Silver Star vs Expedition GeForce

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Germany has two traditional hyper-style coasters (I exclude Karnan here because I'm not really sure that it appears to be much of a traditional hyper); Silver Star at Europa Park and Expedition GeForce at Holiday Park. These are quite different rides (Silver Star is a B&M Hyper Coaster that's not far off 250ft tall, whereas EGF is an Intamin Mega Coaster that's not even quite 200ft tall), but both are similar in terms of ride style; they're both hyper-style rides with lots of airtime hills and a general emphasis on airtime. So I'd be keen to know; which do you prefer?

Personally, I can't vote, as I haven't done EGF. However, I have done Silver Star, and I must say that I think it's a phenomenal coaster; rerideable, fast, packed with airtime and overall thoroughly undeserving of a lot of the flack it gets, in my opinion.

But which of these two German hyper-style rides do you prefer?

 

[Gavin]

EGF.

I love Silver Star - it's up there with the best of the B&M hypers that I've done - but EGF is better. They're both about one thing - airtime - and EGF's is stronger.

 

[Howie]

EGF all day long. Rode both on consecutive days in 2020 and yeah, no contest for me.
Silver Star is fine, there is literally nothing wrong with it per se, but it's a mid-tier B&M hyper at best, at least it was on the occasions I visited.
EGF on the other hand is a beast. Bit rougher round the edges than Silver Star (in terms of presentation I mean, not ride quality) and the operations are embarrassingly slow compared to Europa... but it's still a beast of a ride with some of the most powerful airtime moments I've ever experienced.
Bet you wish you'd used that final half-day in Germany to mince over to Holiday Park now, eh Matt?
I mean, we did try and tell you...

 

[Matt N]

Bet you wish you'd used that final half-day in Germany to mince over to Holiday Park now, eh Matt?
I mean, we did try and tell you...

In terms of the ride itself, I would have loved to have gone on EGF, but in hindsight, I am glad that we didn’t try and do Holiday Park in our last half-day in Germany. Our exit from Europa was nice and relaxed, whereas I think trying to drive a nearly 4 hour round trip to a whole different park and cramming that park into very little time would have made that day very stressful.

If I ever go to EP again and decide to visit Holiday Park while I’m there, I think I’d do HP on a full day in the middle of the trip, perhaps in between two EP days. I’m glad we didn’t try and cram HP into our last day this time.

 

[ThomVD]

I really love Silver Star, and I think B&M hyper floater airtime is magical. But I definitely think EGF is better overall. As far as airtime machines go, this is pretty much as good as it gets. Incredible first drop, lots of airtime hills (both big and small) with very strong ejector. Honestly, from what I've ridden so far it's only beaten by a fully warmed up back seat Kondaa when it comes to airtime machines.

 

[Lori Marie Loud]

Personally, I can't vote, as I haven't done EGF. However, I have done Silver Star, and I must say that I think it's a phenomenal coaster; rerideable, fast, packed with airtime and overall thoroughly undeserving of a lot of the flack it gets, in my opinion.

How come Mako's ranked higher than it tho?

nah nah i'm not shredding you for that, but still slightly dissappointed

 

[Matt N]

How come Mako's ranked higher than it tho?

nah nah i'm not shredding you for that, but still slightly dissappointed

It was incredibly close, it really was, but after mulling it over, I think Mako’s strongest airtime moments, such as its first drop and first big hill, are just a tad more impactful than any of Silver Star’s airtime moments, from memory.

I also felt that while Silver Star was overall very smooth, Mako had this wonderful feeling of 100% glass smoothness that Silver Star couldn’t quite match. On Mako, it was so smooth that it felt like you were being whisked smoothly through the air by this ethereal force rather than on a roller coaster, whereas SS was definitely a tad less refined overall. That’s not to say SS is rough by any stretch, though; it’s overall pretty smooth and comfortable!

It was extremely close, though; Silver Star at #2 definitely wasn’t a placement that was made lightly!

