What's new

Rhein Airtime (Germany Live) Trip reports!

Lain I agree Black Mamba has the on 0 G roll that does what its meant to. Was a great coaster and a shock tbh.
 
Well I have finally decided on which I prefer, or should I say what I think is better in terms of that whole Nemesis/Mamba debate.

Personally, Mamba just about edges it. Which is ironic because of the fact Mamba is probably closer to the usual inverted coaster layout: IE Drop, loop, Zero G...
Yet, even though Mamba is more like that generic BnM style, it does it with such a panache and grace that out ranks Nemesis. Nemesis is brilliantly unique, but Mamba is even more so. The theming by comparison is much better on Mamba. Everything about it, from the lifthill to the very end. Leg choppers, rocks etc etc. It is like they took what they learned from Nemesis and developed it and pushed it more to become an even more emmersive experience and it pays off.

I still love Nemesis, and it will probably still sit in my top 10 for a long while to come, but it has dropped a place to make way for Black Mamba.
 
I'm amazed at the difference opinion on Mamba between the people on this trip and the trip with TPR I was just on. With TPR people generally thought Black Mamba was really tame and really just a front seat ride.

For me my rides in any row but the front were very comparable to Nemesis Inferno. A good ride but not even in the same league as Nemesis.

I'd just say horses for courses and all that but it's just weird that the majority opinion of each group seems to be incredibly different from the other.
 
Oddly Divv, a few of the same group did the Liseberg trip last year, and we all pretty much thought Balder was mediocre, and Thundercoaster much better. Perhaps there's a degree of build up and group psychology - or more likely - perhaps it's just that the rides can be massively different throughout the year?
 
Maybe the rain made it better for us I dont know did you ride it 1st thing in the morning during ert or anything like that.

We rode Black Mamba early in the day and last thing in the evening, the evening ride was the one that stood out for me.

As Furie said when we rode Balder in the morning I thought it was not that good but late at night I though it was very good.
 
I would never have said it was lame...

Even if it wasn't any match for Nemesis, it was certainly a very well themed and intense coaster. The front was awesome for the perspective and so on, the back awesome for being yanked round the corners and so on.

(May I add, Balder, is one of the inconsistencies tbh. In the morning it was mediocre but by the afternoon/evening it rocked beyond rocking!)
 
In the case of Balder I'm pretty sure it was due to when each group rode but with Black Mamba we rode on June 30th so the experience shouldn't have been that different.

Only thing I can think is that CF had rain whereas we didn't.

Group psychology maybe goes a long way towards it. For instance Winjas was by far the favourite ride of the majority of the TPR group in Phantasialand whereas with CF it seems like it was a bit of an afterthought.

I'm not saying anyone's wrong or right I'm just intrigued as to how an "overall group opinion" varies so hugely when the park visits were only weeks apart.
 
Winjas,

The first time I rode it three years ago I was suitably impressed. Nice feel to it etc. To be honest this time round I wasn't that fussed. Because the trick track etc was no longer a surprise the rest of the coaster just didn't give enough to compensate the re-ridability of it.
 
Winjas looks good etc but been on them once and am in no rush to go on them again where as Black Mamba I would go on it tomorrow if I could.

For me people spoke so highly of Silver Star about how good it was etc and I thought it was rubbish hardly worth a re ride.

I still prefer Nemesis though.
 
I'm wondering if once I've ridden more inverts, I'll go back to Nemesis?

Cuz like Mark said, Mamba is closer to the norm. Because of our location and having been brought up on Nemesis, are we just enjoying something different in reverse...? I thought it was by far the best coaster on the trip. It was great.

I loved Winjas. The trick track makes the ride and I'm not sure it would make a re-rideable coaster, but I thought they rocked something awesome.

Silver Star was complete trash. Worst B&M I've been on. I'm not even sure I appreciate the ride type, because those restraints were kind of lame. If I'm gonna have a lapbar which gives me that much freedom, I want to be thrown about like crazy!

EGF... Ya know, I dunno if I'm just missing what is so great about ejector airtime, or It sucked the day we rode it, or... I'm just weird. But to me, It was just fun, it wasn't jaw droppingly awesome. The first drop made the ride for me, not the airtime.
 
EGF: I think the day we rode it, was certainly not quite at it's best. It didn't quite give the airtime that it did three years ago, which I can only really put down to the weather, being generally rainy and not as warm.

