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Best and Worst Coaster Names?

SkyrushSimp

SkyrushSimp

Mega Poster
Is there a coaster name you just can't get enough of? Is there one that you think is clever? Or is there a coaster name that just makes you go insane? Talk about it here!
 
Best:
Oblivion, Alton Towers: Gets straight to the point, the name is exactly what the ride is.
Goudurix, Parc Asterix: Based on "Goût du risque" meaning, "The taste of danger". Fantastic name for a great ride.
Rutschebanen, several parks: I just love the look and pronunciation of the translation for 'roller coaster'.
Super 8er Bahn, Wiener Prater: It took me a while to realise this is a pun on 'Super Achterbahn' (based on how 8 is pronounced in Germany). When I did realise, I loved it.
Expedition GeForce, Holiday Park: Just a very, very good name. I'm not sure why, but I love the name enough to have it here. It is SO iconic.

Worst:
ArieForce One, Fun Spot America Atlanta: While I appreciate the owners trying to immortalise the owner (?) the pun is pulled off awfully because of how different the pronunciation of "air" and "arie" is. This is why S8B works and this one doesn't.
Firebird, Six Flags America: ??????
Coast Rider, Knott's Berry Farm: Obviously named that to capitalise off the best ride name in the park. Not exactly sure what they were going for here.
Iron Gwazi, Busch Gardens Tampa: Let's just throw creativity out of the window.
Red Force, Ferrari Land: With literally some of the best coaster names in the park five minutes down the road (and I'm pretty sure these dudes also own this park) such as Shambhala and Furius Baco, with this Intamin giga they just threw any ounce of creativity completely out the window and came up with the most utterly devoid of soul name I've seen in a while. I've heard someone say Ferrari is way too professional for its own good, and therefore refuses the thought of good ideas.
 
Nemesis - It's been around a long time and is often talked about, so naturally us enthusiasts can become desensitised to it. But, it's such a brilliant name for a coaster. Fits in well with the theme and connotations. Great logo too.

Dragon Khan - Going for perhaps an unusual choice here but I love the name. Before the days of Shambhala (more specifically, late 90's/early 00's) I remember talking with friends about Khan before my first PA visit. The name sounded really ominous and fairly scary to my pre-goon self. I just pictured some colossal beast, packed full of intensity. Everyone I knew who had been on it said it was by far the scariest coaster they'd done. The name definitely stuck out for me anyway.

An example of an aptly **** coaster name - Coaster Express.
 
I've never heard a better coaster name than "Death Train", the moniker given to a now-defunct Schwarzkopf Katapult in Oman.
 
The Best
  • Kumba - It simply sounds good and has an appropriate translation
  • Beast - I struggle to think of a more aptly named ride
  • Gemini - I spoke too soo
  • Hyperion - Again, it simply sounds cool and is very appropriate
  • Hangman - I hate that this name has gone by the wayside. I rode both iterations and always thought it was clever
  • Face/Off - While it was named after a film, it was still a very appropriate name
  • Mantis - The color scheme was obnoxious, but I always liked the name
  • El Toro - It takes a simple name ("The Bull") and makes it sound immensely fiercer
  • Nemesis - Dare I say the best coaster name of all time?
  • Oblivion - Such an appropriate name for the ride

The Worst
  • Flight Deck - I struggle to understand how Cedar Fair settled on "Afterburn" for one installation and decided that "Flight Deck" was good enough for the others
  • Voyage - For such a monstrous, immense ride, it just doesn't seem to adequately convey the experience. It feels too mild of a name
  • Steel Vengeance - For when vengeance turns to steel. Honestly, what does it even mean? Please note that any ride that begins with "Steel" is an honorable mention
  • Steel Force - Except this one, because it's too bad to only be an honorable mention
  • VelociCoaster - I thought it was a joke at first. It's only worsened by the fact that the ride is so good. The name just feels unimaginative.
  • Cornball Express - I can still hear the jingle that was played in the commercials and I cringe so hard that I risk fracturing a vertebrae
  • Steel Hawg - I hate to list two coasters at a park I truly love, but I don't even know where to begin with this one. Jokes for days.

