we’re a part of the plan. It’s such a simple idea but I do love it when guests have a reason to be part of an attraction’s narrative, it just adds an extra element beyond being casual observer or forced into an unlikely ride situation with no purpose.
The best part of this preshow is the introduction of the Rocket animatronic (not pictured sadly, that’s just the exit shop). This truly is a mindblowing spectacle, the look, movement and behaviour of the raccoon far exceeds any other piece of Disney magic I’ve come across, it’s closer to witchcraft. Beyond that, this room is just packed with interesting artifacts from the larger cinematic universe, important for a collection of course, but the attention to detail is just so overwhelming and really helps reride(view?)ability, even at the introductory stage. The perfect finish to this sequence is the subtle automated rodent hand grab of Quill’s Walkman from one of the display cases as guests make their way out.
One of a select few jaw-dropping scenery transitions within a queueline happens for me next as we head out into the main lift area. The scale and look of the place is stunning and gets the buzz going for the actual ride part that comes next. Guests are batched into lifts as per the usual process for these attractions and, once seated and strapped in (with nothing but a belt), all manner of amazing things happen.
Once again The Collector is interrupted by Rocket who hooks up the Walkman to the sound system and the signature good time musical vibe of the franchise comes to life for the first time. While he wrestles with the controls for the elevator itself, guests get launched up and down with the signature good time physical vibe of Disney’s drop tower rides. Some on screen action occurs at each pause interval of the elevator system and the combination of these three things results in simply one of the most unanimously joyous attractions I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
Having not ridden the (life changing) Paris version for several years and, in the interim, trying out the now obviously weaker Tokyo edition I had been left worried that all my recent ride experience had diminished the effects of this type of hardware. Fortunately the powerful, gut punching airtime was back as fresh as ever, as the lift either transitions from upwards to freefall or lurches downwards after a standstill. It’s far beyond any other Disney attraction in terms of physical power, as well as the majority of traditional drop towers, almost unbelievably so. Dark rides can be great for their storytelling and visuals alone but throwing this raw thrill into the mix just puts this type of attraction on another level for me.
I left the buliding absolutely brimming with excitement, a spark I had sorely missed from Disney parks for a good couple of years and proceeded directly to the fastpass machine outside to guarantee another go. Yet another way in which they aid the rerideability of attractions like these is that there are six different audio, visual and physical sequences for the ride. It truly can be different every time and well worth several attempts, but even if there was only the one version I doubt that it would stop me. I could ride this thing all day, if only the resort didn’t have so many other things to offer. Damn you Disney and your well rounded park lineups. Now, if only they had a good rollercoaster along these lines…
Sometimes the overall experience of a park is far greater than the sum of its attractions, but at other times the opposite can be true. Nagashima Spa Land falls under the latter category for me and before this monster RMC was built I didn’t really get on with the place at all. I had visited twice before, once to find Hakugei’s predecessor White Cyclone closed, along with 10 other coasters in the park for the sake of a patch of drizzle and a second time as a near successful attempt at redemption, while the RMC conversion was still taking place.
I returned, almost begrudgingly, on a third visit in order to experience Asia’s first rollercoaster from industry legends Rocky Mountain Construction, who have topped polls for a number of years now and become celebrated favourites by many. I had jumped on that bandwagon myself within the 6 months prior to this particular trip after boosting my RMC count from 1 to 8 and pretty much loving every single one of them, which is why I found myself queueing to be let into Nagashima once again in June 2019.
As the other creds here had already been obtained, there was of course only one item on the agenda for the day – ride the new one as much as physically possible. This began with me surging forward with the initial crowds, getting a bit of a jog on and hoping to be amongst the first in the queue. It didn’t work particularly well as for some reason, I assume as the park is part of a larger resort and it’s possible to stay on-site, a significant number of other guests had beaten me there by other means.