 

[Indy]

Exepdition GeForce and it's not even close.

I really enjoy Silver Star. I do. It's a really fun coaster with a lot of floater air and is really rerideable. There isn't anything overly remarkable about it though. While I tend to rate it higher than a lot of people, it is still a mid-tier B&M hyper.

EGF is simply a monster. Massive airtime, incredible pacing, some whipping action, and one of the greatest first drops ever made.

 

[FistedColossus]

Silver Star is one of my favourite hypers bur EGF is superior.

 

[Nitefly]

I’ll take the thrill of EGF over any of the hypers I’ve done and Silver Star is my least favourite of those (being the relatively less comfortable / shonky grey one that’s lightly themed to cars, which then proceeds to pass over a grey car park and road…. full of cars).

This comes to mind when I think of Silver Star:

 

[Will]

I just picked an Intamin over a B&M.

I hope you were watching, because I will NOT be doing that again

(unless the poll involves ****ing Daemonen)

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I just picked an Intamin over a B&M.

I hope you were watching, because I will NOT be doing that again

(unless the poll involves ****ing Daemonen)

Welcome to the dark side!!!

 

[Christian]

Just rode both of them one day after the other. This is really a non contest. EGF is an absolute monster. I have ridden many coasters but until I rode EGF I had not experienced airtime that is this good. EGF is just relentless. There is not just one pop of extreme ejector but the ride is filled with them. My only complaint with it is that the lapbars are uncomfortable for bigger riders due to the insane airtime. I always had the hard edge of the lap bar against my thighs, with those high Gs it became painful after several rides. After 23 rides on this thing my legs were almost numb.

I think meh is the best way to describe Silver Star. It isn't bad. It does nothing bad. It's not like Goliath at SFMM that it's stupidly laid out but Silver Star neither doesn't do anything good. Silver Star is a mix between an observation tower and a family coaster. It's tall, generally smooth and gives good views of the parking lot and countryside. In a park that generally has forceful rides this is the family ride for the park, even Pegasus is more forceful. I think the issue is that this thing runs very slowly. I did a morning ride in the front row and felt absolutely nothing. The next day, I did an evening ride in the back row and got some weak floater and ejector off the MCBR. If the speed was increased I think this might actually be a great coaster, sadly it feels like EP want to keep it as a family ride.

To conclude. In my opinion EGF is one of the best coasters ever made and Silver Star is a bottom tier hyper. I don't even think it is close.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Silver star, particularly in the back is just great fun throughout and totally reridable.

EGF has a few "woah" moments, but just doesn't give me that "let's go on again" feeling in the same way.

I actually thought piraten was more consistent,

Nowe - if it had been silver star vs skyrush - skyrush is the clear winner!

 

[Matt N]

Just rode both of them one day after the other. This is really a non contest. EGF is an absolute monster. I have ridden many coasters but until I rode EGF I had not experienced airtime that is this good. EGF is just relentless. There is not just one pop of extreme ejector but the ride is filled with them. My only complaint with it is that the lapbars are uncomfortable for bigger riders due to the insane airtime. I always had the hard edge of the lap bar against my thighs, with those high Gs it became painful after several rides. After 23 rides on this thing my legs were almost numb.

I think meh is the best way to describe Silver Star. It isn't bad. It does nothing bad. It's not like Goliath at SFMM that it's stupidly laid out but Silver Star neither doesn't do anything good. Silver Star is a mix between an observation tower and a family coaster. It's tall, generally smooth and gives good views of the parking lot and countryside. In a park that generally has forceful rides this is the family ride for the park, even Pegasus is more forceful. I think the issue is that this thing runs very slowly. I did a morning ride in the front row and felt absolutely nothing. The next day, I did an evening ride in the back row and got some weak floater and ejector off the MCBR. If the speed was increased I think this might actually be a great coaster, sadly it feels like EP want to keep it as a family ride.

