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Great rides that just lack… something

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. As an enthusiast, you’ll naturally ride many rides you come off and think “wow, that was great!”. Often, these rides will blow you away, and leave you thinking “wow, that was truly top tier!”. But sometimes, I find that a great ride can feel like it’s missing something. I don’t know about anyone else, but I sometimes come off a ride thinking “that was really, really great… but it lacked something to make it truly top tier, and I can’t quite place what”.

The thing that got me thinking about this was reading the brilliant trip report from Linnanmaki that @Serena recently wrote (https://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/its-the-eye-of-the-taiga-5-hours-at-linnanmäki.45592/), where her closing statement about Taiga after a full day of riding was:
Not a bad ride by any means, pretty fun but just lacking something special
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I don’t know if Serena actually feels this way or not, but my inference from that is that the way she feels about Taiga is very similar to the feeling I described above, where the ride was really great, and hit all the right notes, but just lacked something to make it truly top tier (Do correct me if I’m wrong there, Serena, and I apologise if you don’t like me quoting your trip report… I can remove it if you wish).

So my question to you today is; have you ever ridden a great ride that hits all the right notes, but misses a certain something to make it truly top tier? Have you ever felt like a ride misses that je ne sais quoi that makes something truly top tier rather than merely great?

I can think of a few rides that fit this description for me, but I can think of two where it’s most apparent. One coaster and one non-coaster.

The first that comes to mind is Blue Fire at Europa Park. It is an excellent coaster that I really enjoyed, and it hits many great notes; it’s smooth, it has comfortable trains, it has a punchy launch, there are some really nice moments of hangtime, the last inversion is awesome, and in general, it’s just a really excellent coaster. However… I found it lacking a certain something to elevate it from a 9/10 to a 10/10, and I can’t quite place what. It’s a brilliant coaster, and I really enjoyed my rides on it, but I just felt that it lacked something. If I’m being critical, I did feel that it lacked airtime for a ride of its type, and I did think it felt somewhat slow for a coaster of 62mph, but I don’t think it was either of those things on its own… I just found it to be missing a certain something. I very much enjoyed BF, and it does narrowly make my top 10 (although my coaster count of 91 makes that less of an achievement than it would be if my coaster count was larger), but I wasn’t quite getting that top tier feeling from it.

The other ride that comes to mind is Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom. As with Blue Fire, I thought Flight of Passage was excellent. It hit all the right notes, and was a really great dark ride, in my opinion. It’s comfortably my favourite of the flying theatre style rides I’ve done. However… something about it left me feeling a little bit cold (and that something wasn’t the air conditioning blasting out in the pre-show). Expectations may not have helped; I went in hearing extremely superlative reviews saying about how it was “the best ride in the world”, and how people were “deeply moved” by it, and how it made them cry etc etc etc, so my expectations were naturally sky high. The fact that the ride is just one big screen might not help it, either; don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with screens unlike many enthusiasts, but I do think these “one big screen” rides with no tracked ride system do lack something to make them truly top tier dark rides, on the whole. I’m not sure it was that on its own, though… I just found something to be missing. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Flight of Passage was excellent, and I did really enjoy it, but I felt like something was missing, and I wasn’t entirely sold on its obscene hype.

But what attractions have you done that hit all the right notes, but miss something to make them truly top tier?
 
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For me personally, I'm gonna do what you did @Matt N and select a coaster from Europa, but this being Wodan. I'd heard excellent things about it, like it's one of, if not the best woodie in Europe, etc., but it just wasn't? I mean don't get me wrong, it had lats, speed and great pacing, but there's something about it that I can't put my finger on preventing it from being amazing in my book. (For all intensive purposes, in hindsight I agree with you about Blue Fire, however I rode it before I rode Icon making it my first Mack mega coaster, so I had nothing else similar to compare it to, and at the time I really liked it; probably more than Wodan tbh.)
 
Let's nit pick!

Hyper Coaster at The Land of Legends

Mack Coaster's first ever hyper layout (in its second iteration there in Turkey) offers a promising mix of airtime and non-traditional hyper elements like a Looping and a Zero-G. Some elements however, still lack some intensity and/or snappiness. The "Stengel Dive" could deliver considerably more whip, and I'd love to try Hyper Coaster/Flash without the trims on.


Hyperion at Energylandia

That second camelback barely offers any airtime. Replace it with EGF's second ejector hill, make the whole ride smooth and voilà.

