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Overshadowed Coasters

Thekingin64

Thekingin64

Strata Poster
This for all those coasters out there which should be good in their own right but just don't live up to expectations, be it due to other better rides in the park or personally ridden recently. These rides may have fantastic stats and look amazing rides but just something causes it to not be as good as hoped. Examples for me below:

Dragon Kahn, Portaventura: Massive old B&M with 8 inversions. By all means, it should be a fantastic ride and I'd been looking forward to riding it since arriving into Portaventura. Perhaps it's because it's quite lterally overshadowed by Shambala but the ride didn't do anything for me and is surprisingly unmemorable. Certailnly looks nice and very photogenic from off ride.

Black Mamba, Phantasialand: Again a large B&M, one that most seem to rave about. I've been to Phantasialand twice and still can't remember anything about the ride experience of Black Mamba. I know I've ridden it and remember view from lift hill but nothing else, I even remember riding Night Hawk! I'm sure if that ride was in any other park, it would be fantastic.

El Toro, SFGAdv: This isn't so much overshadowing, more not living up to the hype. Rode it and thought it was good but having ridden the Coney Island Cyclone about a week prior to El Toro, it just couldn't live up to the wildness of the Cyclone and left me slightly disappointed. (ps. Cyclone really did blow me away, I didn't expect much from it but it was fantastic, certainly favourite wooden coaster)

Any thoughts?

(ps. I realise this topic may be deemed similar to other already existing topics. Feel free to lock/merge if required)

EDIT: thought Khan had 7 inversions not 8. Should really check RCDB before posting...
 
Last edited:
Thekingin64 said:
This for all those coasters out there which should be good in their own right but just don't live up to expectations, be it due to other better rides in the park or personally ridden recently. These rides may have fantastic stats and look amazing rides but just something causes it to not be as good as hoped. Examples for me below:

Dragon Kahn, Portaventura: Massive old B&M with 8 inversions. By all means, it should be a fantastic ride and I'd been looking forward to riding it since arriving into Portaventura. Perhaps it's because it's quite lterally overshadowed by Shambala but the ride didn't do anything for me and is surprisingly unmemorable. Certailnly looks nice and very photogenic from off ride.

Black Mamba, Phantasialand: Again a large B&M, one that most seem to rave about. I've been to Phantasialand twice and still can't remember anything about the ride experience of Black Mamba. I know I've ridden it and remember view from lift hill but nothing else, I even remember riding Night Hawk! I'm sure if that ride was in any other park, it would be fantastic.

El Toro, SFGAdv: This isn't so much overshadowing, more not living up to the hype. Rode it and thought it was good but having ridden the Coney Island Cyclone about a week prior to El Toro, it just couldn't live up to the wildness of the Cyclone and left me slightly disappointed. (ps. Cyclone really did blow me away, I didn't expect much from it but it was fantastic, certainly favourite wooden coaster)

Any thoughts?

(ps. I realise this topic may be deemed similar to other already existing topics. Feel free to lock/merge if required)
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Afterburn @ Carowinds is my big one. Intrimidator (infamously) and Fury (obviously) make this little known B&M Invert come in second class when it is one of my favorite inverts in the world. Love it to death and would rather ride it then any other B&M in the park #hottake
 
Mind Bender at Six Flags over Georgia since Twisted Cyclone and Goliath are two world-class coasters taking the spotlight. My most recent trip I preffered it to Goliath actually. Storm Runner's **** great but since Skyrush has dominated discussion of Hersheypark. I'd also say Comet at Hershey because I really enjoyed it, and it's literally overshadowed.
 
Edward M said:
Mind Bender at Six Flags over Georgia since Twisted Cyclone and Goliath are two world-class coasters taking the spotlight. My most recent trip I preffered it to Goliath actually. Storm Runner's :emoji_zipper_mouth: great but since Skyrush has dominated discussion of Hersheypark. I'd also say Comet at Hershey because I really enjoyed it, and it's literally overshadowed.
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MindBender was overshadowed before TC. I loved that ride when I rode it a hot minute ago.
 
