What's new

Coasters you can't believe people love

Snoo

The Legend
We all have had a few of those "really guy?" moments when discussing coasters in the Top 10 threads or across the forums. What are a few of those coasters for you?

Millennium Force and SkyRush are my top 2 offenders. I used to love MF to death way back when before I had been outside of Ohio. Once my tastes for harder airtime began to develop and the awesome drop doesn't wow me like it used to, it dropped steadily as one of my favorites.

SkyRush is also one of those, but I wasn't a HUGE fan to begin with. While it is a good ride, definitely not better than others even though it does have hard airtime as I so adore. Of course, we had this big discussion on the Live a few years back and I was on the outside looking in, which sort of prompted this thought. :)
 

steel

Mega Poster
I'm sure this thread is gonna be mostly people ragging on Millennium Force, which is fine, to each their own, but I will love every inch of that coaster until the day I die.

For me this award goes to Talon, which I think I must have ridden on a bad day because it was so rough, badly paced, and over-forceful, I could hardly believe what had just happened to me. Some of this may be because it SEEMS very similar to Patriot, but Patriot is nearly perfect for what it is and Talon is at best about as good as it looks. I also have only ridden Talon a couple times, like 8-9 years ago, so who knows.

Voyage disappointed me my first couple times because it was soooooo hyped up and I think I just sat in a bad spot on the train because it was extremely rough. I do still think it's about 10% too long, but it grew on me fast and it's definitely still in my top 10.

I305 is one of those coasters that I recognize is a great ride, but it's just not really my taste. I love the speed, but I find the harnesses too restricting and I've never really liked positive g-heavy coasters.

I tend to not dislike very many roller coasters, unless they are legitimately painful (Kings Dominion Shockwave, Canada's Wonderland Flight Deck) or legitimately a waste of space (Adventureland Underground).

The opposite of this would be Outlaw Run, which exceeded every expectation I have ever had for any roller coaster x10.
 

nadroJ

CF Legend
i305 all day. I seriously don't get how anybody even endured those forces, let alone enjoy them!
 

owentaylor121

Giga Poster
Oblivion, I can see how it was good at the time but honestly it's like a drop tower it's that short, I've never found the theming very impressive, the back story is great though. And now it hardly hangs you over the drop, good first time ride but over before it's begun.
 

CookieCoasters

Giga Poster
^ I agree. Its a fun ride and I will always ride it when I go to Alton, but the newer dive machines are definitely superior.

Kingda Ka and Furius Baco definitely fit the bill most for me. They are disgustingly rough, utterly unpleasant and just overall terrible experiences. I can never understand how anyone could even think they're are decent, let alone love them. I love Intamin, but their 'pushing the limit' philosophy has totally backfired on them with these two rides.

To a much lesser extent, Skyrush. It's good ride and very addictive, but I don't understand why so many think of it as top ten worthy. It's also got a definite rattle, which can be uncomfortable (although nowhere near as bad as the coasters above) and the restraints aren't exactly, forgiving. I'd say the same with Bizarro at SFNE, although that is more of a lack of airtime issue and being a bit sluggish.

There the main ones which come to mind, but I'm sure I'll be able to think of more.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
I never quite get why people love The Smiler.

The thing is, I absolutely love the brand and the idea behind the theme, and the screens on the Marmaliser are brilliant. The whole thing looks very impressive too. But the actual coaster is very repetitive; the majority of the inversions feel very samey to me. And the last 4 inversions are just very uncomfortable / verging on painful. I really dread to think what it will be like in a few years time...
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
I agree on Oblivion and Smiler. Oblivion's drop is a lot of fun, but it isn't amazing. Even if the drop was amazing, I don't think it would be enough to bring into a Top Ten.

And yeah, Smiler has too much rattling and unpleasant forces, along with its tight restraints. Ughh
 

TilenB

Strata Poster
My both candidates would be the English ones. Grand National was stupidly rough the day I rode it and I still rank it as the worst coaster I've ridden to date. The experience was 'fun' until the bottom of the first drop and then it got worse and worse till it came to be just unbearable. And the thing still wasn't finished. It then left me with a backache for the remainder of the day. I kind of understand that the good days exist as well, but I simply can't understand people still liking a ride even when they had an experience similar to mine.
My second contender for the 'prize' would be Oblivion. I find the drop to be rather good but that's all that ride offers. Drop, tunnel, turn and brakes. What exactly is there to rave about? In my opinion a regular drop tower packs more...
Notable mentions in that category include Eurosat and Superman: Escape from Krypton.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
I am probably a big offender on liking coasters others may think are overrated (Maverick, MF, Skyrush, X2)

A few I have a hard time buying into:

1. New Texas Giant - A pinnacle roller coaster that revolutionized the industry and introduced RMC to the world, granted. However, as an actual roller coaster I found the pacing to be rather conservative, and very reserved compared to other RMC coasters. Yes, it was the first, but its layout is not nearly as aggressive as Iron Rattler, Outlaw Run, Steel Medusa, or Goliath.

2. Six Flags Batman Inverts - Yes these have great pops of forces, but are shorter in every sense of the word (length, height, speed, inversion count) than other B&M inverts. While they arguably led the pack in the 90s, I cannot support the argument that these layouts are still a crowning jewel in Six Flags park lineups.

3. Patriot - Echoing steel, but in a reverse way, I fail to see how Patriot can be considered the best of the Cedar Fair inverts (at least until Banshee showed up on the scene last year). It is a good inverted roller coaster, much better than Six Flags' Batmans both for layout and operations, but I still see it as equal to Raptor/Talon, and fail to find what makes it definitively better than its sister coasters.
 

