AWARD WINNER: STRONGEST AIRTIME. what, some stupid children's roller coaster wins the award for having the most aggressive moments of airtime i've eve...
AWARD WINNER: STRONGEST AIRTIME. what, some stupid children's roller coaster wins the award for having the most aggressive moments of airtime i've ever experienced on a ride? YES. YES. YES. this thing was shockingly intense for its size. in the front row, wild train delivers some absolutely ferocious moments that try their absolute hardest to send you flying out of your seat, and i MEAN it. multiple moments of this ride simply send you in any direction it wants to, whether you're careening laterally into the person next to you or up into the heavens, wild train is the perfect example of a roller coaster that will never ever be built again. it was truly a product of its time and it will be dearly missed. the lap bar admittedly sucked quite badly, being one that pushed against your stomach creating an uncomfortable ride, but as you adjusted to this as you rode it more, you started to really appreciate this idiotic death machine for what it was. rest in peace wild train, you were so crazy.
AWARD WINNER: MOST FRUSTRATING. a feature that sets fury apart from most other roller coasters is its "voting system" - you can decide whether to ride...
AWARD WINNER: MOST FRUSTRATING. a feature that sets fury apart from most other roller coasters is its "voting system" - you can decide whether to ride forwards, or vote to ride either forwards or backwards. which begs the question - when there is an option to guarantee forwards, why are you going into the "vote" queue without the intention of riding backwards? surely if you wanted to ride forwards, you would go in the forwards queue, which makes it incredibly frustrating when you queue an hour for the ride, do everything you can to ride backwards, and then the turntable goes in the wrong direction because too many people voted forwards. admittedly the ride isn't *that* much better backwards, but i still want to be able to ride in that direction whenever i want to instead of leaving it up to chance. i would much rather the voting system was dropped entirely in favour of a "guarantee forwards" queue and a "guarantee backwards" queue. the park had a vision, but it is unfortunately flawed.
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST BAG FUMBLE. imagine building literally the perfect ride for a park. imagine building EXACTLY the thing that your park was missin...
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST BAG FUMBLE. imagine building literally the perfect ride for a park. imagine building EXACTLY the thing that your park was missing, and hitting the nail on the head. vindfald is the perfect fit for tivoli friheden, a wonderfully presented ride that's gorgeous to look at with a short layout which does manage to make every inch of track do something, to be fair. a great drop, a great loop, a great tunaround.... at the bottom of the turnaround, the single most violent jolt i have ever experienced on a steel coaster.... a great corkscrew into the brakes. what a shame. what a damn shame. you were THIS CLOSE. and you just had to ruin it. gerstlauer you did this park dirty. i'm disappointed because literally everything else i love. just. why. that jolt HURTS. a lot. i hope the park can fix it, they deserve better.
AWARD WINNER: WORST LAUNCH. the hydraulic launch is known for having some of the strongest launches on the market in terms of raw acceleration. from s...
AWARD WINNER: WORST LAUNCH. the hydraulic launch is known for having some of the strongest launches on the market in terms of raw acceleration. from storm runner at pennsylvania's hersheypark to the now-defunct kingda ka at new jersey's great adventure, this now-discontinued and extremely unreliable launch system has real punch that turns a twelve-second ride into an otherworldly experience, you will NEVER forget your first ride on a hydraulic launch. i went into speed monster with stealth and rita under my belt, some appreciable examples of the potential of the model, so to plod along the launch at 50mph felt absolutely pathetic. it's not the weakest launch i've ever done, but to put hardware on a coaster that is DESIGNED to leave your soul behind, and actively decide to do nothing of value with it instead, is a fantastic waste of potential.
AWARD WINNER: WORST ONBOARD AUDIO. look, i know this is a really stupid thing to get all up in arms over. but one of my biggest pet peeves in coaster ...