Great American Scream Machine is definitely overshadowed by Twisted Cyclone, Goliath and even Mindbender. I would say it is one of the best woodies I have ridden, having some great floater and it is pretty smooth, probably my 3rd favourite at the park, barely trailing behind Goliath.
Fluch Von Novgorod is also overlooked since Hansa added Karnan. FVN features an extremely intense launch and a great ejector hill, it is definitely one of my favourites, but still not nearly as good as Karnan
I would also say Formula at Energylandia is overshadowed by Hyperion, honestly, I'm not sure whether I prefer it to Hyperion, it is extremely intense, it provides great ejector and is really smooth, there is nothing not to love, however the focus of the park is definitely on Hyperion. I would say that Formula currently is my favourite launched coaster.
 
Luca B said:
Great American Scream Machine is definitely overshadowed by Twisted Cyclone, Goliath and even Mindbender. I would say it is one of the best woodies I have ridden, having some great floater and it is pretty smooth, probably my 3rd favourite at the park, barely trailing behind Goliath.
Fluch Von Novgorod is also overlooked since Hansa added Karnan. FVN features an extremely intense launch and a great ejector hill, it is definitely one of my favourites, but still not nearly as good as Karnan
I would also say Formula at Energylandia is overshadowed by Hyperion, honestly, I'm not sure whether I prefer it to Hyperion, it is extremely intense, it provides great ejector and is really smooth, there is nothing not to love, however the focus of the park is definitely on Hyperion. I would say that Formula currently is my favourite launched coaster.
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Agreed about GASM! That ride gave a phenomenal airtime on it. Shame the roughness took it down a peg but the airtime was something to behold. Reminds me of Jack Rabbit at Kennywood. Not a top 10 ride but definitely worth noting.
 
There are 3 overshadowed coasters off the top of my head, Valravn at Cedar Point, Mystery Mine at Dollywood, and Viper at Six Flags Great America. Valravn is overshadowed since its at Cedar Point and you have 3 all-time great coasters in Maverick, Millennium Force and Steel Vengeance there. Mystery Mine is overshadowed because Lightning Rod seems like the only big reason people want to go to Dollywood anymore, and they're not wrong, since it is a world-class coaster. As for Viper, well Raging Bull, Goliath, and soon to be Maxx Force have and will stolen the attention away from it, especially since Maxx Force will tower over it in the skyline.
 
The one that I've thought about recently is Apocalypse at SFMM being overshadowed by most other GCIs, sans maybe Wildcat and Roar at SFA. Apparently lots of enthusiasts like to sh:mad:t on it for being an awful GCI that's turning into the son of Psyclone, but I had loads of fun on it when I visited. Ran smooth just like the other GCIs I had ridden, just with not quite as good of a layout.

The other example I can think of is Thirteen at Alton Towers. It's literally dwarfed by it's next-door neighbor, Rita, but based on my rides on them in June of this past year, Thirteen is the superior ride in my opinion just because it has a more unique and inspired layout plus great theming, surprisingly good floater air, and the way the outdoor section is intertwined with the (literal) Dark Forest is fab. :D
 
Legend at Holiday World. Most people put this ride as the worst Holiday World wooden coaster, but really I'd hand that to Raven. Raven didn't offer much for me in the way of forces or airtime, instead bartering roughness in exchange for those two qualities. Legend has two amazing moments, the pop of standing ejector coming right out of that twisted drop (which goes under the huge raft ride by the way) and the mini-Beast enclosed helix.
 
Verbolten - It's overshadowed by Alpie, Apollo's, Griffon, etc. But this ride is pure fun from the theming to the final drop.
Cobra's Curse - While not the greatest ride in the world, it is a fun time, and well worth the visit. My boi Montu also literally is standing over it.
Storm Runner
Manta - SWSD
 
First one that comes to mind is Lightning Run. Wild little coaster with some great transitions and killer airtime. Perfect "signature" coaster for a small park like Kentucky Kingdom but Storm Chaser really just blows it out of the water in every category except for the drop. Makes for one heck of a one-two punch though.
 
+ 1 to Lightning Run. It's almost a shame Storm Chaser opened two years later because LR has never been in the spotlight since. Everyone's attracted to RMC, but Lightning Run deserves some of that love.

How about Blue Streak at CP? People seem to forget that this is actually a fun little PTC, but it doesn't help that it's tucked in the corner behind Raptor and Valravn. It's definitely worth reriding on return visits.
 
