Last Cred Review

[Sticky_T_Wicky]

Another day, another Six Flags park (Over Georgia this time) and another 13 creds to collect.
Actually make that 12, Dare Devil Dive was down all day.
Actually make that 11, Batman: The Ride was down all day too. Boooo! I like the Batman clones and I like collecting B&M's, getting spited by one is always a downer.
But still, this park has 3 more of 'em, not to mention a cheeky lil RMC, should still be a good day.
And it was, we enjoyed our time here at SFOG. There are no stand-out, world beating, mega-creds here, but it has a solid, well rounded line up in reasonably clean, green and pleasant surroundings. Not the best Six Flags park I've been to, but certainly in the upper half and a world away from that dump in Maryland we visited a few days ago.

Twisted Cyclone.
Fourth RMC of the trip and my 14th overall and it's... pretty good. As always with RMC, it's amazing what they've managed to achieve here. It's a fun, action packed coaster that doesn't waste an inch of track and leaves you with a big smile on your face. We had some rerides. But let's face it, it's pretty small, isn't it? Yeah it's a great coaster for the park, turning what was a crappy old white woodie into a modern, airtime filled thrill ride, but when comparing it to other RMC's it just hasn't got the speed and the power to compete with the big boys.
8.5/10

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Goliath.
Yet another B&M hyper. What's that, five now? Well... six if you count Fury. Six! There's only two in the whole of Europe ffs but here in Murica you can rack up six in one trip. Love this country! You'd think you'd get bored of 'em by now but nope, Goliath is another good one. What's interesting to me is how different it was to Intimidator which we had ridden the day before at Carowinds. While Intimidator is glassy smooth, refined and filled with lots of lovely floater, Goliath felt more aggressive, a bit rough around the edges, more 'primal'. The result being a more intense ride with powerful positives and stronger, borderline ejector airtime (airtime that was strong enough to remove both crocs off some guy's feet a couple of rows in front of us and send them sailing over our heads and into a lake ).
Very good coaster. We had rerides. 8.5/10

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The other B&M in those pictures is the parks stand-up coaster, Georgia Scorcher. S'alright. We rode one of these at Carowinds yesterday too. This one is much better - Vortex was really quite bad - but Georgia Scorcher is... well, let's call it 'tolerable'. That's all I have to say about that.

Superman: Ultimate Flight was a surprise hit on the day though. Didn't see that coming. Have ridden the other two examples of this coaster so wasn't expecting great things. I mean, they're clones, right? Yeah but the difference is, the ones at Great Adventure and Great America are just kinda plonked on a flat, featureless field whereas here, the ride is kinda built on the side of a hill, it has terrain, it has trees and due to the hillside sloping away from you at one end of the layout it gives you a much greater sensation of height - it really feels as though you're soaring up into the sky and back down towards the ground again, much more so than its siblings. Some great near misses too. Might be my favourite coaster at the park to be honest with you. Really enjoyed it. 9/10

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Blue Hawk is alright. Looks quite impressive looming over the water like that and for the most part it rides ok too. Couple of minor jolts here and there but nothing to get in a tizz about. All in all, not bad for an old Arrow looper. 6.5/10

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There's another old white woodie too, The Great American Scream Machine. Crap name, but it's an ok coaster. Not particularly good, not particularly bad, just... there. It's quite big, so would have made for a far more spectacular RMC conversion than Cyclone, but it still rides quite smoothly so I'm guessing that Cyclone was just in more desperate need of an upgrade. Still, mustn't grumble. +1.

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Let's see, what else was there? Oh yes, there was an old Schwarzkopf which was alright, mine train, couple of family creds, nothing much of note really.

Howeverrrr... this park does have it's own standout, must-do attraction. It's not a cred, but it does deserve a mention: Monster Mansion, the park's old, indoor boaty dark ride. It's brilliant! We all loved it, and went straight round for another go. Apparently it's a relic from the days before this was a Six Flags park and any attempts to remove or change it have been met with fierce resistance from fans and locals alike, and rightly so. Funny, charming, scary in places and an absolute joy. All of us agreed- it's on a par with a Disney ride. If you come here, don't miss it.