AWARD WINNER: WORST ONBOARD AUDIO. look, i know this is a really stupid thing to get all up in arms over. but one of my biggest pet peeves in coaster design is when there is thematic talking during a coaster section. and you know why that's a problem ?? I CAN'T GOT DAMN HEAR YOU !!!!!! the roaring of the train coupled with the wind and the screaming and shouting makes any voice completely inaudible outside of the intentionally slow sections that would end up being quieter, where talking would make more sense. anywhere else, i want the only audio coming out of those speakers to be a transcendent musical score. this ride overdoes it with the talking during the parts where i am shouting through the glorious insanity of the layout. i just want some loud music
AWARD WINNER: LOUDEST. on paper this is a fairly standard family mine train coaster, essentially disneyland paris's big thunder but with slightly dial...
AWARD WINNER: LOUDEST. on paper this is a fairly standard family mine train coaster, essentially disneyland paris's big thunder but with slightly dialed down theming and lacks the tunnel that sets it apart from the rest. then i leave the station. behind me were a few groups of kids who decided that their mission was to scream louder than any human has ever screamed before for the *entire duration* of the ride, including during the lift hills. at first it was ridiculous, but slowly it became hilarious as we slowly joined in towards the second half of the ride as the entire train slowly descended into nothing but white noise that had me questioning my entire reality as i froze to death in the belgian winter. this wasn't screaming out of fear, this was just being as loud as vocally possible for nothing more than the sake of being as loud as vocally possible. this whole ordeal turned a fairly nonchalant family coaster into one of my most memorable coaster experiences ever.
AWARD WINNER: BEST TUNNEL. on the surface this is "just a mine train on its own silly little island", but what sets this ride apart from all the other...
AWARD WINNER: BEST TUNNEL. on the surface this is "just a mine train on its own silly little island", but what sets this ride apart from all the others is the infinitely long tunnel at both the beginning and the end of the ride. the beginning immediately introduces you to this awesome dark hole, the steady acceleration being able to see absolutely nothing is just so cool. the rest of the ride is excellently well done, those corners have a lot of nip to them, and makes you realise "okay maybe there's more to family coasters than i initially thought" as our offering of them here in the uk is pretty pathetic. the splash, the indoor lift, the lighting effects, the waterfalls, all the props, it's magical. and then suddenly you're thrusted again into *THE* tunnel. this is my favourite tunnel on any roller coaster, full stop. you just do not stop speeding up. you get faster, and faster, and faster, for so much longer than you think you realistically should. and then you pop out and ride's done, an absolutely spectacular finale to what is essentially the perfect family coaster.
AWARD WINNER: BEST FIRST DROP. sit in the back row and if feels like the train is trying to tear itself off the track and take you with it in a chaoti...
AWARD WINNER: BEST FIRST DROP. sit in the back row and if feels like the train is trying to tear itself off the track and take you with it in a chaotic, violent and absolutely unhinged fashion. unfortunately, that's it. once that phenomenal 30ft is over, big one decides "that's all we have to offer" and the rest of the 5000ft course is roughly akin to a scenic monorail that takes you on a nice and somewhat gentle tour of the park. you start making your own fun instead - whip out a deck of cards, lean out of the train, practice your aurafarming poses. but that first drop writes this ride into the history books in permanent marker - a singular unforgettable moment that carries the entire ride on its back.
AWARD WINNER: BEST AIRTIME. balder's airtime is simply sublime in every seat, including the middle row which sets the bar high for a high quality ride...
AWARD WINNER: BEST AIRTIME. balder's airtime is simply sublime in every seat, including the middle row which sets the bar high for a high quality ride experience, easily beating out helix to become my favourite roller coaster at liseberg. the drop and literally every single hill are chock full of attempts to throw you out of your seat in incredibly sustained patterns. it's not brief moments, it's long moments that *keep* you floating throughout the entirety of them. and every single hill hits - all of them.
AWARD WINNER: MOST POINTLESS. there wasn't a single minute of this ride that interested me in any way with a boring soundtrack, utterly useless backwa...