Kondaa at Walibi Belgium

The little bunny hops copying RMC finale just lacks oompf imo... either replace it with a classic back to back airtime hops like EGF/Goliath, or keep the same section but ramp up the intensity to Steel Vengeance's finale level.

Helix at Liseberg

Make the final barrel roll snappy, like (ironically) Blue Fire. The ONE and only element Mack Rides' original launch coaster arguably does better.

Taron at Phantasialand (very nitpicky)

Make the end of the first half somehow more interesting... some extra airtime, whip, or tighter turns for more G+ maybe? Or even a snappy or hangtime filled inversion, dare I say.

Soaring with Dragon - Wanda Hefei

Add a few camelbacks/s-hills after the photogenic turn around the giant dragon statue. Make said turn more intense/faster while you're at it. This first Intamin swing launch (barring the Impulse Inverts) feels a little incomplete as it is..
 
Controversially... VelociCoaster, Islands of Adventure
I definitely enjoyed VelociCoaster, but the airtime wasn't as strong or sustained as expected, and I found everything between the dive loop and 2nd launch to be uninteresting from a ride forces standpoint - that's why I prefer Pantheon (by a small amount...). If VelociCoaster had a series of twisted, sustained airtime hills instead of S-curves and overbanks there, then I'd probably prefer VelociCoaster.
 
Off the bat, some thoughts:

- The Legend and Raven at Holiday World - both are perfectly good rides in their own right. But in a weird way, if you could morph the two together, you’d almost have the perfect coaster?

- Powder Leg at Silver Dollar City - a borderline novelty, it is a phenomenally underestimated ride. And yet, it indeed feels to miss… something? At least to push it from a top 50 coaster to a top 10.

- Sky Rocket at Kennywood - I really believe there’s an alternate universe where Sky Rocket is the diamond attraction of Kennywood. It has a lot of Intamin Blitz coaster qualities, yet feels mixed and short in it’s execution to be more than something cute.

- American Thunder at Six Flags St. Louis - genuinely a few clicks off of greatness, unclear if it’s the PCT trains or warbley layout holding it back.
 
I've had a think, and can't think of any "great rides that lack something". For me, if a ride is lacking something, it's... not a great ride?

I mean that within context though. For example, Taron is lacking an inversion, but it's not a ride designed to have inversions. And I don't think it needs inversions either. So it doesn't "lack" an inversion.

When it comes to great rides, usually what stops it from being even higher is small things...things it does, but could do even better. I'll go for a recent-to-me example: Colossos at Heide Park. It's a great ride, but the middle half loses some momentum and the airtime is minimal in that section as a result. The rest of the ride has some fab airtime moments, and the middle section does serve as a bit of a respite. But it would be even better if it just had a bit more pace, allowing for more airtime in the middle.
So it doesn't lack airtime, and it's not that it "lacks a good middle section" per se. It's just that the middle section is weak.

It's different for me when you look at "rides which are good/alright which lack something", as they're usually the rides which could be improved because they do lack something. But that's kind of away from the heart of this thread I guess.
 
I broadly agree with @JoshC - it’s either great, or it’s not.

Kw6sTheater said:
Controversially... VelociCoaster, Islands of Adventure
I definitely enjoyed VelociCoaster, but the airtime wasn't as strong or sustained as expected, and I found everything between the dive loop and 2nd launch to be uninteresting from a ride forces standpoint - that's why I prefer Pantheon (by a small amount...). If VelociCoaster had a series of twisted, sustained airtime hills instead of S-curves and overbanks there, then I'd probably prefer VelociCoaster.
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I do know what you mean with that specific example. I’m not a fan of ‘meandering’ on any ride. Get to the ‘good bit’ already, please. In the case of Velocicoaster, the non-meandering bits are truly great, but I think I might like the ride even more if it cut some of the lesser sections out.

Walking down to the most inner circle of meandering hell:

Taron has some ‘less thrilling’ sections where it isn’t forceful or overly exciting, but these are less exciting to me than the similar sections of VC and I’ve never thought that the best bits of Taron were truly outstanding (unlike VC).

Blue Fire has one the most uninspiring starts of any coasters in this regard; a flaccid launch followed by a slow ‘turnaround’ style entry into the loop.

Abyssus is the best (worst?) example though. That whole first section is unexciting and only serves to wear down your resilience to queasy motions. It’s not merely dull, it’s an outright negative. Those huge inversions at the end also feel like your in a washing machine on a slow spin. Make it enddddd. Unfortunately for Abyssus, it’s impossible not to compare it to Zadra next door, which just hammers it home. I’m probably being overly harsh, but it’s just night and day with that comparison.
 
