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Most Overrated Coasters You've Been On?

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
First off, I feel like I've answered this before??? Oh well, here we go... Bear in mind most of these are purely 'disappointment' coasters, as in coasters that did NOT live up to the hype. Either hype generated by others, or even hype generated by my own stupid brain.

First is Helix. Obviously it's a GREAT coaster, incredible even. But when I first went to ride this, Taron was my number 1, and I went on the back of a wave of enthusiasm that was, in hindsight, excessive. Goons everywhere were declaring this is 'infinitely' better than Taron. So I went in expecting it to beat, or at least come close to, Taron. It didn't. It was actually quite deflating at first. Thankfully, Balder really surprised me in a good way, and cheered me up straight away, then later dark rides on Helix made it a little better, still not close to Taron, but excellent none the less.

Second is Abyssus... This is my own fault, watching it being built, and riding the 'other' new vekoma down the road, I'd expected this to be insanely better than it eventually turned out to be. My first ride was so deflating. Later rides have improved my opinion of it no end, but it still sits as my second biggest disappointment, purely compared to what I'd hoped, no, expected it could be.

Honourable mentions for Silver Star, Blue Fire and, Baron here too.

As far as the UK is concerned, as much as I love Wicker Man, it's a bit disappointing. I only truly enjoy it under the perfect conditions, night rides in the back, and for the first UK woodie in an eternity, it's a bit 'flat.' In fact, I feel that way about all GCI coasters except Troy. None of them have really blown me away like Troy did, or Balder. Wodan isn't bad at all, fairly close to Troy, and I'd like to ride it again some time, but yeh, in general, GCI should be rebranded DCI for me...
 

Hixee

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Second is Abyssus... This is my own fault, watching it being built, and riding the 'other' new vekoma down the road, I'd expected this to be insanely better than it eventually turned out to be. My first ride was so deflating. Later rides have improved my opinion of it no end, but it still sits as my second biggest disappointment, purely compared to what I'd hoped, no, expected it could be.
I wondered about including this one, but decided it was in the "disappointing" category, and not "overrated" - mostly because I really hadn't heard much feedback on it before I visited.
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
El Toro - Certainly an intense experience, but roughness and comfort bring it way down for me.

Intimidator 305 - Much better than I was initially expecting, but not Top 10 or 20 material. Big issue is the first turn... I do not enjoy a prolonged grey-out like that. Rest of the layout is great, except for the airtime trim which is a tad disturbing.

Fury 325 - Better than 305 for sure, but a not the god-tier coaster than many make it out to be. Not really offended by much of the layout or what it does, it's just not necessarily my style.
 

Will

Strata Poster
Goliath (Walibi Holland) - It was fun, but much tamer than I ever expected given the hype. I'm sure it felt legendary 20 years ago. The last three airtime hills were nice though.
Yes. Very dull, I don't know why other people don't realise it!!
 

Skyye

Mega Poster
Odd pick, but I'm going to go with Viper at SFGAm. I keep hearing that it is a great wooden coaster, but I don't really understand how. It's airtime is fairly weak, but it still has good lats. Maybe its the lats?
 

Archie

Mega Poster
Odd pick, but I'm going to go with Viper at SFGAm. I keep hearing that it is a great wooden coaster, but I don't really understand how. It's airtime is fairly weak, but it still has good lats. Maybe its the lats?
Lats?
 

Heth

Mega Poster
Silver Star, Europa Park. - I expected a lot from Europe's tallest coaster (at the time I rode it), but in the end I left quite underwhelmed. The car vibrated a lot, the airtime was limited and it felt like the height and speed was wasted. I preferred Blue Fire and Wodan.

Colossos, Heide Park - I rode this 2015, the year before it closed for refurb, which might taint my opinion, but I genuinely don't remember this ride much at all beyond feeling underwhelmed and with a headache.
 

ScottLann

Mega Poster
Icon - I remember all the hype from many enthusiasts who were saying it was their number 1 coaster in the UK - with some great airtime!.... Yeah um...
The launches are weak (which we couldn't have expected anymore with it being a Mack), the few moments of airtime that are there are also pretty weak, not much floater or ejector. Another thing with Icon that kind of bothers me is how ugly the setting is. I get it's meant to be intertwined with all the other coasters and doesn't have a 'theme' as such, but it just looks like it doesn't fit there at all. One good thing I will say about it however is it's a step-up in terms of elements (compared to other UK coasters) - not many other one's have slightly outer-banked hills and inversions with only a lap bar.