AWARD WINNER: MOST POINTLESS. there wasn't a single minute of this ride that interested me in any way with a boring soundtrack, utterly useless backwards drop and an anticlimatic final drop that fails to get you a single drop wet. and from my experience, the most broken ride in the park. just no point
AWARD WINNER: BEST LAUNCH. there is quite nothing like diving underground and getting absolutely sent into the heavens at infinite speed. alpenfury's ...
AWARD WINNER: BEST LAUNCH. there is quite nothing like diving underground and getting absolutely sent into the heavens at infinite speed. alpenfury's second launch is a brutally strong ascension into the clouds. it has power & style, and what follows after only adds to the already sky-high excitement that this one moment brings
AWARD WINNER: MOST INCONSISTENT. Hyperia's full of mood swings, feeling on top of the world one minute and wanting off it the next. Some days she want...
AWARD WINNER: MOST INCONSISTENT. Hyperia's full of mood swings, feeling on top of the world one minute and wanting off it the next. Some days she wants to give you the ride of your life, other days she wants nothing less to do with you. Whether or not your hour plus of waiting to glide on her wings is worth, is decided seemingly entirely by a coin flip. Will you run through her layout glass smooth enjoying every second, or will a jarring rattle crack your head open like an egg? It's truly a roll of the die in a way that no other roller coaster is. We're talking about a roller coaster here, remember.
AWARD WINNER: WORST RESTRAINTS. Bakken stopped caring about this ride an incredibly long time ago, and it SHOWS. A couple decades ago they got rid of ...
AWARD WINNER: WORST RESTRAINTS. Bakken stopped caring about this ride an incredibly long time ago, and it SHOWS. A couple decades ago they got rid of the selling point of this ride, a manual brakeman, a guy who stands on the ride and manually applies the brakes otherwise the car will *literally* fly off the track. That's what makes old roller coasters cool - this kind of technology was made irrelevant by the advancement and development of upstop wheels, but it's still so insanely awesome to see brakemen operate other wooden coasters. Vuoristorata at Linnanmaki. Rutschebanen (the good one) at Tivoli Gardens. Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth, just to name a few. The lovely interactions you can have with the brakemen who genuinely love their job, and always have a little think about whether to send the train a little faster this time around and toy around with fire. Bakken decided this wasn't their kinda thing, hired good-for-nothing KumbaK Engineers to design a brakeman-less train, and out went one more of the coolest jobs in the world. The energy of Rutschebanen at Tivoli Gardens is rampant - a forty minute queue, sending 5+ trains around the track all at once, brakemen sliding the trains across the corners at the fastest speed they can possibly go while making sure those wheels gain significant airtime on the hills. Slap my hand on a tunnel and nearly break it from throwing them up too high, and I'd gladly go again. The energy of Rutschebanen at Bakken is nonexistent - one singular lonesome train jolts around the course to the entertainment(?) of the three or maybe four people on board. Going around the layout passionlessly, it unceremoniously rattles around while being trimmed to almost zero miles per hour at every opportunity it gets. Slowed to a crawl at all available chances, this all happens with the singular worst roller coaster restraint I have ever experienced, a hideously oversized lap bar that jumps at every opportunity to dig infinitely far into your thighs without ever thinking to stop. The bottom of every hill has it dig further, further, and further as it threatens to cut any and all circulation into your legs while shaking through the turns with no thought process. By the halfway point you're begging for it to be over with the amount of pain you're in, but the lap bar has no brain, it only knows to go further down. And it doesn't stop. The enjoyment goes from six, to three, to one, to zero. An incoherently pathetic downgrade.
AWARD WINNER: BEST NIGHT RIDE. It's no secret that Rookburgh is one of the most beautifully themed areas in the world, and the area turns FLY from a f...