The Coup de Grâce
  • ArieForce One - Not only is it a bad play on words, but it is an incredibly self-absorbed play on words. "Hate" doesn't seem like a strong enough word.
 
Best:
Beast
Nemesis

Both are simple, memorable, to the point, and menacing.

Worst:
Son of Beast (ironically)
Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
And another shout for the tasteless hubris of ArieForce One
 
Best:

Nemesis - so amazing as a name. So iconic. Probably this word now means the coaster first and foremost rather than an arch-enemy. "He was my nemesis" " What, a roller coaster?"

Shambhala - Etherial. Mystical. Awesome

Ultimate - What it says on the tin. Except it didn't because it was 95% dull. But great name still

Worst:

Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - mmm catchy. "Mummy can we go on Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure?" "Sure sweetie of course we can go on Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. Oh dear, the park closed in the time it took to say that phrase"

Rock 'n' roller coaster - Is it an 'n' or an 'and'? Rock and roll roller coaster? No-one ever gets the name right. Its a poor attempt at mixing "rock and roll" and "roller coaster" but its just messy and awful. I've been on it probably 20 times and I still find myself calling it the rock n roll roller coaster because grrrrr

Galactica - It sounds like some shoddy 1970s sci-fi tv show with cardboard sets and door sounds that go "woosh". At least air kinda fitted what was going on.
 
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JoshC. said:
[/EndThread]
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End EndThread? ;)

There was a similar topic about this a long while ago, and I recall it being a pretty good read. Happy for this one to stay, as the other one was old, but link for the curious:

Worst name for a Coaster?

Which is the worst or the most inappropriate name given to a coaster?
coasterforce.com coasterforce.com

Plausibly some even older threads out there too, but it's always good to trawl through the wacky names that coasters end up with - especially when there's a literal translation involved!
 
Nemesis and Oblivion remain two of the greatest coaster names of all time in my opinion. Before them, virtually every coaster on the planet was called 'The... Something' - The Beast, The Corkscrew, The Revolution etc etc... They were things, objects. They were simply amusement rides given a vaguely descriptive name. By dropping the 'The', Nemesis in particular became something more than just 'a new roller coaster in a park', it took on more of an 'experience' identity to it. Nemesis sounded more like a movie title than a coaster name. Throw in the theming, the backstory, the mythology and a brilliant (pre digital) marketing campaign (on-site military presence, 'something has been un-earthed' headlines etc) and what you have is something really rather special.
This is one of the reasons I still rate Nemesis so highly. Not just from a ride perspective, but how it almost singlehandedly ushered in an entirely new way of designing, promoting and naming new attractions.
Younger members probably don't appreciate how revolutionary this all was at the time because, well... that's just how we do things now. But back in '94? That was next-level sh*t, man.

The creation of Oblivion 4 years later followed the same principles again. An entirely different theme and aesthetic, but the ride concept, the hardware, the theme, the marketing and the name all coming together in one complete, coherent package. Brilliant stuff.
To this day, it still annoys the crap out of me when people call it 'The Nemesis' or 'The Oblivion'. (Paddy McGuiness on that eposode of Top Gear being one of the worst offenders 🤬).

Worst names? Currently, anything that gets one of the following prefixes:
Steel.
Iron.
Wicked.
Twisted.

So lame.
 
Hixee said:
End EndThread? ;)
Click to expand...

Oh, ermmmmmm...it was a joke about how loads of people add 'The' to the names of rides when it isn't officially there.
...yeah, I'll go with that, that's a good-sounding excuse for my silliness.
 