No worries, I’m no stranger to a queue in this hobby. However I was soon hit with a strong reminder of just how slowly attractions are run at this park, watching the single train they had on track bounce around the pre-lift section, half empty, about once every 5 minutes. Let it not be said that I don’t suffer for my art sometimes, as this waiting game was particularly painful. Even without speaking Japanese I can to this day still loop the two minute safety announcement in my head along with the accompanying 20 second clip of the song ‘Thrill Life’ by Doberman Infinity. Just play all of it or none of it.
Upon nearing the batch point for the station lockers, staff members begin handing out wristbands to queuing guests, the purpose of which is somewhat overly complicated. Underneath the station are a bank of free lockers into which you deposit your loose belongings before getting scanned with metal detectors and proceeding up the stairs towards the platform. At the top of the stairs, you are relieved of the wristband so that, upon leaving the ride and joining other guests in the locker area you can’t just sneak back up for another lap. While this is a significant improvement over similar systems found elsewhere in the park that involve lockers on the platform, it is still a rather laborious procedure.
The final irksome policy before I can finally sit down and relax is the regimented batching into rows which does not allow guests any choice of seat. Usually I’m fine with such ideas, provided it has been put in place in order to maximise efficiency and throughput. That clearly isn’t the case here, given the time that everything else takes and particularly when coupled with the slightly more unusual local custom of not grouping strangers together, often leaving the train with several empty seats, as I alluded to earlier.
Why all the negativity here, in what is supposed to be a review of a top ten rollercoaster? It’s a point that rather fascinates me because I have absolutely no quarrels of this nature with any other ride amongst my list of the elite. In an ideal world, the happiness begins upon entering the queue, perhaps even the park itself and never falters for such trivialities. But sometimes these things just stick out in my (admittedly stubborn) mind like a sore thumb and it’s very hard to look past them. It becomes part of the character building of the ride. Does this attraction, or the way it’s being presented, want me to enjoy it as much as I want to? Weird though that may sound, I believe it’s important. Mostly though, this is a true testament to just how amazing this piece of hardware is. It may be cold, calculated and clinical, but Hakugei is just so damn good and highly deserving of a place among my all time favourites. Forget everything else, we’re onboard now, let’s begin that journey.
A signature pre-lift section begins with the slightest momentum out of the station giving way to several oddly shaped humps and bumps that miraculously manage to provide more airtime than most other coasters would care to admit. A huge 180ft ascent leads to a very open summit, with cracking views all round, and a flat unbanked 90° turn that’s taken at a rather swift pace before kicking you up, over and down into that massive first drop.
The seriously powerful airtime that this machine can produce sparks into life here, that little piece of extra emphasis as seen before on a couple of other creations such as Wildfire really does add to the sensation of riders being pinned out of their seats and dragged towards the ground below. It’s a sustained moment. It hits hard. I’d argue that it feels far more significant than the 300ft first drop of a certain giga coaster in the same park.
At full speed the train heads into what must be one of the worlds biggest ‘double ups’, an element which provides two further sharp bursts of airtime in satisfying succession. An unusual turnaround follows with the track banking counterintuitively towards the outside of the corner in a wonderfully whippy transition, similar to that of the green high five moment on Twisted Colossus, but with only the sky to greet you.
This, again similarly, is succeeded by a particularly out of control ‘double down’ section which for me is one of the standout moments of the ride. It’s hard to anticipate, hard to brace for and can be rather brutal on the leg department with how hard it tries to remove you from your seat – all things I love to see on a coaster.
Continuing to draw on the strengths of previous builds, another signature RMC moment hits in the form of a zero-G stall. With the sheer speed at which this ride moves, it isn’t their finest for that other-worldly upside down floaty sensation. This worked better towards the middle of the train but the front and back both provided a different, powerful and unusual mix of forces.
One of the many things I love about Hakugei is that it just doesn’t want to do corners. Corners are boring. To point us in the opposite direction this time we get a strange overbanked turn with multiple elevation changes that deliver some weird sideways kicks, never letting up.