The first drop is awesome most definately, but from past experience the speed and airtime that it pocesses certainly exceed your initial wow on the drop. In normal circumstances, that is for sure.

The Direction changing airtime hill is normally a point you get thrown through, getting sideways lateral ejector airtime, although even I noted how it felt a little less intense then normal.

Partially, I think you are just weird!
 
Divv said:
I'm amazed at the difference opinion on Mamba between the people on this trip and the trip with TPR I was just on. With TPR people generally thought Black Mamba was really tame and really just a front seat ride.

For me my rides in any row but the front were very comparable to Nemesis Inferno. A good ride but not even in the same league as Nemesis.

I'd just say horses for courses and all that but it's just weird that the majority opinion of each group seems to be incredibly different from the other.
Interesting isn't it.

It's probably a combination of expectation and group psychology, as I very much doubt it ran than differently - I got as much enjoyment out of our morning (pre-rain) ride as I did later on.

It's fair to say the group was bouncing with excitement prior to that first ride, but then we were for Silver Star as well and that sucked!

I wasn't expecting Mamba to whip my fillings out with intensity, as B&M inverts rarely seem to do that, but for me it was an extremely high quality coaster where the theming added so much.

Since everyone with TPR has probably experienced the major US parks, does Mamba contrast badly with its US cousins?

I still prefer Nemmy, but how you can equate it with Inferno I really don't know :p.
 
Well after going on DD, Montu, Batman I must say Black Mamba is better than them but I still feel it just tails off a bit at the end and this is why Nemesis for me is still the best invert.

Alot of people count Montu as the best it just did not do it for me, its just to open.
 
I don't know how anyone can make a clear judgement unless they've ridden both a lot anyway.

But comparatively...

I loved Mamba's first drop. Nemesis doesn't have one. Okay, so most inverts are going to start more like Mamba, which is why I mentioned that maybe if I had more to my name things would be different? You don't ride a new coaster and slip it into your top ten comfortably, it should completely reshuffle your list because you've learnt something new. Having an unusual ride as your first of that type can't ever be a good thing. You don't really know what to expect from future rides of it's type or what it's doing well or not so well. Similarly, when I first rode Inferno, I preferred it for a short while. Will it be the same with Mamba?

The most important thing for me, though. Is that if you ride Nemesis at the start of the day, it sucks and if you ride it at the front, it's utterly force-less and dull. We rode Mamba, front row, at the start of the day... and it was amazing!

Then there is the zero-g problem. Until Mamba I could only guess what a zero-g should feel like. Inferno's is a lateral mess and Nemesis' produces negatives. This element is supposed to be what makes an invert and it sucks on the highest rated invert in the world?

I loved the little immelman. I couldn't help but think that Nemesis stall turn would be so much better if it did that. I really felt like Mamba was literally changing it's mind about which way it wanted to go last minute, which is how a tiny relentless coaster in a pit like Nemesis should feel.

I hate Corkscrews. Fly overs, whatever they call them. Mamba's were just as dull and boring as every other Corkscrew. Nemesis wins here, because it's are in interesting places. Simple as. You come off that non-existent first drop and power through that corkscrew and it's brilliantly weird. It's taken a crappy element and made it amazing.

I thought Mamba's last turns were gunna suck... but at least one of them was really... swoosh...y? It was like a bobsled. I know that sounds weird, but you felt the need to move your whole body with the directional change?

Speaking of bobsleighs, Europa's did an' half suck. Blackpool's is so superior.
 
The TPR group had a very broad range of coaster experience. Sure there were a few who loved Mamba but for the most part everyone was kinda saying "why bother with Mamba when Winjas is here?".

But don't get me wrong. I did really like Black Mamba. It looks beautiful as does the rest of Phantasialand. Which was incidentally my favourite park of the trip. Although I do feel that it would have still have been my favourite park even if Mamba wasn't there.

Not wanting to speak for the rest of the group I was with any more than I already have here's how I rank the B&M inverts I've rode:

1. Nemesis
2. Batman
3. Raptor
4. Nemesis Inferno
5. Black Mamba
6. Alpengeist

All good rides but Nemesis is special. I think with the more parks I visit and more coasters I ride I realise that more and more.

Oh and pretty much all of TPR thought Silver Star sucked!
 
At least we all agree on Silver Star lol.

I just find the whole build up on Nemesis better, it builds up to the loop rather than just drop and loop.

The 0 G roll on Black Mamba is great though as we have all said it works unlike on other coasters.
 
Top