It's been said before, and it'll be said again - I don't doubt this will be a good fun family coaster. My gripe is that I don't think it's going to be marketed as a family coaster, and therefore will fail in it's intent.
Clearly, this isn't going to be a world beater, but then neither are Wooden Warrior, Twister, Roar-O-Saurus, Switchback or Timber (the "family" woodies that come to mind). Those coasters aren't record beaters, aren't top-ten material, but they're absolutely brilliant family coasters. They don't try to be deep and dark and scary, they just come out there with everything and say "yeah, we're fun!".
While I think it's a shame Alton haven't built a Lightning Rod-esque terrain woodie, I'm not naive enough think they can make that sort of investment every time they build a coaster. Thirteen is not bad hardware (minus the trim, of course), but it's marketed wrong. This is going to be the same. I think many of the comments I'm seeing on this coaster would be totally different if Alton were selling this coaster differently. It could still be a secret weapon project, they could still do some great marketing, it just doesn't have to be a dark theme.
My only hope is that they're trolling us all, and the wickerman is actually going to be a swashbuckling pirate and it's going to fit right in Mutiny Bay or Katanga Canyon.