Kumba - I honestly really enjoyed this coaster - it's a great 'traditional' coaster I'd say. Has some cool inversions, quite forceful in some areas, but....that's it? I've seen a lot of folks put this coaster above the likes of Mako, Hulk and Montu when I happened to find all of them to be way better coasters. I guess it's just what we all prefer in a coaster but Kumba was a pretty forgettable one for me.
 
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Matt N

CF Legend
Kumba - I honestly really enjoyed it this coaster - it's a great 'traditional' coaster I'd say. Has some cool inversions, quite forceful in some areas, but....that's it? I've seen a lot of folks put this coaster above the likes of Mako, Hulk and Montu when I happened to find all of them to be way more interesting coasters. I guess it's just what we all prefer in a coaster but Kumba was a pretty forgettable one for me.
I’ll admit that I also didn’t like this as much as most seem to, from memory. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it a fair amount, but in spite of most ranking it as their favourite at Busch Gardens and one of their favourites (if not their favourite) in Florida, Kumba didn’t leave an especially strong impression on me; I seem to remember Montu and SheiKra being notably more enjoyable for me. Both those are in my top 10 (Montu at #6 and SheiKra at #7), whereas Kumba is more top 20, from memory. Of the 3 sit-down B&Ms of that style in Florida (Kraken, Hulk, Kumba), I seem to remember it possibly being my least favourite (Hulk might be a touch lower for me, but I’m honestly unsure, to tell you the truth; those two are neck and neck in my rankings, and Kraken certainly usurped them by a fair amount for me).

And I even went in kind of oblivious to the hype it gets, as well; the main coaster I was hyped for at Busch in 2016 was actually SheiKra, after seeing it on a documentary and thinking it looked super cool!

I think BGT in general needs a revisit, however, so maybe it would creep up for me if I were to re-ride it?
 

StevenX

Roller Poster
Icon, Magnum XL-200, Colossos, Kumba, Black Mamba, Millennium Force and Nemesis are all great suggestions that I agree with. Winjas at Phantasialand also, maybe?

Surprised by some of the other suggestions like Helix, Blue Fire, Maverick and Steel Vengeance as they're all fantastic. And I thought people generally had a fairly ambivalent view towards Silver Star so I'm surprised some think it's overrated.

In general, I find most hypers and gigas to be massively overrated - particularly the B&Ms. Millennium Force suffers most from this (not that it's B&M!) but I was seriously underwhelmed by things like Nitro and Leviathan.

VelociCoaster is probably the most recent example of a coaster struggling to live up to the insane levels of hype around it. It is fantastic - but if you're the type to find Steel Vengeance overrated, I imagine you'd feel the same about Velocicoaster.
 

Indy

Hyper Poster
Second is Abyssus... This is my own fault, watching it being built, and riding the 'other' new vekoma down the road, I'd expected this to be insanely better than it eventually turned out to be. My first ride was so deflating. Later rides have improved my opinion of it no end, but it still sits as my second biggest disappointment, purely compared to what I'd hoped, no, expected it could be.

You raise a good point, but I would also say that Abyssus is rated, not overrated. I share your exact thoughts; it was disappointing compared to Lech Coaster. At the same time, I personally haven't heard/seen sterling reviews of Abyssus, so I don't feel that it is overrated. It just didn't meet my hopes and expectations, similar to you. It's a solid ride, no doubt, but it's terribly overshadowed by Zadra, Hyperion, and Lech Coaster.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
You raise a good point, but I would also say that Abyssus is rated, not overrated. I share your exact thoughts; it was disappointing compared to Lech Coaster. At the same time, I personally haven't heard/seen sterling reviews of Abyssus, so I don't feel that it is overrated. It just didn't meet my hopes and expectations, similar to you. It's a solid ride, no doubt, but it's terribly overshadowed by Zadra, Hyperion, and Lech Coaster.
Yeh, you make a good point... We get so many of these threads with slightly different wordings that it's hard to keep up... I was answering it from a 'which coasters disappointed you the most' angle. Of course it was only me, and my expectations, that were 'overrating' this coaster before it had even carried a passenger...
 

TMCoasters

Mega Poster
Here's my top ten for this category. Most of them are still very good, just don't come close to meeting the massive hype

Steel Vengeance
El Toro
Twisted Colossus
Outlaw Run
Mega Lite (HVS)
Balder
Top Thrill Dragster
Orion
Millennium Force
Great Bear
 
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