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Last Cred Review

Hypercoaster - Land of Legends.

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Couldn't wait til May for Hyperia, so me & the wife minced over to Turkey this week to get some Mack hyper action.
S'good.
Really, really good actually, I liked it lots. Ima give it a solid 9 out of 10. Great layout, decent length, it's got height, speed, airtime, hangtime, positive g's - a nice mix of everything really. The gigantic vertical loop is awesome, the big camelback that comes next is also a highlight.
So why not 10/10? Well, there is the merest hint of the Mack rattle present. Not much - I wouldn't call it rough, not by a long shot, but it is there.
Secondly, I would have liked the airtime to be a wee bit stronger. It's got several good moments of strong floater, but it could do with a solid punch or two of proper, Helix/RTH style ejector to really make it stand out.
And lastly, there was no sense of occasion about it. I didn't get any tingles of excitement beforehand, there was no build up, no atmosphere, no music in the station or queueline, you just walk up, ride the ride and walk off again. It's just... a roller coaster in a park. Not a particularly good park either. Now I know that's not really the fault of the coaster, or Mack, but little things like that all add to the experience and Land of Legends just don't really show this coaster off the way they could.
Overall though, a really good coaster that, with a tad more effort from Land of Legends, could have been an easy Top 20 contender.

So, how does all this bode for Thorpe Park's new ride? Well, with the possible exception of overall duration, I think Hyperia will be superior in every way. I'm confident that every element on Hyperia (all 4 of them) will hit harder than Hypercoaster and it will almost certainly feel like you're about to ride something special when queueing for it.
It just remains to be seen whether Hyperia's short track length will be its Achilles heel and leaves you feeling short changed, but overall I'm still excited for it.
 
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Some ‘choice cred’ reviews from my weekend away to Walibi Belgium and Parc Asterix \o/

*****

Kondaa

First ride on this was in the back row after downtime… in the rain. It was a little underwhelming. Front row rides later in the day delivered some pretty solid air time.

The RMC influence on this is obvious. The first two hills and the ‘outro hops’ ape the start/finish of Steel Vengeance. Other elements have a RMC flavour. The non-inverting Cobra roll was pretty fab. The highlights though were the low to the floor ‘speed hits’ that gave substantial ejector, in the right seat (up front).

As impressive as the airtime is, I didn’t find myself besotted. There are no obvious negatives per se, but I didn’t get an intense thrill that I get from enormous height, great speed, fighter jet manoeuvres, ‘being really weird’ or even a punchy launch. I never had to ‘catch my breath’ on Kondaa. It’s also inevitably going to suffer having made the fatal mistake of allowing me to make a Steel Vengeance comparison.

Easily makes the top 30 but probably not top 20. But it definitely deserves a summery re-ride away from the cold, grey skies and rain… perhaps joining me at my house for a BBQ in a Hawaiian shirt.

Loup-Garou / Werewolf

This is embarrassingly ****. Absolutely hateful. Easily makes its way to the top 5 worst coasters I’ve been on (joining the likes of Infusion and Green Lantern), if not the very bottom.

I’m still not 100% sure if its true name ought to ’****-wolf’ or ‘W(h)ere-****’… but if it’s the latter, then it’s right ****ing there *points at ride*

Goudarix

You may have seen a sad face many times in your life, but you’ve never seen a sadder face than Mrs. Nitefly’s after I triumphantly secured us the ‘front row’… which actually turned out to be the back row. Oh… ****.

This was easily the most brutal Vekoma coaster I’ve been on. Not as shonky as the aforementioned ****-wolf, but it had an intensity that made it very hard work. I spent most of the lift hill and ride apologising. Thankfully, Mrs. Nitefly survived - perhaps only through pure willpower as I had offered her candy floss as a treat, which she had not yet redeemed.

Tonnerre-2-Zeus

Not bad!

Oz’Iris

Good - really benefits from its unusual series of elements and no mid course. Beautiful area and ‘sand’ coloured supports, easily besting Montu’s current ‘shock yellow’ aesthetic.