Casio

Mega Poster
Phoenix at Knoebels: The only real airtime coasters I'd done before this were Balder and Goliath at Walibi, and since I loved them both I was fully expecting Phoenix to go to my Number 1 spot based on what I'd heard. I did really enjoy it, but I didn't find any of the airtime particularly strong. It's floaty and fun, and still Top 10 worthy for me, but nothing breath taking.

Helix: This ride does so many things, and rightly everyone was so excited about it, but in my opinion none of its major aspects are exceptional. The launches are weak compared to accelerators (even Kanonen's), that's just how magnetic launches are. I appreciate the launches aren't the point of the ride, but that doesn't stop them from being weak. The inversions are not particularly forceful, maybe except the Norwegian Loop, but they're not a patch on the B&M multiloopers. The airtime looks and feels (as in you lift from your seat) like it should be intense, but I got almost zero kick in my stomach. Its strong points are the use of terrain, the smoothness and the delicious s-bends at the end, and I do still rank it at Number 11. It was a great idea; exactly the kind of thing the industry needs, but I don't think it was executed very well.
 

Mike

Giga Poster
Not so much from an enthusiast point of view, as there are only a handful of people who love it, but I seem to find a lot of the general public love Saw at Thorpe Park... It's just so bleh, with it's awkwardly bulky restraints that cut into your arms and legs, and it's headache-inducing roughness.

Tatsu also fits on this list; I just found it to be too forceful, and almost sickly.
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
^^ About Helix, I actually love how most inversions are floaty rather than overly forceful. The norwegian loop has just the right amount of force to it in my opinion. Also, it's interesting that you mention the S-turns at the end as a positive, as I found it the weakest part of the ride. It did nothing whatsoever to me.

As for this topic, I don't really have any coaster that I can't see why people love it, but I find Balder rather overpraised. It does what it has to do, it delivers airtime. But it does it in the simplest of ways. Such a controlled and predictable layout, extremely short pops of airtime and no personality to it whatsoever. I enjoyed the ride a lot, but it's not a world class ride in my opinion. If the other pre-fabs are anything like it, I'm not expecting them to end up high in my top 10 list.
 

njn63

Mega Poster
Maverick - Too high of a level of ejector and twisting turns. I get that people that have ridden 500+ coasters probably treasure that as it stands out but I'm just not a fan.

Makes sense though as my top coaster is still Millennium Force and a lot of people will disagree with that. cool)
 

Homer

Hyper Poster
ITT:
kumpzbM.png


My nominations out of rides I've ridden.

Raging Bull at SFGAm, granted it's one of B&M's first attempt at a hyper, it just felt like a big pile of meh. Not much air, boring layout. It felt like another notch in SFGAm's belt and it's overrated.

Gwazi. Okay, we all hated it and I am glad it's closed forever. But I had an ex that loved it despite it being Gwazi. And this is probably a reason why it didn't work out.

Intamin impulse coasters. They're pretty boring and their appeal isn't lasting. Oh look, you're launched fast and shuttle up and down like 2 times. Once you've ridden Wicked Twister, you've ridden them all (sans V2 at SFDK, but I'll reserve that for when I ride it).
 

TommyAlex

Mega Poster
TilenB said:
My both candidates would be the English ones. Grand National was stupidly rough the day I rode it and I still rank it as the worst coaster I've ridden to date. The experience was 'fun' until the bottom of the first drop and then it got worse and worse till it came to be just unbearable. And the thing still wasn't finished. It then left me with a backache for the remainder of the day. I kind of understand that the good days exist as well, but I simply can't understand people still liking a ride even when they had an experience similar to mine.
My second contender for the 'prize' would be Oblivion. I find the drop to be rather good but that's all that ride offers. Drop, tunnel, turn and brakes. What exactly is there to rave about? In my opinion a regular drop tower packs more...
Notable mentions in that category include Eurosat and Superman: Escape from Krypton.

Grand National :shock: it's a good ride if you pick the right seat on the right train. I find that the roughest part is the first drop, after that it's a bit rough but not too rough.
 

Dar

Hyper Poster
Big One at Blackpool, it's just a quick way to see the prom with no real forces. I mean, I'll ride it and it's fun being that high off the ground but it's so badly designed it's incredible!
 

ignace

Mega Poster
Abismo. Most people seem to enjoy this nightmare machine.

Also Black Mamba. Forceless, boring, overall just okay but the least enjoyable B&M inverted I've ridden (all in Europe except for Katun).

There are tons of Coasters I dislike, but these two stick out and are well-appreciated.
 

JJLehto

Hyper Poster
As the resident MForce defender, I am glad this is not purely a "lol Millennium Force" thread!

I liked Maverick tons, but would say it may be a tad overrated, the near pause kind of kills the flow for me, and the layout always felt a bit odd to me. I really love the layout of iSpeed and think that one is better, though not having ridden I can't judge the ride.


Perhaps I just will never get over the feelings of let down when the ride was closed when I went thanks to barrel roll issues, or my second attempt my friends just wussed out and didn't wanna wait anymore lol


I don't know if this is loved but I found Alpengeist very meh. Got to ride it like 10 times and while it was fine, it was almost too big and forceless for me, just felt like it didn't "do much"
 

JJLehto

Hyper Poster
Casio said:
Phoenix at Knoebels: The only real airtime coasters I'd done before this were Balder and Goliath at Walibi, and since I loved them both I was fully expecting Phoenix to go to my Number 1 spot based on what I'd heard. I did really enjoy it, but I didn't find any of the airtime particularly strong. It's floaty and fun, and still Top 10 worthy for me, but nothing breath taking.

That is surprising. Bad day possibly? I know wood can be temperamental, my ride on Boulder Dash, while fast and fun, left me a bit underwhelmed in the airtime department but I hear that wasn't a good day for it.
My ride on Phoenix was almost painful if I kept my arms up, as my legs were being hurled into the lap bars.
 
Top