I dunno if anyone else here has ridden, or even just paid attention to Invadr at Busch Williamsburg, but it really is the most mundane and uninteresting ride.
"But it's a family coaster." **** off. That isn't a legitimate excuse to be crap.
I'm a firm believer that target audience shouldn't matter. There are exceptions some smart arse is going to point out, but if you can all put on your gradient hats instead of the regular black and white ones for just a second and listen, that would be just awesome.
...Your target audience might be ...10 year olds, but if you create something of quality it might be most enjoyed by 10 year olds, but their parents and older siblings will enjoy it to.
With rides, the only legitimate boundary to a ride being accessible to all audiences are safety restrictions. There might be the odd case where you wanna make a rides theme inappropriate for a younger audience, but that should be (and is outside of Merlin ffs) a rare event.
Invadr isn't lame because it's a family ride, it's lame because it's not good.
There are plenty of people who aren't fans of GCI and I can understand why, but Lightning Racer and Thunderhead are some of my favourite rides.
I've been worried from the start that this is just Invadr... Only with an inappropriate theme. It wouldn't surprise me if it has a height restriction above necessity. It wouldn't surprise me if they market it to be adult and scary.
And then Wickerman's teen/adult target audience will come off it and go "that was lame, wooden coasters suck".
Also Invadr was like, rougher than other GCIs? Like, it's no Wildcat at Herhsey, but it wasn't smooth and sweeping like they usually are. Seems like they've got a consistency problem and cannot do anything outside of their bubble.
Wickerman isn't going to be amazing. Like, that much is plain as day. At this point we can still hope and even expect it to be a welcomed difference in Alton's lineup. But... I feel like I've been doing this now for long enough to look at that and turn my nose up. But I'll admit if I'm wrong and end up loving it.
I haven't been paying much attention to the construction of this, but does it have trims anywhere? Is there a chance they're on for testing? Clinging to hope. And I guess, if it's as rough as Invadr, maybe the slowness will be a blessing lol. :/
There's just so many problems with this thing that I don't even know what to make of it really. We finally get a woodie and it's little and lame. It's got another dark theme, but it's clearly a family ride. It's got a eh layout and runs it slow. The theme is the only thing I'm on board with - what a cool, Alton appropriate concept, but whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy is it so at odds with the damn ride. It;s as if they don't know it's going to be tame and lame... Or it's as if tame and lame is all they can get, for whatever reason? Is it the fault of the actual manufacturer designers not being able or creative enough to make a quality layout within Alton's constraints of budget and height etc? Is it Merlin's fault for not having budget to dig or whatever? WHAT is the problem here?