A glorious but standard zero-G inversion comes next, something else the manufacturer can often take pride in. Watching the dense layer of track supports manouevre itself around you is always a sight to behold.
Intensity follows grace with a powerful airtime hill, the first traditional one of these in the entire layout. As it winds out of this through another banked turn and drop we get another of those violent and unpredictable moments that sets this one above others of its type. The third and final turnaround is a low overbank with unnerving lateral forces, far more than I had come to expect from these rides and a highly welcome feature.
Now, buried deep within the intimidating stucture, the final stretch delivers yet more vicious airtime of both standard and then sideways variety, one last inversion and another of my absolute favourite moments – a tiny little twisted hill that never failed to induce shouts of terror and/or pain from all riders. The whale goes out with a bang and I’m left trying to process the insanity.
Often with coasters of this scale there’s a memorable part, a signature sequence of elements that define the ride and then some ‘other bits’ to go with it. Hakugei is a masterclass in layout design from the moment it leaves the station until the moment it hits the brakes and I have a massive respect for anyone that can pull that off. I’ve got my favourite elements of course that I already alluded to, but the flow, the pace, the sequencing of this thing – everything comes together perfectly and feels so… right. Two minutes of coaster heaven. Put this ride in another park and it may well have been Japan’s best for me. Just goes to show it’s so tight at the top that even emotion can swing it.
Located at Six Flags Great Adventure, El Toro is in my opinion the greatest wooden coaster on the planet, it is an absolute masterpiece of modern engineering that turns the much loved wooden coaster into something truly incredible.
First a bit of history before I start gushing over perfection. El Toro was the last coaster built by Six Flags during their era of excess. This era brought the World the coaster legends Kingda Ka, Tatsu and X, as well as countless highly regarded Inverted, Floorless, Hyper and Flying coasters.
El Toro is an Intamin Prefabricated Wooden Coaster, this means the track is laser cut in a factory and then delivered to the park and assembled much more like a steel coaster would be. Intamin to date have only built 4 prefabs, with El Toro being the 3rd and the only one in the US.
Both of those previous facts make El Toro’s very existence seem rather unbelievable. What if Six Flags had ended their spending spree 1 coaster earlier? What if Six Flags hadn’t taken the risk and added such a rare and untested coaster model? It’s obvious isn’t it? We wouldn’t be blessed with wooden perfection and the World would be a much sadder place.
Other than making construction much easier what are the other benefits of these prefabs from the point of view of a park? Well it’s not the cost that’s for sure. A prefab of this size is easily equal to the cost of a similar sized steel monster, if not more. In theory, prefabs require much less day to day maintanence than a traditional wooden coaster, but still much more than a steel one, further adding to the mystery of El Toro’s existence.
While not fantastic from a park’s perspective, the prefab technology is amazing from a riders. The precision cut track sections offer 2 major advantages over traditional woodies in terms of ride experience. The first being the coasters are much smoother, as smooth as steel in most cases. The other, the more important, is thanks to the track construction prefabs are able to handle much greater positive and negative forces than a traditional woodie. In El Toro’s case this means one thing only, ejector airtime at it’s finest.
Yeah you heard me right, El Toro has the greatest ejector airtime on Earth. While Skyrush may deliver slightly more, it almost goes too far in it’s approach and turns being ejected into a test of endurance. I still love Skyrush to pieces, mostly for said brutality, but I prefer El Toro’s slightly less aggressive but still absolutely insane approach to launching you into orbit.
Now join me as we climb aboard the bull and discover why it’s the greatest wooden coaster ever built, just try your best not to be thrown off…
After making your way through El Toro’s rather uninspired queueline, you eventually ascend stairs into a well themed station building. This station building was recycled from Viper, a Togo Looper that used to sit where part of El Toro does today.
It’s here where you and 35 other lucky riders board the amazing Intamin prefab train. These trains are incredibly open and feature Intamin’s fantastic T bar restraints, the perfect combination for the airtime filled madness that is coming.