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Tom and Harry liked it so much, they even bought matching T-shirts.
Dicks!

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So that about wraps things up at Six Flags Over Georgia. Shame about the spites, but it was still an enjoyable day.

But the day wasn't over yet.
20 minutes down the road from Six Flags Over Georgia is a little place called Fun Spot Atlanta... you may have heard of it.

To be continued...

Whisky drunk thinking about coasters and your comparison of ArieForce One to Wildcat's Revenge and Twisted Timbers... Not me!

They're all great but am curious what tops your list.

 

[Howie]

Arieforce One.
So good it deserves it's own post.
It is, for want of a better description, a perfect rollercoaster. A flawless sequence of maneuvers, every single element hits, and hits hard. The pacing of this ride is simply breathtaking. And when I say pacing, I don't just mean that it runs faster than anything else - I can think of a few rides where the sheer speed and aggression is more intense than Arie (Iron Gwazi and Zadra, for example) - what I'm talking about here is the exquisite timing and duration of each moment, the variety of forces and how each element is designed to perfectly compliment the one before it and the one that comes next, like a finely crafted piece of music or a Michelin starred dining experience. There is no dead space whatsoever, no wasted track, no awkward transitions, the whole ride just flows so beautifully from one killer element to the next.
We'll talk about theming, aesthetics, presentation etc.. in a moment but from a purely mechanical perspective, as in the delivery of exhilarating forces and sensations upon the human body, ArieForce One is... perfect.





Howeverrrrr.... there's a problem. And it's a very weird problem to have. As Noel Gallagher once said: "True perfection has to be imperfect.
I know that that sounds foolish but it's true".
And it's true here. In achieving perfection, ArieForce One brings with it a certain degree of... what's the word? Not predictability but something similar. Perhaps familiarity is a better word. There are no surprises here. It rides exactly as you would expect it to. You've seen the elements, you've read the reviews and you know the layout. Even if you've been avoiding POV's and stuff, you can still see the entire coaster from pretty much anywhere in the park, every element neatly layed out in a very linear, logical, natural fashion, like a greatest hits of RMC's signature moves - Drop, truss dive, stall, outerbank, double up, arcade roll and so on, and so forth. It's all a wee bit 'methodical'.
Compare that to, say, the jumbled mass of track and timber on Wildcat's Revenge, twisting it's way through, under and over it's own structure. Or the balls-to-the-wall insanity of Steel Vengeance' final lap.
My point is, where's the chaos? Where's the random unpredictability? Where's the wild, unhinged recklessness that we've come to know and love from RMC?
Alan Schilke himself said something similar in an interview once: when you're designing a ride from scratch, you tend to stick to the rules, you follow a formula, you just string a series of elements together in an order that you know works. However, when retro-fitting an old ride, one that has pre-existing structure, footprint, height and space limitations etc... it kinda forces you to be more creative, to maybe take a few more risks, to try something new. That's what ArieForce One lacks in my opinion - something new, some wacky new maneuver that we've never seen before, that out-of-control sensation that delivers unexpected shots of airtime in places that shouldn't have airtime, random direction changes that catch you completely off guard - all that good stuff. ArieForce One has none of that. It might be 'perfect', but it's altogether too 'polished' to be my favourite, or even second favourite RMC. SteVe and Wildcat's Revenge just edge it out in my opinion. It is, however, battling it out with Iron Gwazi for the number 3 spot.



It's a 10/10 ride for sure, 3rd best of whole trip and will very probably nab an overall Top 10 placement come the end of the season, but for me it narrowly misses out on 'God-tier' status due to its somewhat textbook layout design.

Now then, let's talk about location and presentation: ArieForce One is in... excuse me... Fun Spot Atlanta?
Just saying that sentence out loud feels wrong. What a bonkers place to have a state of the art, multi million pound RMC. It's a pokey little place that barely qualifies as a carnival. Couple of go-kart tracks, one or two flat rides, a hook-a-duck stand and that's about your lot. Oh, and there's a monster truck with arms.



