Re: New epic DC dark ride for Australia
So, Justice Leauge: Alien Invasion 3D has opened. I've managed to get on this, still having the odd glitch, but it's a great ride!
Really high quality theming and animatronics, and the mixture of real targets and 3D game screens is really cool. This is the theming in the Load Area, and the same standard continues through the ride. No cardboard cutouts or blacklight theming along the course, it's all realistic 3d facades...The city scenes kinda reminded me of the ones in MiB or Spidey
http://www.parkz.com.au/photo_update/ge ... G_3913.jpg
Spoilers:
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So you enter into the hall of justice, really glossy and marbled. A few portable generators with satelite poles and TV screens, as well as some safety barricades have been set up inside, playing news broadcasts that Starro Spores (Starfish looking aliens that attach to your face and take control of your mind) are swarming down to earth and infecting cities throughout the earth. Uninfected citizens are advised to go to their nearest Justice League embassy for shelter.
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From the hall of justice you move into a lab area, but first you pass through a scanner which scans you for infection: "Robot lady voice: scan complete, no infection detected". Theres also a camera and a big projector screen which shows something like a heat scan of the people queueing as they pass through the scanner.
The queue leads to the load area, where batman is communicating on a giant screen from the Justice League watchtower space station. He explains the starro spores can be destroyed by a laser blast, and that he has created vehicles for citzens to patrol the streets and destroy starro spores. Your vehicle has a counter for the number of starroes destroyed, which is beamed straight back to Batman (In other words, each car has an LED score display)
In this area is a really cool Cyborg animatronic, he uses his laser arm on a tank of trapped starro spores to demonstrate how to destroy them. Overall, the queue and load area is really cool, impressive scale and really feels like a a superhero hideout.
So you grab some 3d glasses from the racks, board the vehicles, go through some doors and into the city. The first scene is like an alleyway, with animatronic people hiding in windows and dumpsters with starro spores stuck to their face. Also , there are starro spores stuck to the walls etc, and you pass under an elevated subway rail line. This is a common theme throughout the ride, and there are over 100 starro spores to shoot at.
You make a turn, and face the first 3d screen, there are a number of infected citizens, who attempt to hurl starro spores at you...really good use of 3d here and kinda feels like shooting clay pigeons. You can also shoot at the faces of the infected citzens to free them.
After another section of alleyway you reach a city street. Lots of infected human animatronics sitting on benches and shop windows. Some notable ones included a tourist with a camera and a hawaiian shirt sitting on a bench, a traffic controller, a pizza boy.
Around the next turn is the next 3d screen. Wonderwoman has lassoed a bunch of infected humans, they wriggle a bit, but they are an easy target to shoot at their faces to detach the starro spores.
After another turn you pass a huge section of wall covered with starro spores. It's groaning under the weight of them, and colapses towards you, but an animatronic supergirl reaches up and holds it, allowing you to pass by without getting squished.
Another turn leads you down another street, past a multideck carpark ('Parking garage' for the Americans on here) and towards the next screen. Starro spores are swarming down, so the Flash runs around in circles really fast, making a tornado that sucks up the starroes, and flings them out towards you so you can zap them.
Another turn has you heading towards Starro the Conquerors mothership:
Starro the conqueror is the big boss...this guy:
So, you enter onto a Tollway/Turnpike, the tollbooth attendant has a starro spore stuck to his face. The boomgate rises, and you pass a funny electronic sign which first says "Caution: Heavy traffic ahead" and then goes haywire and then the message changes to say "JOIN STARRO!"
You pass under a big
The mothership has landed in the middle of the freeway, crushing a car under the landing gear. Under the other leg the attention to detail is really cool, the road surface is all buckled and ripped up.
Green lantern appears on a 3d screen to the side under the mothership, and he uses his power ring to blast open the spaceship doors so you can get inside and really take them on.
Inside the spaceship you pass some starro spore breeding tanks (but for some reason it doesn't seem to be a live target) you round another corner and face another 3d screen....Superman is attacking green lantern because he has starro stuck to his face. You shoot to free superman, and once he is free he starts attacking the starro spores floating around him (which you can also shoot at)
The track twists and turns a few times, past some walls with starro spores stuck to them.
You reach the grand finale scene, another 3d screen, where superman and Starro the conqueror are battling it out. Here you basically just shoot at the conqueror as many times as you can.
By this point the mothership is unstable, you turn and travel down a hallway to escape, just as you get out the doors there are some bright yellow flashing lights from behind you, a deep bass rumble, and you feel hot air as the ship explodes behind you.
You emerge back onto the streets. The ride photo camera is hidden inside a cracked traffic light..Clever. The final 3D screens has the members of the justice league gathered around, who congratulate you on defeating the starroes.
You make a turn, go through some doors and unload. As you head out the exit ramp you see your ride photo, but at this point they weren't displaying scores from the ride.
Overall, a really solid attraction that seems quite popular (full queue area!) and a high standard of theming throughout with no "gaps" or anything that looks or feels cheap.