Balder
Fun airtime moments and plenty of them! But I couldn't help but feel disappointed by Balder. I did go into this ride with high hopes as I kept hearing great things as I have read some enthusiasts dubbing it as a mini El Toro. I felt that it lacked the intensity I was expecting from an Intamin. The airtime is there, but it wasn't very strong. The main thing that stopped me from really rating it was those slow awkward turns, they really just kill the pacing. After getting on some night rides it did warm up enough for me to give it a solid 8/10, but I think it could of been so much more with a better layout.

Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
 
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Kw6sTheater said:
Controversially... VelociCoaster, Islands of Adventure
I definitely enjoyed VelociCoaster, but the airtime wasn't as strong or sustained as expected, and I found everything between the dive loop and 2nd launch to be uninteresting from a ride forces standpoint - that's why I prefer Pantheon (by a small amount...). If VelociCoaster had a series of twisted, sustained airtime hills instead of S-curves and overbanks there, then I'd probably prefer VelociCoaster.
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I'll throw in another vote for Velocicoaster. Got the chance to ride it on two separate occasions- it's a fantastic ride that had me all smiles every time, but nowhere near the awe that I got from Zadra or Steel Vengeance. Maybe too much time spent dicking around in the right-hand turns after the stall? Probably just a victim of the hype.
 
Shambhala. I can't put my finger on what it's missing, though. Rode it 9 times in one day thanks to the highest tier Express Pass, every ride was very fun but it's just missing something for me. I know B&M Hypers don't really use quick transitions but I just feel something like that would have made it great for me.
 
Taron for me.
Visually fantastic and loved the pacing but then it just has a couple of okay airtime hills at the end.
If it was hitting you with hills peppered throughout it would feel so much more chaotic.

Big Thunder Mountain.
I remember it being one of my most anticipated rides at Disneyland but every time it feels like its getting exciting you hit another lift hill. Its still good fun but it's too toned down.
 
I'm going to drop another one in here. This might be controversial, but... I'm going to say Nemesis.

Don't get me wrong, Nemesis is a cracking coaster. It's my most ridden of all time, it's such an inspired design, and such an incredible feat of engineering. The layout is so original as well, and it packs a great sense of speed... but it just misses something to make it truly top tier for me, and I can't quite put my finger on what. I think it's just that inverts aren't really a style of ride that I place in my top tier; all the rides in my 10/10 tier have some degree of negative g's to them, and inverts don't really have that by very nature.
 
Coaster Hipster said:
Helix at Liseberg

Make the final barrel roll snappy, like (ironically) Blue Fire. The ONE and only element Mack Rides' original launch coaster arguably does better.
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I strongly disagree here. All other inversions are pretty snappy. A slower paced roll to finish off the ride is such a great thing. It completes the whole experience and leaves you satisfied when hitting the breaks. A snappy roll and breaks directly afterwards would leave you wishing for a longer ride. If I could decide I would have made this roll even slower to give more hang time. Turning the ending into something similar to El Loco.
 
I'm kinda thinking Pantheon?

Yes it's great, it's a Top 20 ride for me, probably Top 15 for most people.

It left me a little perplexed after my first ride. Like, wow that was really cool, but why am I having conflicting feelings? I appreciated it much more as I continued to ride though. But I don't know if it's the modest length, the lack of theming, or the slower pace on the top hat and outerbank. But I feel like Pantheon had the potential to be a true Top 10 coaster, but it's not quite there.
 
Hutch said:
I'm kinda thinking Pantheon?

Yes it's great, it's a Top 20 ride for me, probably Top 15 for most people.

It left me a little perplexed after my first ride. Like, wow that was really cool, but why am I having conflicting feelings? I appreciated it much more as I continued to ride though. But I don't know if it's the modest length, the lack of theming, or the slower pace on the top hat and outerbank. But I feel like Pantheon had the potential to be a true Top 10 coaster, but it's not quite there.
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completely agree. it also feels like there should be another third to this ride at the end. Even some bunny hills or something cliche could help. Also, other than the backward airtime hills (which are great, don't get me wrong), it doesn't feel like there are any standout moments on this ride.
 
SkyRush.

There's no doubting that it's a great ride. It does what it does incredibly well, but it remains somewhat unmemorable to me. Part of me thinks it is the fact that it doesn't have many elements, but then again I love Storm Runner. Maybe it's the fact that none of the elements are particularly noteworthy. Or maybe it's the weak ending. Maybe it's all of it. I just don't have the same love for it that so many seem to share.
 
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