The other two creds here are  Hurricane, which might just be the worst coaster in the history of the world;



And Sea Serpent, a kiddy cred of shame that seems to be propped up on pallets;





Like... what is ArieForce One even doing here? How is it possible? This is, like, the equivalent of Brean Leisure Park buying a B&M giga. Or Knightley's buying an Xtreme spinner. It just doesn't stack up somehow.
Now then, this bizarre location affects Arie's ride experience in two very noticeable ways, one bad, one good. The bad one is that there are no theatrics to this coaster, there's no atmosphere, little to no theming, no station music, no build up whatsoever. You literally just park your car, buy a wristband, walk up to Arie and get on it. An immersive, captivating thematic experience this is not.
The flip side to this, of course, is that you can marathon the sh*t out of this thing for hours on end. It was pretty much a walk-on for the entire time we were there and from what I hear, it's like this most days. That meant lap, after lap, after lap, basically just swapping and comparing seats. At the end of every evening you can almost guarantee that the only people left in the park will be an assortment of goons from all over the world just lapping ArieForce over and over again, having a laugh, arguing over which RMC is bestest, making new friends. On this occasion there was a ride op from Iowa who we'd seen earlier that day on Twisted Cyclone. There was a French enthusiast with a Youtube channel. There were also 2 ride ops from Kings Island and a couple of representatives of Coaster Queens and everyone was throwing around some great banter. It's an ERT session in all but name.
I'm not sure how many rides I had but it was well into double figures, other members of the group had a lot more. There was one guy there who notched up an incredible 58 laps in one afternoon!

Seriously, marathoning this fabulous ride for 2 hours straight as a beautiful sky went from sunset to twilight to dusk to full blown night rides was one of the finest and most memorable experiences of my goonhood. Nights like this are what this hobby was invented for.
Exquisite.



Love these guys!



Sorry for waffling on for so long, but thanks for reading.

 

[TPoseOnTantrum]

Uhhh in the last five days I’ve picked up a solid handful of nobody coasters in New York State, let’s just boil it down to… Zyklons

Galaxi @ Sylvan Beach - #125
This thing runs well enough but is very very loud, park was a ghost town but we brought enough people to fill the train for dispatch. I was also suffering an upset stomach and hangover after some bad food and too much wine the previous night, and of course they stuck me on the Roll O Plane and Rock O Plane right after the coaster. Lord knows how I got through that one…


Super Cyclone (Red) @ Wade Shows, NY State Fair (#128)
This thing was tracking well and cranking out trains, ate crowds as a result. Very good by American fair coaster standards. Think I caught it right on time because it was apparently down for a couple days right after my visit. NY State Fair was huge btw, we committed a crime not scheduling a full day to explore.


Serpent @ Niagara Amusement Park (#130)
Ok so Serpent has been set up for two years now but only just opened finally on Tuesday with one car in commission. The park closes for the season in just four days, I rode today as of the day of writing. Had a free voucher, swung across the border after work for 90 min. Station has no working mechanics and car must be pushed from unload to load, very far apart. Brakes on the other hand work too well and stop the car a metre away from the sole somewhat functional drive tire. Ride ops get a workout moving everything. Coaster however runs butter smooth and is extremely quiet; Silver Comet (woodie) also runs really well. Park is the definition of having no resources and operating on a maintenance budget of $2, this was made possible through pure willpower alone.