Toutatis

This was sensational. Really, really good. There were plenty of exciting moments that resonated well, from the first exciting launch, the goofy first inversion, the awesome shock airtime during the launch sequences and, of course, the spike - which was epic in the back row. The second half was no slouch either, with the stall and the solid air time hills. The one blip was the top hat, which really suffered from the obnoxious brake in the front row - Pantheon’s top hat is definitely better. Even with that considered, Toutatis comfortably takes the cake.

This ride greatly exceeded my expectations and has left me seriously considering whether it’s entering the top 10 (!) - a task which seemed pretty much impossible at this point as it requires bumping down i305. Really?! Well, perhaps… yes. It simply was that good.

*****

Thanks for reading.
 
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This one isn’t really worth writing home about, but it was my first new cred in a little while so I’ll review it anyway: Mad Mouse on Clarence Pier.

As pier coasters go I rank it above Brighton Pier’s horribly, evilly rough Turbo Coaster and below that same pier’s terrifying, so-wrong-it’s-right, one-bad-day-away-from-hurling-you-into-the-sea Crazy Mouse. It was actually pretty smooth for what it was and whilst it’s obviously nothing special or adrenaline fuelled the first little drop packed a surprising punch on a lazy Sunday afternoon and the sharp corners were kind of thrilling, if only due to the sensation of being over the water. Bit of a rip off at five tokens but again that’s pretty standard for a pier coaster. Would ride again. Had a laugh because I was with my friend who hates coasters and hasn’t braved one since we went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland several years ago, so she was proud of her bravery and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to persuade her onto it. Cheers, Mad Mouse!
 
Millenium Coaster - Fantasy Island

I've been spited by this coaster 3 times now so it was great to eventually get on. Quite an enjoyable coaster (my 6 year loved it even though he was terrified). There a coupld of dead spots thoughout that could have done with a bunny hop or two maybe for some airtime, it was nice and smooth for 25 year old Vekoma.

Odyssey - Fantasy Island

Again another spite that I've managed to overcome so that is good at least. For an SLC this was pretty good, very fast, seems so much bigger becuase of the flatness of the surrounding area and not toooo much headbanging. I really think that if this had vest restraints rather than the OTSRs and henceforth avoiding the headbanging this would be an excellent ride.

Both of these are good rides and to be honest I quite liked Fantasy Island, yes it's a bit rough and ready, yes it's very fairgroundy and yes there is a market underneath the coasters but it was still fun. And some of the theming inside the pyramid was good. My family actually preferred it to BPB but I love Icon and Valhalla too much to say that, I would say they are on par though. We also rode Rhombus Rocket for the first time but that's not worth a review.

I do think that it's a shame that they've not added another big permament coaster sisnce Odyssey though.
 
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Nitefly said:
Some ‘choice cred’ reviews from my weekend away to Walibi Belgium and Parc Asterix \o/

*****

Kondaa

First ride on this was in the back row after downtime… in the rain. It was a little underwhelming. Front row rides later in the day delivered some pretty solid air time.

The RMC influence on this is obvious. The first two hills and the ‘outro hops’ ape the start/finish of Steel Vengeance. Other elements have a RMC flavour. The non-inverting Cobra roll was pretty fab. The highlights though were the low to the floor ‘speed hits’ that gave substantial ejector, in the right seat (up front).

As impressive as the airtime is, I didn’t find myself besotted. There are no obvious negatives per se, but I didn’t get an intense thrill that I get from enormous height, great speed, fighter jet manoeuvres, ‘being really weird’ or even a punchy launch. I never had to ‘catch my breath’ on Kondaa. It’s also inevitably going to suffer having made the fatal mistake of allowing me to make a Steel Vengeance comparison.

Easily makes the top 30 but probably not top 20. But it definitely deserves a summery re-ride away from the cold, grey skies and rain… perhaps joining me at my house for a BBQ in a Hawaiian shirt.

Loup-Garou / Werewolf

This is embarrassingly ****. Absolutely hateful. Easily makes its way to the top 5 worst coasters I’ve been on (joining the likes of Infusion and Green Lantern), if not the very bottom.