To conclude. In my opinion EGF is one of the best coasters ever made and Silver Star is a bottom tier hyper. I don't even think it is close.

I think Silver Star is quite variable, according to accounts. I thought it was phenomenal in April, with stunning airtime over every hill (and that was even with some discernible, albeit not overbearing, trim action on a few rides), but I’ve heard of others who’ve said that they’ve had both good and bad rides on it. Perhaps you just struck it on a weak day? Or perhaps I just struck it on a series of strong ones?

 

[Christian]

I think Silver Star is quite variable, according to accounts. I thought it was phenomenal in April, with stunning airtime over every hill (and that was even with some discernible, albeit not overbearing, trim action on a few rides), but I’ve heard of others who’ve said that they’ve had both good and bad rides on it. Perhaps you just struck it on a weak day? Or perhaps I just struck it on a series of strong ones?

It must be something like that. My rides were pretty trimmad. Also the stapling didn't help. EP staple you on every coaster but Silver Star was the worst of them all. I had a fully grown man ride op jump staple me. WTF. He squeezed the guts out of me. The stapling might have contributed to me feeling almost nothing on Silver Star.

In comparison on EGF they never stapled and after my 4th ride they always let me adjust the lapbar myself. They told me that they had a rule that a maximum of 2 fingers were allowed between the edge of the lapbar and the wings of the seat. This 2 finger rule gave me plenty of space to move around. SkyScream had the same self adjust lapbar policy for frequent riders but that coaster will staple you by itself after the first launch.

 

[Matt N]

It must be something like that. My rides were pretty trimmad. Also the stapling didn't help. EP staple you on every coaster but Silver Star was the worst of them all. I had a fully grown man ride op jump staple me. WTF. He squeezed the guts out of me. The stapling might have contributed to me feeling almost nothing on Silver Star.

In comparison on EGF they never stapled and after my 4th ride they always let me adjust the lapbar myself. They told me that they had a rule that a maximum of 2 fingers were allowed between the edge of the lapbar and the wings of the seat. This 2 finger rule gave me plenty of space to move around. SkyScream had the same self adjust lapbar policy for frequent riders but that coaster will staple you by itself after the first launch.

Ah, stapling definitely wouldn’t have helped. The 1 or 2 Silver Star rides where I was stapled offered notably less airtime than the ones where I wasn’t.

I find it interesting that you found stapling to be an issue; I had 10 rides on Silver Star, and most of the time, the staff were OK to leave my restraint fairly loose! I found similar elsewhere within Europa; I got the odd stapling on 1 or 2 of my 6 Wodan rides as well (as with Silver Star, this seemed to lower the airtime somewhat), but for the most part, the operators weren’t keen to staple me on any of the rides. It might help that I’m not particularly large in any dimension, so I’m not even close to being “borderline” in any ride restraint (I know people who struggle to fit into certain rides often find stapling more of a problem), but I did not personally notice stapling to be a problem at Europa. Or any other park, for that matter.

 

[Christian]

Ah, stapling definitely wouldn’t have helped. The 1 or 2 Silver Star rides where I was stapled offered notably less airtime than the ones where I wasn’t.

I find it interesting that you found stapling to be an issue; I had 10 rides on Silver Star, and most of the time, the staff were OK to leave my restraint fairly loose! I found similar elsewhere within Europa; I got the odd stapling on 1 or 2 of my 6 Wodan rides as well (as with Silver Star, this seemed to lower the airtime somewhat), but for the most part, the operators weren’t keen to staple me on any of the rides. It might help that I’m not particularly large in any dimension, so I’m not even close to being “borderline” in any ride restraint (I know people who struggle to fit into certain rides often find stapling more of a problem), but I did not personally notice stapling to be a problem at Europa. Or any other park, for that matter.

I'm a bigger guy. I'm nowhere close to not fitting in the seat but I'm not as skinny as I used to be as a kid. Though, Europa Park stapling is next level, they even stapled me on the wildmouse.