Gotta agree with Black Mamba here. I feel like the "classiness" of a B&M invert doesn't quite fit the rest of Phantasia's coaster lineup since all the other coasters are either complete Phantasia-exclusives (Taron, Winjas, soon F.L.Y.) or are executed in a way that one could only possibly find at Phantasia (you can only do so much with a Family Boomerang, but Colorado is the best Mine Train for sure).
Black Mamba is the best themed invert in the world, but since people consider Inverts like Montu well themed, there's basically no competition in that department. It's just a model that works really well without extensive theming, and I feel like back in the early 2000s, it's construction was mainly a decision towards the German market which has never seen anything like it, but in the grand scheme of coasters around the world, it's just 12 years late to the party. Nemesis is from 1994 after all.

I feel like Colossus at Thorpe Park is overshadowed due to how the chain treats it, since it's like 10 years overdue a repaint and new trains. When the Smiler was being constructed, maybe not everybody was excited about the fact it attempted to beat the record for world's most inversions on a coaster, but I'm pretty sure everybody was impressed by it. Nobody seemed to be acknowledging how that record had already been in the same country, heck even within the same chain, but Colossus has just aged so badly that no one could give two cents about it.

Silver Star is overshadowed by the harsh contrast it represents compared to all the other rides in Europa Park. Yes, it's 2019 and the world has moved on, so nobody is raving about Europa's theming anymore the way people did in 2004, but having a queue themed to an advertisement and the ride to a parking lot always seemed to have left a bad taste in the people's mouths: enthusiasts, even the GP or Europa Park goons seem to be not overly impressed by it, which is weird when looking at the stats. Heck, it's the 4th tallest B&M ever to this day and used to be the tallest for 10 years straight until 2012 beat it to the punch. Sure, the layout is not overly creative and the amount of trims (even though I personally barely notice them) might be too much, but I feel like whenever you ask people from around the world why they are excited/looking to visit Europa Park, Silver Star never comes up first. Take Taylor from Coaster Studios for example, he visited Europe for the first time last summer and was super excited about Europa Park, however both his Vlogs barely featured Silver Star and he talked about it for like 30 seconds out of 20 total minutes.

Goliath at Walibi Holland has aged way too quickly in the minds of enthusiasts. It basically represented the good side of what a chain like Six Flags could bring to the European market and stood out for at least a decade throughout central Europe. Sure, it's only 46m tall and having opened during the same year Expedition GeForce and Colossos came around didn't help, but it took plenty more years until the typical European mid-sized parks (I'm excluding Europa and PAW here since they basically drown in their own money) to take Intamin and B&M into serious consideration when they were looking for new additions, and even then it took another couple of years for these additions to match the quality of Goliath (yes I am thinking of Desert Race when I say that). It says a lot when a chain like Merlin Entertainment has been able to be responsible for the largest train of B&M-additions yet on this continent between 2011 and 2015, and Alton Towers being able to shape a legendary era between 1994 and 2002 purely for HAVING B&Ms. Goliath might be considered a typical 2001-coaster these days, but it was years ahead of the European Market when it was added.
 
Wildfire at Silver Dollar City. Brilliant, old skool B&M with great pacing, no MCBR, stunning location etc... but these days it's all about Outlaw Run and Time Traveler. Shame, that. Well, it's not a shame really cos OR and TT are both amazing, but I wish Wildfire got more love.

Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland. Sure, Leviathan is taller, faster, newer and shinier (not to mention that new thing they're building), but Behemoth gives the superior ride.
 
Dominator - It has a refreshing layout from the b&m looper layout, it is also pretty intense, but is blown over by I305, Volcano, TT
V2 SFDK - Really fun ride and many people overlook this ride because of the fact that it is an impulse coaster.
Batman the Ride - Yes, I know.
Bizarro - To many it's just a b&m floorless and many other people woukld rather ride Nitro, KK, or El Toro. Plus you can easily tell it's overlooked when you see the 5 minute line that the ride has most of the time.
Twister Knoebels - Just due to the fact that Phoenix is in the same park and gives some glorious airtime, people overlook the bigger piece of wooden mess in the park.
 
Maybe I'm taking this thread too literally...

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Hutch said:
+ 1 to Lightning Run. It's almost a shame Storm Chaser opened two years later because LR has never been in the spotlight since. Everyone's attracted to RMC, but Lightning Run deserves some of that love.

How about Blue Streak at CP? People seem to forget that this is actually a fun little PTC, but it doesn't help that it's tucked in the corner behind Raptor and Valravn. It's definitely worth reriding on return visits.
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Lightning Run for sure! So much so I forgot about it again AND it was my 300th! Great ride too.
 
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