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Can a Ride be so Bad it's Good?

jayjay

jayjay

Giga Poster
Everyone knows the idea of "so bad it's good." Usually a film or TV series that's enjoyable to see just how badly wrong everything is (like The Room or Plan 9 from Outer Space). I thought of this topic coming back from Thorpe having done X. Back when it was X:No Way Out, it was that special brand of curiously awful. An odd, backwards coaster with random stops. So, can a ride be so awful that it's amazing and are there any good examples?
 
The very definition of so bad it's good, when it comes to coasters...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSabPr_CuII[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxuGqekGbbM[/youtube]
 
^,^^ It's not bad, it's not good, it's not fab,....

8eb42abd489e6ac4e572c26bb3d9086a_zps58a7a0f8.jpg


Skyrush is a massive example of the topic title. It's so bad, yet I love it. It's got an uninspiring layout, poor restraints and it's clearly a mechanical nightmare. I'm not even sure if it's even supposed to generate the amount of airtime is does. But, it's one of the best steel coasters in the world.

Apart from Skyrush - kiddie +1's fit the category perfectly.

Oh, and Reverchon Spinning Mouses <3
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say X2. On paper it's poor - it's rough, the themeing is terrible, it has dead spots, it's a mechanical nightmare with no capacity and it beats you up.

However, this is what's so good about it. It's absolutly insane and the best steel coaster on the Planet.

It's brilliant in the same way the Ultimate is, which also belongs in this topic.
 
The Ultimate: designed by a company who'd never touched rollercoasters, then taken over by British Rail. <3
 
Gotta agree, X2 is so bad it's good all over. When I rode it it felt like the rack and pinion assembly was loose and the wings were bucking roughly one degree whenever it flipped, making for a really rough, rattly ride. The restraints are horrible, the station is ****, the ride causes so much pain, the onboard audio is horrendous, even the setting is hideous. But the fact that it feels so rough and sketchy is what makes the ride. It was the first coaster in a long time to actually scare me and I would have been dying with laughter when we hit the brakes had I not been so out of breath! XD

Other less extreme examples of this I can think of:
*Colossus at Six Flags Magic Mountain (that much airtime + those restraints = **** ton of pain...)
*Skyrider at Canada's Wonderland (such odd standing airtime on the way to Italy)
*Wild Beast at Canada's Wonderland (so much pain on this one, it throws you around, but it's hilarious! XD)
*Legend at Holiday World (those unbanked turns make absolutely no sense but it makes the ride fun!)
 
^ I like the diagram, but Colorado Adventure so close to the Zierer Tivoli's? I thought Colorado was pretty damn great.
 
X no way out was so terrible it was comic.
Spinning wild mouse coasters can be painful, which makes the experience sort of good in a weird way.
Mack powered coasters, like Flying Fish, are dull but weirdly fun.
 
I think it is possible for me, I'm just struggling to think of an example.

If a ride is bad because it's painful, then idc how good it may be because the overriding memory is pain ala Baco.

And El Diablo is probably the worst 'big' coaster I've been on, and that's in no way close to being good.
 
Ultimate is the best example of this IMO - a poorly designed and built ride that, by chance, happens to be really good.
 
ThomVD said:
^ I like the diagram, but Colorado Adventure so close to the Zierer Tivoli's? I thought Colorado was pretty damn great.
Click to expand...

Maybe I missed out a huge chunk in the rush to think of rides for each category!

Anyway - a non coaster ride for the so bad it's good category would be Brer Rabbit's burrow from Oakwood!
 
I love love love Magnum XL, but they pretty much didn't try with the restraints, it isn't smooth, and it's got awkward transitions. Not to mention the fact it's old and needs some fresh paint, at least since I went last. That being said...the back half bunny hills ooooh yesss
 
Here is a diagram of why Euromir is so bad it's good.

10357443_10152744172980081_6323790943885910449_n.jpg



Also, Neo's Twister, the Fabbri 'Spinning Madness' coaster at Power Park definitely falls into So Bad It's Good. It's rough, it has a stupid layout, yet is somehow inexplicably enjoyable.
 
Gone back through my entire coaster list and can't find a single ride that I'd class as so bad it's good. I guess it's that if I deem a ride to be bad, it's because it's just a bad ride with no redeeming features.

Closest I came to mentioning was Millenium Coaster at FI just for being so forceless, but I wouldn't say it's a bad ride.
 
I don't think anything I've ridden is both absolutely terrible and fun at the same time, but the ride that closest fits that description for me is probably Nighthawk. It's got bulky and uncomfortable restraints, and it's certainly not the smoothest ride around, but despite that I really enjoy it. The awkward restraints combined with the riding position makes it one of the few coasters I've ridden that can leave me disoriented and almost scared when it feels like I'm slipping out of that ridiculous restraint. That said, it may be a case of me tolerating the bad aspects of the coaster, rather than the negative parts of the ride making it fun, but either way it's the closet thing to "so bad it's good" that I have in my count.
 
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