AWARD WINNER: BEST NIGHT RIDE. It's no secret that Rookburgh is one of the most beautifully themed areas in the world, and the area turns FLY from a fairly unremarkable ride experience into something otherworldly. If FLY was in a field, I wouldn't be able to care less for it, but the fact that it's in such an intensively complete area that has every nook and cranny filled with steampunky gizmos and gadgets is what sells FLY to me as a world-class attraction. Zooming around in the daytime is a must-do for anyone who enjoys roller coasters, but at night, FLY becomes the only roller coaster in the world where I genuinely questioned where the f**k I was. The area is lit up to perfection with beautiful blues & purples covering the realm as you dip and dive through dark tunnels and roll around factory roofs. By the second half, my entire life flashed before my eyes - "wait, where the HELL am I?" Am I on a roller coaster, or am I *actually* in Rookburgh? Is this real life, or a simulation? FLY is the only roller coaster to give me what I like to call "true immersion" where designers perfect worldbuilding in a way that has my mind well and truly tricked into thinking I really am in this fantasy world. FLY may barely crack my top 30, but I have no problem with proudly claiming this ride as my favourite night time experience on any coaster.
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST TEASE. I've never had a roller coaster be so infuriatingly close to being world-class, and just barely missing the mark. Vliegen...
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST TEASE. I've never had a roller coaster be so infuriatingly close to being world-class, and just barely missing the mark. Vliegende Hollander is spectacularly themed for the entirety of the queue line, one of the most beautiful roller coaster stations ever, and three incredibly themed scenes... three.. THREE. Hollander masters the art of worldbuilding, then throws it all away as soon as it really gets going. A climactic lift hill sequence has your tension absolutely sky-high, before it farts you into a fully unthemed outdoor section before a pathetic splash into the lake and then you're done mate. It's so close to being good. It's SO close. But it misses the mark in a frustrating fashion.
AWARD WINNER: ROUGHEST. My first ride on Thundercoaster I found to be pretty acceptable with a halfway decent variety in forces and an awesome second ...
AWARD WINNER: ROUGHEST. My first ride on Thundercoaster I found to be pretty acceptable with a halfway decent variety in forces and an awesome second drop into that tunnel. My second ride was a little worse, making me think "okay perhaps this isn't as good as I initially hoped". Conflicted, I headed for a third ride, this time in the front after it had warmed up throughout the day, and this is the only roller coaster where I've been *warned* by a ride operator that I was about to experience something life-changingly s**t. I committed to waiting for front, and this thing was apocalyptically rough to the point of almost crying of pain. Seriously. The amount of shunts and shoves combined with violently unacceptable combinations of forces had me feeling like I'd jackhammered my spine into two, three, six pieces. It became less roller coaster and more endurance as I grew more and more concerned about the welfare of my skeletal structure as the coaster progressed. Begging that every turn would be the one into the brakes, the coaster played with my emotions as it rounded into some further hills of mercilessness. There's a good ride here somewhere, if you give it about NOK300 million of work, but I know that's fairly staunchly off the cards for now.
AWARD WINNER: SMOOTHEST. The POVs of this thing look deceptively intense but remember this is still a modern family coaster from Vekoma. It is utterly...
AWARD WINNER: SMOOTHEST. The POVs of this thing look deceptively intense but remember this is still a modern family coaster from Vekoma. It is utterly devoid of any force ever, but if you are able to look past its surprisingly tame experience, it's an excellent ride with fast pacing (which felt better towards the back) and great theming. It is unbelievably smooth too and DOES NOT slow down - it keeps ALL of its speed throughout the entire ride which was highly impressive. I wanted to reiterate on the smoothness - I would comfortably say that Aquila is the smoothest roller coaster I have ever ridden - it is tracking *perfection*. Some coaster enthusiasts would start thinking "modern Vekoma roller coasters are a little bit *too* perfect" but I think this is what a family coaster should be.
AWARD WINNER: STUPIDEST. "Welcome to Wonder Mountain's Guardian!" the tannoy shouts after an incredibly shoddy attempt at worldbuilding that falls fla...