I’m still not 100% sure if it’s true name ought to ’****-wolf’ or ‘W(h)ere-****’… but if it’s the latter, then it’s right ****ing there *points at ride*

Goudarix

You may have seen a sad face many times in your life, but you’ve never seen a sadder face than Mrs. Nitefly’s after I triumphantly secured us the ‘front row’… which actually turned out to be the back row. Oh… ****.

This was easily the most brutal arrow coaster I’ve been on. Not as shonky as the aforementioned ****-wolf, but it had an intensity that made it very hard work. I spent most of the lift hill and ride apologising. Thankfully, Mrs. Nitefly survived - perhaps only through pure willpower as I had offered her candy floss as a treat, which she had not yet redeemed.

Tonnerre-2-Zeus

Not bad!

Oz’Iris

Good - really benefits from its unusual series of elements and no mid course. Beautiful area and ‘sand’ coloured supports, easily besting Montu’s current ‘shock yellow’ aesthetic.

Toutatis

This was sensational. Really, really good. There were plenty of exciting moments that resonated well, from the first exciting launch, the goofy first inversion, the awesome shock airtime during the launch sequences and, of course, the spike - which was epic in the back row. The second half was no slouch either, with the stall and the solid air time hills. The one blip was the top hat, which really suffered from the obnoxious brake in the front row - Pantheon’s top hat is definitely better. Even with that considered, Toutatis comfortably takes the cake.

This ride greatly exceeded my expectations and has left me seriously considering whether it’s entering the top 10 (!) - a task which seemed pretty much impossible at this point as it requires bumping down i305. Really?! Well, perhaps… yes. It simply was that good.

*****

Thanks for reading.
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My question though is did you get to meet Asterix and Obelix (childhood heroes of mine)?
 
DelPiero said:
Luna @ Liseberg

Gorgeous setting and theming, standard family boomerang ride experience. Probably one of the better ones in my list with Raik.
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Is it? I have not been on it but its layout looks really bland (not that family boomerangs are overly creative anyway).

I am glad you enjoyed it!
 
Rookie Racer @ SFSTL:

It is a ride 👍

Def a good kiddie/family ride, fills a hole in their lineup IMO. Plus they send you around twice, which is nice. Other than that, its just another ride.
 
Some from me as I think I've done the last creds for this first leg of our trip. Most notable/interesting from along the way.

Supersonic Odyssey - Berjaya Times Square
One of those weird sort of bucket list coaters for me. Saw pictures when I was a young enthusiast - this giant Intamin with a loop inside a huge mall in this far off land - figured I'd never actually get to ride it. Then I'm sitting there in the train...!
Coaster wise it's... alright? More of a spectacle than an out and out good ride, but definitely leagues above most mall ****e.

Battlestar Galactica - Universal Studios Singapore
Another coaster I was intrigued by, especially given it's troubled past, but it was pretty dull overall. The Human ('tamer') side was significantly more enjoyable than the Cylon ('wilder') side. That is all.

Hair Raiser - Ocean Park
Had an awful shudder to it which is a shame from a B&M, but I did like the location and the speed hill.

Dragon's Run - Sun World Ha Long (Dragon Park)
Overall a relatively uninspired B&M, but the straight drop was rather good in the back row and the zero-g was one of those modern B&M masterpieces. Rode really well given it's age and relocation too.
I rode three times, but they were only running it every 10mins, regardless of people in line, which made more rerides a bit of a pain.