Restaints locked and clear all cars. Enjoy your ride on El Toroooooooooooo…
After taking a left hand turnaround to get things pointing in the right direction, you find yourself looking up at El Toro’s massive lift hill. You won’t have long to regret your life decisions here though because soon you are hauling up the structure thanks to the always fantastic cable lift hill.
And here’s where things get really crazy…
I’m a sucker for amazing first drops on coasters and El Toro’s might just be the best in the World. Thanks to the momentum created by the cable lift hill and the insane length (you can thank the prefab tech again for that) of the trains, taking El Toro’s near 200 foot 76 degree drop in the back car almost shouldn’t be legal. You are ejected so violently into that drop that you’ll find yourself questioning if this is real life. One of the strongest elements on a coaster ever and we have only just started.
Now for something I wasn’t expecting. Once again thanks to the wonders of the prefab, El Toro is able to hit you with seriously strong positive Gs as you bottom out at the base of the World’s greatest first drop.
Here comes the first airtime hill and Christ are you in for something special. The greatest ejector air on Earth sustained for a sickening amount of time. You’ll have enough time to turn to your neighbouring rider, exchange a look of true fear, shout something offensive, wish it was over, wish it wouldn’t end, while all 36 of you and the train are taking off and the upstop wheels are quite literally screaming.
You liked that didn’t you? Let’s do it again then! More crushing positves at the base of the first airtime hill, followed immediately and violently by more thigh crushing sustained ejector air over the equally as insane second airtime hill.
We’ve run out of room now, let’s turn this bull around. It’s here where El Toro calms down a bit but it’s far from boring. You’re treated to a decent blend of floater air, laterals and positives in a turnaround manoeuvre that starts and ends with large hills.
If you thought El Toro was insane before, which it was was, you haven’t seen anything yet. It’s now time to experience the infamous Rolling Thunder hill. Named after the wooden coaster this element used to pass over, this airtime hill isn’t as sustained as the previous 2 but is 10 times more aggressive. If Skyrush didn’t exist this would be the strongest pop of ejector ever created, it is quite literally the definition of too much.
There’s no time to catch your breath after that brutality though, you now enter the so-called bucking bronco portion of El Toro. This is a series of intense low to the ground turns designed to viciously throw you about. Some coaster snobs consider prefabs to not be real woodies because they are “too smooth” and “only focus on airtime”, I feel the bucking bronco section was added to El Toro to shake some sense into them, it’s fast, it’s fun and the perfect ending to a fantastic coaster.
It’s almost law for the whole train to burst into applause as you re-enter the station, on some coasters this act feels forced, on El Toro it feels earned.
Hands down my favourite sensation in the coaster World is ejector airtime and for that alone you can’t do any better than El Toro. While I’d listen to the argument that El Toro is JUST airtime and nothing else, when the moments of airtime are the best you’ll ever experience can this truly be considered such a bad thing?
Obviously it’s not the best of times to be thinking about these sorts of things and I’m likely tempting fate in doing so, but it just seems like the most appropriate topic to begin a new year with. These are all rides I’m actively going to try and experience this year as opposed to a standard ‘bucket list’. I’m generally loathed to write posts about attractions I haven’t yet tried for two reasons, though hopefully I’ve come up with workarounds for both on this particular occasion: 1) I don’t have any nice photos for them yet – instead you can have an external link for further reading and a related picture of another ride to which I can attribute some of my expressed interest 2) Raising expectations is a dangerous game – I can’t pretend I don’t have expectations or this list wouldn’t exist in the first place, I just won’t rank them in any particular order other than geographical
Oh well, here it is anyway.
I could have just filled this list with 10 rides from the 2020 American road trip that wasn’t to be. There were over 100 credits planned and a ton of the industrys big names on the bill. Even if it does happen this time around, in order to keep this post a bit fresher I’ll have give the rest of the world a fighting chance as well. I just can’t go without mentioning a couple of absolute standouts.