 

[Ollie]

#208 - Antelope - Gulliver's World Warrington
Will only do a quick review for this coaster as the other two in the park are just smaller cloned coasters (Big Apple etc).
Opened in 1995, Antelope is a wooden coaster designed by Allott and Lomax and designed in house. It's a classic out and back layout with several drops and little pops of airtime. It has a reputation for being quite rough and horrible to ride, even compared to other wooden coasters in the UK that are a lot older. I agree that its in desperate need of a retrack as the whole ride is quite rattly. It wasn't as rough or as painful as I expected but it definitely is very jolty with the trains forwards and back motion as it navigates the hills. Although the seats are nice and padded and quite comfy the back of the seat repeatedly slaps you in the back and the position of the grab bars makes it difficult to brace against the rides motion.
That being said, despite its roughness it does have a fun layout with some nice bits of airtime despite the coaster not being that tall. The stretch of track at the back of the layout looks lovely as it passes between rows of trees. The operations are awful (as are all the other rides at the park) with just a single train that seats 16 riders with 4 of those dedicated to the Access queue, meaning you're only getting 12 riders from the main queue every few minutes. Change over in the station is painfully slow as well as they wait for all the previous riders to exit the station before allowing the next group on. No airgates means everyone's fighting for seats once they open the gate and the double up on seatbelts and lap bars means it takes a while before they finally dispatch the train.

Link to full trip report of the whole park.

 

[Matt N]

As I’m currently waiting to set off on my next theme park adventure, I think now might be a good time to post reviews from my trip to Drayton Manor on Thursday!

New coasters
Gold Rush (#124)
I had quite low expectations for Gold Rush, but I was very pleasantly surprised; I thought it was an excellent family coaster! The ride is very dynamic and has some fun twists and turns, and it is surprisingly vigorous in places, particularly during the backwards sections! It’s also very smooth and quite long, and overall, I just found it very enjoyable! In terms of the multi-cycle feature, I found it a fun novelty, but I’m unsure which cycle I preferred; the backwards section after dropping down the lift was quite good on Cycle 2, but I thought launching out of the effects shed was better when done backwards on Cycle 1.
8/10, #29/124

Existing coasters
The Wave
Perhaps controversially, I’ve long felt that Shockwave would be improved by putting sit-down trains on it. Having now ridden The Wave, I think sit-down trains have improved it somewhat, but they aren’t the game changer I’d perhaps hoped they might be. On the positive side, the trains are generally comfortable, and the sit-down trains do help you better appreciate some of the ride’s better moments; some of the inversions pack decent forces. However, I think the ride still has its notable flaws. Although you feel it less without OTSRs, the ride is still a bit rough in places, and it doesn’t have the most interesting of layouts. I also occasionally found the restraints to tighten quite noticeably during the ride at times. Nonetheless, I think it’s still an improvement, and it fits the park’s new demographic a lot better.
6/10, #58/124

Jormungandr
Jormungandr is an OK powered coaster, with some fun moments of mild speed. However, it’s definitely showing its age. The ride seems to really struggle up any kind of incline, and it is also quite rough when it speeds up. It also made some rather concerning creaking noises as it re-entered the station…
3/10, #94/124

 

[Howie]

As I’m currently waiting to set off on my next theme park adventure

Is this the much-touted PortAventura trip? Exciting times, I hope everything goes well for you. Be interesting to see how Shambhala compares to Mako and Silver Star. Fingers crossed it's running at it's best.

 

[Matt N]

Is this the much-touted PortAventura trip? Exciting times, I hope everything goes well for you. Be interesting to see how Shambhala compares to Mako and Silver Star. Fingers crossed it's running at it's best.

Yes; we’re currently in Barcelona Airport waiting for our transfer to PortAventura itself!

 

[vaugc002]

I got some of the newer creds at Energylandia last week and I'll spare you my thoughts except for the weird experience of:

Abyssus
Got a front row. It was walk-on, mid-week in early September. Scorching hot.

The first launch was more powerful than I expected and actually banged my head into the headrest. The first section was really quite fun, swoopy and some nice airtime moments. The second half was long and drawn-out, with graceful inversions but nothing too exciting. It just didn't really hit.

The weird bit came after... I felt very sick after this one. I do get affected by coasters if there are short queues and I do a lot but this was the second ride of the day!
It actually ruined me for the rest of the day, so I had to pace myself and do filler rides between the coasters lmao. Thankfully I'd been before.
So quite fun but weirdly nauseating. 6/10