Coaster reviews

Theming Intensity Smoothness

Wodan was a real surprise for me. I'm not exactly what you call a conventional enthusiast with regards wooden coasters, but GCI are consistently an exception. We had the luxury of staying at Europa Park a couple of days, and had plenty of time to take in it's nuances. The hard-to-remember layout, much airtime and laterals handled well all contribute to it being a blast. Night riding with Fenrir roaring into the sky highly recommended (and impressive).

Comfort Hangtime Too short

An excellent ride, and of different style to everything else at SFMM, not an easy achievement given the variety they have. I can think of nothing bad about Full Throttle really; but it's not a coaster you'd travel a long way to visit by itself.

Theming Harness Disappointing!

Another instance of Universal pushing style over substance too far, I don't really class this as a rollercoaster. It isn't an unpleasant ride, but utterly forgettable. Considering the "similar", but superb Mummy is just round the corner from it I was expecting more from this. Our first ride on this was in the front row, which I found involved much neck-craning to watch the film on the run into the first drop. I am sure that it is only a matter of time that someone will suffer problems from the drop-and-turn into the dark while trying to watch the effects. A later repeat ride in the back row was better for being able to see the effects. The restraints are somewhat condensed, combined lap-and-ankle bar affairs that cause difficulties for access for decidedly average sized people too. My favourite aspect of the whole ride was walking into the lobby of the bank, in the queue line. For a major ride by an operator with basically unlimited budget, a real miss in my book.

Comfort Dead spots Layout

Icon is a bit of a first for Blackpool. Almost all of their coasters to date had their origins in pre-CAD design; whereas Icon is very obviously a finely tuned laser-cut precision machine. Unfortunately, it is also well known that the park's owner is not much of a big coaster fan (oh, the irony!) which might have biased some of the decisions on layout. The launches on Icon are functional but insipid. The trains are like other Mack Megas excellent hardware; and the inversions effective, but not earth shattering. The ride is better once it's warmed up it has to be said. A punchier launch up to a slightly higher speed might still be possible; and would improve matters greatly. The main downside is that there is an awful lot of pointless left-to-right swaying - might have been better to sacrifice a bit of length to fit in an inversion or two extra instead. The ride has done it's job of putting Blackpool on the map; and is hopefully a good sign for future investments.

Inversions Launch Harness

The ironically named Storm Runner, like most rides at Hershey, will not run in the rain. I was lucky enough to get a break in the bad weather to get a couple of goes on this machine in the limited time we had to visit. The difference over the other accelerator coasters of course is that this one actually does something with the power rather than fritter it away on the brakes, a massive plus. I hate those Intamin overheads, though I don't remember them being as much of a nuisance as they are on say, Furius Baco or Kingda Ka.

Location Fun Smoothness

Best coaster in Seaworld, well paced and makes good use of the flying coaster tech. The pretzel loop is forceful and memorable, but this ride more than just a G-machine. I really like how Seaworld don't big their rides up as terror machines, rather, instead, dress it up as "come fly with us" - much more fun and inviting to a wider audience. My only dislike comes from the mid course brakes, which are largely unnecessary for anything other than 2-train-on-track simultaneous operation, which I have never seen occur!

Location Masterpiece Layout

Most flying coasters built to date have been plonked out on flat, open land. Not so, with Tatsu, which makes excellent use of the hills on "Samurai Summit". Much of the ride's "outside facing" time is spent at high altitude, cleverly interspersed with dives at speed into the woods. I loved Air when it opened (one of the few that did!), and it has of course been completely superceded now, but Tatsu is something else entirely. 2nd best coaster at Magic Mountain IMO.

Launch Harness Discomfort

Ooooh! Owww! Kingda Cow! The OTSR's and rough track spoiled this ride for me. The airtime hill on the return is real redout territory - military pilots are taught to not pull heavy negative G because it's seriously uncomfortable having blood jammed into your eyes. Kingda Ka gave me a massive headache almost immediately. What a come down from the masterpiece that is Top Thrill Dragster. in fact on the day I remember clearly stating that I preferred the little vekoma booster bike at Flamingo Land. Still a lot of fun to try once, but there are better rides at SFGAdv.

Inversions Location Intensity Dead spots

Old school B&M from a time before restrictions on G-loading. The only real fault are the heavy mid-course brakes to take the sting out of it's batwing, one of the heaviest loaded elements you'll find anywhere. On last visit we had the back rows to ourselves; to the point where we could repeat ride without getting off. The cool kids can muck about on Cheetah Hunt's gimmicks, more space for the us here on a ride really worth travelling half way round the world to see!

Airtimes Comfort Smoothness

After 2 and a half weeks of coasters on the ECC 2006 tour, it's easy to get complacent about getting onto (yet another) ride! This version of Goliath as I remember it was a lot of fun, but equally lacks a stand out feature to take it from merely being "good" to "excellent".

Comfort Fun Smoothness

Oziris really saved my last visit to Parc Asterix. The layout is very decent, no annoying mid course brake run, but like almost B&M's could use an extra half a G in places to throw some intensity into the mix.

Inversions Masterpiece Intensity Headbanging Too short

Nemesis is the reason I'm a coaster fan, closely followed by Rollercoaster Tycoon. It may well have been responsible for staving off insanity! The ride is highly original, substituting raw speed for high rates of turn and close proximity to the ground. For such a simple and effective trick not to be used widely elsewhere is a travesty. If by some miracle you can catch Nemesis on a cold, wet night you will hardly ever find a better time on a rollercoaster. Watching the Towers Fireworks from Nemesis is highly recommended!

Airtimes First Drop Layout

Mako is a welcome change in Florida; which has lacked a steel airtime machine for far too long. I am hoping there are more to come! The layout is functional but not exactly inspired; a straight forward out-and-back rather than attempting to do too much clever with all that power. Row 3 seems to offer the most airtime (bizarre, yes!)

Location Launch Too short

My number one for well over a decade; TTD is a very simple, no nonsense blast. Lap bars are a massive plus over almost all the other Intamin Accelerators. Simple but very effective theming and banging 90's alt-rock on the front gate. Ready to go? :-)

Airtimes Disappointing!

The Phoenix is a much loved coaster, in a great setting. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, however I just don't find it "all that". Sorry!