(Fjord Flying Dragon, Happy Valley Tianjin)
Voyage, Holiday World Originally destined to be my 1000th coaster, Voyage would likely claim to be the king of Gravity Group woodies. It has the stats to back it up, being the longest and fastest they’ve ever designed and as they are my favourite manufacturer of the moment, the desire to finally get this one under my belt is obviously rather strong. To add another layer of excitement and intrigue, the park holds an annual event intended entirely for enthusiasts and legend has it that the coaster is run at its absolute best (no trim brakes) just for them, for two nights only. I was booked to go last year and I’m already booked again for 2021. Make it happen.
(Hakugei, Nagashima Spa Land)
Steel Vengeance, Cedar Point The hype around this ride is inescapable as it now dominates every rollercoaster ranking system ever conceived. RMC are the most consistently excellent manufacturer around these days and, once again, their biggest creation to date certainly looks like a world beater. I’m already hugely conflicted about Steel Vengeance and I don’t even know much of what it does. While of course I want it to be the best thing ever, something I’ve been searching for for over 5 years now, I don’t know if I want that best thing ever to be the same as everyone else’s best thing ever. It’s a tough spot to be in, but I’m determined not to let anything cloud my judgement when I finally get there.
I’ve still got 9 months of a Chinese Visa left and damned if I’m going to settle for just the one visit on this version when I did so well the last time I had one. There’s always new and exciting stuff appearing over there on an almost weekly basis, so of course I already have a shortlist of attractions around a couple of regions with enough to keep me happy for a week or more, should the opportunity arise.
(Extreme Rusher, Happy Valley Beijing)
Launch Roller Coaster, Sun Tzu Cultural Park For a glorious moment in time I had the full set of these S&S air launch coasters but then China had to go and throw a spanner in the works and order a couple more, both of which have been plagued with mystery and delays in construction. (There’s also one on the US trip now, but enough of that already). I already have history with this one, having intended to make it part of an itinerary back in 2018, except when I arrived in the region it wasn’t anywhere near ready for me. The appropriately named Launch Roller Coaster seems to now be open and of course I’m hugely interested in nabbing it. They’re an amazing ride type that the world needs more of and this one has already thrown some new and exciting elements into the mix.
(Magic Gallery, Oriental Heritage Changsha)
Battle of Red Cliffs, Oriental Heritage Jingzhou After rekindling my passion with Fantawild parks this time last year and having done a lot of recent digging on dark rides (for the eventual benefit of mankind – stay tuned on that one), this resort that I would have originally dismissed as inconsequential due to the atrocious coaster lineup appears to contain an exciting enigma of an attraction. The name directly translates to ‘Burning Chibi’ and as per usual for the franchise should be based around historical events of the region. Images on their own website are fleeting though there’s one of fire, one of some dark ride track and those alone are enough to get me buzzing, but ‘the largest naval battle in history’ as a fresh Fantawild attraction? I’ll be there.
(Mysteries of Chaohu, Hefei Wanda Theme Park)
The Final Sea Battle, Wuxi Sunac Land I know even less about this one and though it comes with less of my romanticised notions of discovery, I’ve been saying for years that Wanda (now Sunac) should up their dark ride game, or at least bring them into the same park as their world class coasters to prevent me from prematurely ending a good marathon and having to visit a separate establishment in a mall afterwards. It would seem this has now happened at the Wuxi park at least and while Falcon is also a must visit, from the little I’ve already learned, I’m rather more intrigued to see how this attraction fares against local rivals.
(Jungle Trailblazer, Oriental Heritage Jinan)
Time Travel, Hot Go Park Another ride I have history with and another set for completion. During a particularly painful moment of the hobby I saw, with my own eyes, this wooden coaster creation hanging off the edge of a hill, but only through the window of a taxi. I was out to collect all the Gravity Group rides of China in 2018 and foolishly let this one slip through my fingers due to a silly little thing called seasonal operating schedules, something I didn’t even know the country had for two long visits prior – it gets cold up north you see. Of course now, several years later, there’s another of their woodies being built and I might forever be chasing my tail because of this mistake, but the the plan is to get both, and for size, location and personal revenge this one still resonates with me far more than any other.