Roaring Timbers - Sun World Phu Quoc (Exotica Park)
This whole ride is a bit nuts really. You get to ride this massive cable car (the longest in the world, I believe) out to this island with the waterpark and theme park on.
Even though both open at 9:30am, they don't actually start operating anything (including lockers!) until 10am. Then they only open about half the rides in the waterpark and theme park, with them doing a changeover at 1pm for the rest. No signage anywhere on which rides open/close at which times, either.
I went to the cred first, and they told me it'd open at 1pm, so we started in the waterpark for a few hours. It was decent, but operationally frustrating. For example:
  • Four tube slides at the top of a tower, fully staffed top and bottom, and all with the water running as normal. But no, two of them don't 'open' until 1pm. Can't quite work that one out.
  • Same for the body slides with two different ones on the same rower. Nonsensical.
  • On the 'big' four person raft rides, staff member at the bottom ushers us onto the stairs, sign at the bottom of the stairs says 2 people minimum, walk all the way to the top of the stairs? Three people minimum. Park was so dead that there wasn't anyone else coming anytime soon.
So overall just a bit frustrating, and sadly the operational faff didn't end in the waterpark. The exchange outside the coaster was as follows:
1 = Bloke stops me and says that all your stuff needs to be in a locker (including phone). No problem.
2 = Lady at the turnstile needs your park ticket (QR code on phone) to let you on the ride. But... but... that guy just told me to put everything in a locker. Fine, I'll go back.
3 = Unlock the locker and grab the phone. Guy stops me - turns out the locker is one time use, so gotta take all your stuff out now. But...? Okay, fine, take the phone (and all my other stuff) to the lady, who scans the QR code and then points me back to the guy manning the lockers.
4 = Stuff back in a locker, walk back to the lady who just unlatches the little bypass gate (cos at this point the turnstile has timed out or summat) and lets me on to the ride.
Christ.
5 = After the ride, I fancy a re-ride (no queue for the coaster), but can they let me back through the bypass gate again? Not without the QR code. Back to Step 3.
Each time you want to lock/unlock the locker it's a good 20-30seconds for the facial recognition camera to work too.
It was insanity.
Made worse by the revelation that there's a huge set of storage bins on the station platform, rendering the ENTIRE thing completely pointless.
It was genuinely one of the worst bit of theme park operations I've ever seen.
How was the coaster though? Well... good but not worth that faff! It had a great terrain layout, decent pacing and variation in elements, but it was really juddery for a GCI which really was a shame.
The third time round I just left my stuff in a planter instead of a locker (I couldn't face it again), but after that I just left - I couldn't be arsed with it anymore.

Wrath of Zeus - VinWonders Phu Quoc
This was brilliant. The park was dead, so they were running the coaster "every 7 minutes", and fair play, they did make me wait, but even as the only rider, they let me on to ride every 7 minutes. Got two solo rides first, but after that the train was barely half full - the park was quiet.
The ride is best in the front row for everything except the first element where the trim brake gives a LOT of crappy hangtime.
It was smooth, fast, good forces variation, and had some decent theming. Overall probably the best coaster of the trip!

Mouse - Phnom Penh Fantasy Park
Including this one only as I believe it's the only operating coaster in Cambodia. And my first Jungle Mouse!
Coaster is recorded on RCDB as being in the adjacent Dinosaurs Alive park, and is even shown on their park map, but it's not actually in that park and the admission fee won't get you the cred. Have sent some info to RCDB, so hopefully that can be updated.

Next creds now will probably be in a few months. Let's see...
 
oriolat2 said:
Is it? I have not been on it but its layout looks really bland (not that family boomerangs are overly creative anyway).

I am glad you enjoyed it!
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Layout is pretty bland but it has a decent floaty hill on the forward leg and has a gorgeous view all the way around, spike is also more impressive than a lot of others.
It's the theming and setting that set it apart, as they nearly all ride the same.
 
Okay, so my last cred is currently Mako! And getting on I was honestly terrified. The entire lift hill I was regretting my decision to get on the ride. During the first drop I realized “Oh wow, this is FUN!” And I proceeded to absolutely love the ride. I went on it five times, and it’s now my #1, beating out Montu by a bit.
 
^ Mako is an amazing ride. One of my personal favorites in Florida and not just because I worked on it! I have hundreds of laps on that coaster!