JoshC. said:
Oh, ermmmmmm...it was a joke about how loads of people add 'The' to the names of rides when it isn't officially there.
...yeah, I'll go with that, that's a good-sounding excuse for my silliness.
Click to expand...
I was pointing out that your BBCode syntax was incorrect. ;)
 
Best:
Alpengeist - Just sounds like it fits together.
Candymonium - Nice pun.
Maverick - A great name that fits the ride it's on.
Storm Chaser - Sounds cool right?
Fury 325 - It sounds intimidating, like the ride wants to kill you or something.
Railblazer - Since it was once of the first single-rails I guess it is a railblazer.

Worst:
ArieForce One - What was FunSpot on when they made this name?
X2 - More of a math equation then a coaster name.
American Drier Looping - Just... why?
Time Traveler - Not scary at all, all this name does is make me think of Back to the Future.
Space Mountain - I get this was made a long time ago, but could you at least pick a good original name?
Mako - This name just pisses me off.

Stop it. Get some help:
Nitro: 🤬
 
Howie said:
Nemesis and Oblivion remain two of the greatest coaster names of all time in my opinion. Before them, virtually every coaster on the planet was called 'The... Something' - The Beast, The Corkscrew, The Revolution etc etc... They were things, objects. They were simply amusement rides given a vaguely descriptive name. By dropping the 'The', Nemesis in particular became something more than just 'a new roller coaster in a park', it took on more of an 'experience' identity to it.
Click to expand...

IMO, Disney's Space Mountain coasters beat Nemesis to that particular punch by a couple decades. As a child of the 70s/80s, I don't recall ever hearing anyone place "The" in front the names for those rides, as was common for virtually all roller coasters at the time.
 
People have brought up plenty of badly named coasters from Universal, yet surprisingly nobody has mentioned the word salad abomination that is "Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit"

Best is Great Bear. It's not just a good bear - it's a GREAT bear. And it sounds like one too.
 
solarfall said:
People have brought up plenty of badly named coasters from Universal, yet surprisingly nobody has mentioned the word salad abomination that is "Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit"

Best is Great Bear. It's not just a good bear - it's a GREAT bear. And it sounds like one too.
Click to expand...
It's named after the constellation, Ursa Major right? It's quite a cool one.

I think I like most names but my favourites are the mythical beast, legends and animal ones such as:

Mako
Montu
Thunderbird
Raven
Alpengeist
Sheikra
Kraken
Leviathan
Kumba
Phoenix
Gwazi

The just seem simple and cool. Nemesis and Oblivion are also up there, they just kick butt.

There are quite a few that I find cringe, let's see....

The Smiler
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
Velocicoaster (yes I went there)
Candymonium
Arieforce One
Hagrid's whatever.....
Mine Blower
Valravn's spelling
Invadr's spelling
Thirteen (yes I went there)
Rita (no explanation needed)
Xcelerator (again, spelling)

I get that parks change the spelling to make the coaster identifiable online etc but some of the edits are cringey.

Other thoughts:
Stealth doesn't fit the coaster's theme at all, it's weird.
Up until this point I had never looked up what Shambhala actually meant. Interesting.
Skyrush is a weird name isn't it.
 
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SilverArrow said:
my favourites are the mythical beast, legends and animal ones such as:

Mako
Montu
Thunderbird
Raven
Alpengeist
Sheikra
Kraken
Leviathan
Kumba
Phoenix
Gwazi

The just seem simple and cool. Nemesis and Oblivion are also up there, they just kick butt.
Click to expand...

^This.
Beasts and legends are the coolest. The good thing is there's still a mine of mythical beasts that haven't yet had coasters named after them. Off the top of my head, things like Balroq, Beowulf, Fenrir, Gorgon, Minotaur... and I'm sure dozens more.
In fact, I'm sure we already have a 'Cool Coaster Names That Haven't Been Used Yet' thread somewhere?

In other thoughts, Black Mamba shares its name with a dildo. 🍆 Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing?
Can't wait for a park somewhere to build the 'Rampant Rabbit'.
 
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