Closer to home, everyone, literally everyone, is going (or at least wanting) to be going to Belgium this year. It’s about the only certain thing for 2021. Why? Because two of the most exciting looking coasters in Europe are due to debut less than 100 miles away from each other and that makes for a perfect little weekend break. You can count me amongst the masses, I’m not one to miss out on these things.
(Goliath, Walibi Holland)
Kondaa, Walibi Belgium Intamin perfected the airtime machine back in the early 2000s but I personally don’t feel the designs hold up very well against their more modern counterparts nowadays. Goliath is due to lose its last Beneluxian statistical records this year to a brand new rival in a neighbouring Walibi park and this move couldn’t be more welcome. Things have come a long way in a short time and it seems that all the top manufacturers are taking inspiration from one another with exciting layouts we never previously would have expected and from the very little I’ve seen (still not one for spoilers) I’m dying to try this one as soon as possible. It’s time to bring the Intamin Mega coaster into the roaring ’20s.
(Star Trek: Operation Enterprise, Movie Park Germany)
Time Traveler(?), Plopsaland de Panne It seems we don’t know the official name yet and I’m very much hoping it’s not this one, because there’s already another Time Traveler, the same ride type, which also could have made this list were it not for me advocating diversity in yet another way throughout this post. It just so happens that this Belgian build looks to be a lot more intense, though perhaps less pretty, and it would be great if I could compare the two in a short time frame, particularly as I’m yet to even try an elusive Mack Xtreme Spinner and there’s nothing else on the market quite like it yet. I love a Mack launch, me.
Florida is the biggest black hole in my theme park arsenal. How can I have been all over the world and still not set foot in what is arguably the capital? With the world’s largest Disney and Universal resorts and biggest named Busch Gardens and Sea World parks there’s enough in this one state to keep anyone, including me, going for weeks. The answer is, simply, I’ve never got round to it. But I want to. And as such, I’ve never even looked in great detail at what’s there. I know the obvious coaster stuff, but not the ins and outs of each resort and it now feels like I’m clinging to that rookie state for as long as possible, just to feel wide eyed and innocent one final time in this hobby.
(Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, Disneyland)
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Disney’s Hollywood Studios I know nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s a trackless dark ride, right? And, and, Star Wars. My absolute favourite film franchise. You can quote me on here as previously saying that I would get excited simply if I ever got to see Crait on an upgraded Star Tours simulator cycle (and those rides just do nothing for me, really), so the fact that there’s a brand new, specifically designed, reputedly next level Disney dark ride themed around the modern material is… well… I’m still not ready for Florida. And I don’t think I ever will be.
(Taiga, Linnanmäki)
Velocicoaster, Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Back in the days of Revenge of the Mummy, Universal were setting the precedent for combining thrill rides with immersive theming and I’m yet to see another project come close to matching the things that I specifically love that attraction for. Velocicoaster would seem to go down a slightly different road, perhaps inspired by ol’ Taron by being a densely decorated Intamin multi launch coaster and while I’m not the biggest Taron fan out there, my experience with their latest and greatest, Taiga, has me overwhelmingly hopeful that these two giants of the industry can pull off something as similarly unrivalled as the Mummy, in its own special way. I’ve also already had a literal, actual dream about this ride becoming my new #1 rollercoaster. Is that setting the bar too high?
After riding over 1100 coasters in 23 different countries, this is how I currently rank some of the greatest coasters in the World. Unlike Heartline, I’m choosing to stick to a strict Top 25 for the sake of simplicity. In time I plan to do an in depth review of most of these incredible coasters, so stay tuned and please click on the coaster names to read more.
