So typically, my opinion slightly changed following a few more rides.
The front of the train is the best area, left, right, doesn't really matter what side, there's lovely moments on both sides.
However...
The bastards took off a train as it was walk on, and left what was clearly a bad train on. My first 3 rides before they dropped to 1 train ops were all absolutely amazing and it was actually a contender for a top 10 spot then everything changed.
That train is absolutely disgusting, there's a judder and some really bad jolts which physically hurt your back. I can't believe it was that bad, back row was nearly unbearable, front was still very noticeable.
I gave up after 2 further rides and left the park, such a shame, probably sits somewhere around 30-40 because of that ****ty train.
Fix it Energylandia.
That REALLY sucks. Nitro had a train like that back when I rode it in 2014, and the difference was shocking. Thankfully the trains were labelled and multiple were running so we could avoid the bad one. It’s very disappointing to hear one of the trains on Hyperion is already running terribly when the ride is less than a year old, especially since it’s such a fantastic coaster
So yesterday I visited
Adventureland in Iowa for the first time, and thought I’d share some thoughts on their rarely discussed selection of creds:
Monster - An excellent Gerstlauer Infinity coaster that’s ripe for the ‘criminally underrated’ category. Its over-vertical drop is the best out there from my experience, thanks to lap-bars that offer a lot of freedom for an excellent airtime moment. In fact, it’s primarily these restraints that allow the ride to really flourish. There may not be much airtime in the rest of the layout, but the extra upper-body freedom allows the rider to experience a delicious blend of lateral forces and hangtime on an impressively-calculated course of inversions, overbanks, and even an effectively placed trim-brake. The seemless and varied flow of elements show just how far Gerstlauer have come as a manufacturer and the great things they’re capable of. It’s certainly not the most intense, airtime-filled or fast-paced coaster out there, but it’s a beautifully-designed piece of engineering and beautiful to ride too. Well-worth the visit to Adventureland to ride. 9/10
Tornado - Hmmm... I took two laps on this 1970s out-and-back wooden coaster and while it’s not unusual to find these to be lacklustre coasters compared to today’s offerings, I felt the reason here was simply that it’s first couple of hills were too tall. You crawl over them and never really pick up the momentum for much airtime on the following hills. I enjoyed it, but you can see quite clearly where it squanders its potential. 5/10
Outlaw - One of the first CCI woodies, and I think it was designed by the folks who went on to form GCI? It would certainly seem that way, given it’s twister-style layout. It’s sort of a ‘tame’ coaster really, though also surprisingly rough considering it never really goes that fast. In fairness, its pacing is not actually all-that terrible, and if you ride in the front it does offer a few surprising airtime moments, courtesy of the classic buzz-bar restraints. 6/10
Underground - Not much of a coaster; it mostly slopes downwards at a very mild gradient and has maybe one
actual drop. I’m really not a connoisseur of old cheesy dark rides, but that’s really what it is, and it feels creepier and more claustrophobic than I was expecting. Yes the effects are old, but they are somewhat amusing. Overall though, still not my thing. 4/10
Dragon - I thought this was my first experience on a Hopkins-made coaster, but I’d forgotten about the one at Story Land in NH. Still, the two bare very little similarity as far as I can recall. Dragon unpleasantly bumped its way around its thankfully short course, with only the two inversions being enjoyable (and quite intense too, I may add). I could see the park removing this, and they probably should, despite its picturesque appearance over the lake. 3/10