AWARD WINNER: STUPIDEST. "Welcome to Wonder Mountain's Guardian!" the tannoy shouts after an incredibly shoddy attempt at worldbuilding that falls flat on its face. Watching the 8+ dead seats out of twenty while your friend's gun actively starts overheating, being able to see the finale drop track mechanism from the queue line, being able to see the "final scores" thingy clear as day as one screen is blurred beyond recognition and the on-ride photo screen having been clearly turned off years ago, it becomes a matter of thinking "how long until this ride just gets sealed up and left to rot with everything left inside?". A harrowing piece of evidence of why Cedar Fair should never build dark rides or attempt to theme anything, WMG is a pisstake after experiencing the world class theming of Europe's attractions. After a pitifully short coaster section at the beginning, you're suddenly thrown into some remarkably half-arsed shooting sections with failing guns that overheat, don't properly show where you're shooting, and zero score tracking (?) as forgettably bad music plays in the meantime. Sound effects are zero, zero attempt is made to hide any of the hardware, it feels like nothing you do matters for the entire ride then it suddenly all ends after twenty seconds. A dragon shoots fire at you into a SHOCKINGLY good drop track. Like, my favourite drop track ever ???? and then the absolutely laughable excuse for a soon-to-be-dead attraction is finished. It's unfortunate how good the drop track is because of how beyond-parody everything else is. It's a thin brown stain on the park's lineup, an embarrassment on all fronts.
AWARD WINNER: MOST INTENSE INVERSION. My only other Batclone as of writing this is Shadows of Arkham, which is decent enough but ultimately just felt ...
AWARD WINNER: MOST INTENSE INVERSION. My only other Batclone as of writing this is Shadows of Arkham, which is decent enough but ultimately just felt like a beefed up version of Nemesis Inferno, so it didn't leave much of an impression on me, so I went into Vampire with a similar mindset. And how wrong I was. Vampire feels like it runs almost twice as fast, turning some "decent" inversions into "absolutely lethal". The stark difference in speed is immediately noticeable right from the very start as you start careening through the layout like the love of its life was waiting halfway-undressed for them at the brake run. Vampire means BUSINESS. Both loops are roared through at speed, the Zero G is insane, but the coaster is only just getting started. The "most intense inversion" award is given to the two corkscrews at the very end, which are taken so fast, blink at the beginning and you're at the other end by the time you open your eyes. These corkscrews will rip your face (and legs) off, pure survival instinct kicks in for the two of them. Fantastic ride, and genuinely gives Nemesis Reborn a run for its money in terms of how much it shreds the competition.
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST FALL FROM GRACE. What used to be my #1 until mid-2022 is now something I'm barely bothered about riding now if at all. Olympia L...
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST FALL FROM GRACE. What used to be my #1 until mid-2022 is now something I'm barely bothered about riding now if at all. Olympia Looping is now littered with uncomfortable forces and a persistent rattle where, when in combination with its awfully restrictive accordion restraints, makes for an overwhelmingly negative ride experience. The positives in the loops were as strong as ever, and while I do like my fair share of strong G's, they're losing their fun factor and by the time the ride is sillying around after the final loop, I'm ready for it to be over.
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE. three years after riding it and declaring it as my new favourite roller coaster of all t...
AWARD WINNER: BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE. three years after riding it and declaring it as my new favourite roller coaster of all time, cu chulainn barely hangs onto the top 50, though thankfully now by virtue of me riding more exhilarating roller coasters and not the result of the ride aging poorly. i was a little weary of booking a 30 minute private riding session after my friend came off a few weeks before my visit declaring the ride as "one of the worst and roughest roller coasters i've ever ridden" but followed through anyway, and i am incredibly happy to announce that cu chulainn retains its status as an excellent ride, providing countless moments of airtime in a layout full of events and things happening. the overbank has a maneuver that one of my friends refers to as the "pocket emptier" with three rhythmic and heavy thumps throughout it, which is fairly uncomfortable. something that really confuses me with this ride is how the right side of the train is incredibly enjoyable, but the left half of the train i am actively fighting against a far more prominent rattle. my riding partner for the private hire agreed heavily with this, so it wasn't just me. i really do wonder why this was the case, and why the difference in riding quality was so major. overall cu chulainn manages to retain its status as a fantastic ride (in the right half) and has, mostly, stood the test of time.