Latest cred for me was yesterday, having swung by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi on the way to Saudi Arabia. What an incredible park, first off. Perhaps the nicest themed park I've been in. Incredible attention to detail, great integration of technology, fantastic habitat design, and just a cool place all around. We only had 4 hours there, but I could easily spend a day or two. The star attraction is of course Manta and it's definitely a winner. Typical comfortable seats from Intamin with the over the shoulder lap bar. An exceedingly long ride with 3 LSM launches-- it feels every bit of the nearly 4,000ft. While the top speed isn't terribly high (it never cracks 50mph), the elements are all compact with tight radii. So there's some really strong airtime moments, a few snappy transitions, and a quick roll that you can see in the picture, which I really enjoyed. As the only outdoor attraction for the park, it's definitely a nice billboard to welcome in guests. Hope to go back later this year to ride it some more.
 

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CedarPoint6 said:
^ Mako is an amazing ride. One of my personal favorites in Florida and not just because I worked on it! I have hundreds of laps on that coaster!

Latest cred for me was yesterday, having swung by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi on the way to Saudi Arabia. What an incredible park, first off. Perhaps the nicest themed park I've been in. Incredible attention to detail, great integration of technology, fantastic habitat design, and just a cool place all around. We only had 4 hours there, but I could easily spend a day or two. The star attraction is of course Manta and it's definitely a winner. Typical comfortable seats from Intamin with the over the shoulder lap bar. An exceedingly long ride with 3 LSM launches-- it feels every bit of the nearly 4,000ft. While the top speed isn't terribly high (it never cracks 50mph), the elements are all compact with tight radii. So there's some really strong airtime moments, a few snappy transitions, and a quick roll that you can see in the picture, which I really enjoyed. As the only outdoor attraction for the park, it's definitely a nice billboard to welcome in guests. Hope to go back later this year to ride it some more.
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Wait, hold on. So SeaWorld Orlando has Manta, which is a flying coaster. SeaWorld San Diego has Manta, a family launch coaster. And SeaWorld Abu Dhabi has Manta, an intense launch coaster. Why has SeaWorld given the same name to three very different rides?
 
Its pretty common for parks to re-use names. It saves them money because now they can sell the same merch across all their parks and they don't need to file for naming rights. Most of the public will never get to ride more than one Manta anyway so its not like they care that much.
 
Dan Nguyen said:
Its pretty common for parks to re-use names. It saves them money because now they can sell the same merch across all their parks and they don't need to file for naming rights. Most of the public will never get to ride more than one Manta anyway so its not like they care that much.
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It's not even that as much as it is logo and other branded asset designs. The DNA for the particular brand is already established. So it's an easy way to reuse when there's not a lot of cross contamination from your average guest visiting multiple places as you point out.
 
Top Thrill 2

I've been a pouty and pretentious enthusiast about this ride only because Dragster was my namesake on here and I loved that ride. I had a big smile on my face pulling into the launch area again, but the ride was exactly what I expected. A fun ride, but certainly nowhere near the punch the original packed! It definitely did feel like a more complete experience, but in no life will I wait longer than 45-60 minutes for it despite the long line yesterday. The backwards launch is probably the best part, but the part that caught me off guard sitting on the left side of the train was the drop into the turn on the top hat. I had my arms up, and my body was flung sideways pretty aggressively. The dude who sat beside me told me to keep my hands down for this reason but I didn't listen 🫣

I'm glad it's back and more than just a 25 million dollar lawn ornament.
 
My latest cred was Full Throttle at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

First, some stats:
Height: 164 ft
Speed: 70 mph
Length: 2200 ft
Launches: 3 (2 fwds, 1 bkwd)
Inversions: 2 (Loop, dive drop)

Now, the review:
It was my last ride of the day at Magic Mountain. It was an experience to behold: the powerful launch directly out of the station mimicking the old Schwarzkopf shuttle loopers, the forceful turns and inversions, the b a c k w a r d s launch, it truly was amazing. I lived it. I was it. I rode it. The final brakes were a buzzkill, but not enough so that it would be a bad ride. As of 05.15.2024, it's my second favorite roller coaster, just behind Maverick. The best part about the ride in my opinion? The trains. Only lap bars, no comfort collars. What a ride it is.
 
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