Coaster reviews

Capacity Lap Bar Nice surprise! Disappointing! Pointless Dead spots

The launches kick hard, with the trademark whine/squeal of LSM launches. Intense whip transitions inside the show building, and heavy laterals during the former Big Bad Wolf turns. The end of the show building is a great surprise, riding for the first time. But all that energy is just wasted with the stop-and-go pacing. I realize this is for capacity, and to not knock the power out in the park, but it makes for dead spots. The capacity is excellent so long as they are loading two trains in the station at once. The ride has great presentation in the queue and station, the ride vehicles, and the roof on the top of the main hill. That said, the show building is a joke, a barely themed warehouse that's easily beaten by the likes of Kennywood's Exterminator or Great Adventure's Dark Knight Coaster. This is why it earns a Disappointing from me. Verbolten failed to fill the Big Bad Wolf's role as an introductory, first big coaster for the kids, but filled a new role as the intense blitz coaster. But now that we have Pantheon as the blitz coaster, and DarKoaster opening as a somewhat tamer (though sadly still 48" minimum) fully indoor coaster, it's just lost in the mix. BGW has quite a few removed flat plots and the Drachen Fire plot to redevelop first, so until then, Verbolten gets a Pointless and not a Tear It Down yet. I am so tempted to give it the Tear It Down, because this is the only coaster to make me vomit.

Headbanging Discomfort Tear it down!

I rode this and it was everything bad about an SLC, the shaking and being bashed about. That said, I've gotten a few half-decent rides on this over the years, so I'll give it a whole star. Also, why did they think it was a good idea to put a VR headset on one of these things?

Fun Discomfort

I actually like spinning coasters quite a bit. This gave me probably the most spinning I've ever had, enough to make me nearly nauseous. This is both a pro and a con at this point.

Theming Headbanging Discomfort Tear it down!

This ride gave me the second-worst ride I have ever had, behind only my one ride on Green Lantern at Magic Mountain (and good riddance to that). Even Mind Eraser at Six Flags America gave me a not completely atrocious ride every now and then. Everything that sucks about an SLC, amplified. It's a shame this ride had decent presentation, it's wasted on the worst SLC I have ever ridden.

Location Pace Fun

A great family coaster with a 42" minimum height. Ninja showed me what a suspended coaster could do, making me sad that I missed out on the Big Bad Wolf. Whipping through the trees, with the natural swinging as opposed to bog standard on-the-track riding or jerky inverted coaster motions. Of course being on the middle of a hill means the ending is just a lift hill back to the station.

Headbanging Disappointing!

This is somehow worse than it was as Apocalypse the stand-up. At least it had the novelty of standing up back then. The corkscrew is one of the worst headbanging moments I've experienced.

Airtimes Dead spots Layout

The airtime moments are great. Too bad there's not enough of them, and instead we have long helices and a straightaway. The original at Darien Lake had that straightaway over water. Can't Six Flags just put Superman logo rings around that straightaway?

Airtimes Fun

The double up and double down are highlights, along with the ending helix. Well cared for, it's quite smooth compared to the park's other wooden coaster Roar. It's a better wooden coaster than KD/BGW's offerings (though the Grizzly retrack, or just running both sides of Racer 75 again please, might change that).

Launch Dead spots Layout

To be honest, the ride was one singular defining moment, and a dull meandering roll around before diving into brakes. But that defining moment - LIM launch roaring away, and then flipping out the top of the mountain structure - alone made it a worthwhile ride. I will never forget front row at night. That said, I'm torn between whether Volcano's demolition, or its creation in the first place hacking up the Lost World mountain structure to begin with, was the bigger blow for Kings Dominion.

Masterpiece Layout Duration

RMC set out to make this their best yet. Usually, RMC shortens the old wooden coaster layouts - a removal of a helix on Iron Rattler, the loss of a lap on Twisted Cyclone, reducing Gwazi from two tracks to one - but Steel Vengeance kept the full length. This is a heaping helping of RMC's signature elements - ejector hops, off-axis airtime, ripping rolls.

Pace Masterpiece Intensity

From the first drop beyond vertical ripping your head off, Maverick lets you know it takes no prisoners. Not a single wasted moment on this ride. It even covers up the normally annoying LSM whine/squeal in the second launch with a railroad crossing sound.

First Drop Layout Headbanging Discomfort

I loved the first drop, and how cool the ride looked (I wish that was a "pro" you could choose, but I picked layout), but the drop from the MCBR into the corkscrews is the single most jarring jolt I ever experienced on a coaster. For that, good riddance.

Location Masterpiece Duration Dead spots

The Beast broke all the rules. It's meant to be a trek through the wilderness, not a traditional roller coaster delivering airtime and such. I made sure my first ride was during the night, and it was the intended experience.

Theming Fun Hangtime

This ride is the anti-Maverick. Maverick has relentless pacing, this is more laid-back, and that extends to the launches themselves. Maverick is focused on ejector, this delivers hangtime. Maverick is terraformed, this has some theming. Above all, this is more re-rideable. That said, the day I rode, it was especially hot, so I felt the intensity quite a bit.

Airtimes Capacity Ejectors Discomfort

The original hyper coaster still lives up. The old-school Arrow triangular hills deliver airtime unlike that of today's meticulously calculated pops of airtime. The capacity is also a major advantage - if Cedar Point is packed, this and Rougarou usually don't have too bad a line. That said, the airtime hurts against the lap bars. It's almost as bad as Thighcrush - sorry, Skyrush - in this regard.

Location Fun Masterpiece Rattle

Suspended swinging coasters have a flow like no other, and Vortex is the best of the ones I have ridden. Climbing the Wonder Mountain structure, going down the hillside, and the wild swinging over the water evocative of the Big Bad Wolf I never got to ride. Though it's short, it's well paced. I rode before Yukon Striker was built, so imagining it dropping through the helix only makes it better. That said, it is pretty rough, and the OTSRs on Arrow Suspended coasters exacerbate this.

Airtimes Pace Hangtime Theming Capacity Reliability

After Verbolten's stop-and-go pacing disappointed, Pantheon shows us how it's done. Probably my favorite moment is either the airtime hill on the launch on the backwards pass, or the inverted stall. The theming is completely unacceptable considering the park it is in. An empty field and a barely themed station. This is something Six Flags would do, not Busch Gardens. If they would work on presentation (possibly developing the inside of the layout), this would earn the full five stars. Also, the ride is very sensitive to the wind.

Pace Fun Rattle Theming Capacity

An underrated family-friendly coaster, just enough going on. Too bad the Lost World / Volcano structure is no longer there, though at least the trains got a new look.