Nineteen roller coasters is a great reason to visit a park. It’s also a slightly unreasonable number to start thinking about when you’re hoping to spend a day there.
I’m heading to California for spring break in a few months, and I hope to spend at least one day at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. With 19 coasters, more than any other park in the world, there’s enough here to make narrowing down my priorities difficult. I doubt I’ll manage all 19 credits, but even choosing ten leaves me with a mix of rides I expect to love, rides I don’t quite understand, and one that has already prompted a warning about my neck.
What makes this trip especially exciting is how much would be new to me. I’ve never ridden an Arrow suspended coaster, a stand-up coaster or a wooden coaster from Great Coasters International. Magic Mountain could fill all three gaps while giving a couple of my favorite rides some serious competition. These are the ten I’m most excited to try, ranked by anticipation. My preferences are going to make a few of these placements look strange.
10. Green Lantern: First Flight
My uncle’s girlfriend, who lives in the Los Angeles area, tells me Green Lantern will “break my neck.” So the local recommendation could be going better.
Green Lantern is an Intamin ZacSpin, with seats mounted beside a compact track that zigzags downward, letting the cars rock and flip as they go. To me, it looks like a more primitive version of the S&S 4D Free Spin coming to Six Flags Great America this year as The Joker. They’re different designs from different manufacturers, but the resemblance makes Green Lantern an interesting point of comparison.
Its reputation gives me plenty of reason to be cautious, and I’m prepared for the possibility of a rough ride. I still really want to try it, though. Some of that is curiosity about the design, and some of it is probably the amount of confidence I’m putting in the manufacturer. It’s an Intamin. How bad can it be?
9. Ninja
Ninja looks like the kind of ride where the setting does a lot of the work. I’m a huge fan of coasters that follow the terrain, which is part of the appeal of Whizzer at Great America and those alpine coasters winding down mountainsides. There’s something much more interesting about a layout that has to work with a hillside than one that could sit almost anywhere.
The other attraction is the train itself. On this Arrow suspended coaster, the cars hang beneath the track and swing from side to side through the turns. That’s a whole new type of coaster for me, and Ninja’s route through the trees looks like a particularly good way to try it. The track changes direction, the cars swing outward, and the hillside gives it all something to move around. That looks fantastic.
8. The Riddler’s Revenge
I never got to ride Iron Wolf at Great America, so I still have no idea what a stand-up coaster feels like. The Riddler’s Revenge would be my introduction, and its reputation as one of the best examples makes that prospect more encouraging. If I’m going to find out whether I like riding a coaster on my feet, this seems like a promising place to start.
Bolliger & Mabillard, usually shortened to B&M, built a layout here that would interest me even with ordinary seats. The inclined loop is the element I’m most curious about: picture a vertical loop leaned over to one side, changing the angle at which the train carries you around it. It looks strange in a way that makes me want to understand it from the train. The two dive loops look pretty great, too. I’m curious about the standing part, but the track is doing plenty to earn this spot.
7. X2
I imagine this is where some people will start disagreeing with me. X2 looks incredible, and I’m still not convinced I’ll enjoy it very much.
I’ve never been particularly keen on spinning rides, and Arrow’s coasters generally aren’t my favorites. X2’s reputation for being a bit jerky doesn’t help. Ninja has me excited about swinging through the trees; X2 asks considerably more of my willingness to be rotated around.
The mechanics are fascinating, though. Its seats sit out beside the track and rotate forward and backward independently of the train’s movement. Additional rails control that rotation, so the direction the track is going doesn’t tell the whole story of what the rider is doing. I can understand the explanation and still find the idea of actually riding it mind-boggling.
That curiosity is enough to make X2 a priority, even if I suspect the experience won’t suit me. I want to give it a fair try. I just can’t put it near the top of my anticipation list when several other rides look much closer to what I already know I like.
6. Apocalypse
Somehow, I still haven’t ridden a GCI wooden coaster. I keep forgetting that Viper at Great America wasn’t built by Great Coasters International, which is a fairly inconvenient detail when trying to count it as one.
Apocalypse would finally give me an actual GCI to judge. The layout looks tightly packed with turns, drops and tunnels, and I like how much seems to happen without the train needing an enormous hill to get things moving. It looks like a fun, intense ride with a bit of theming around it, which is a welcome extra.
I’ve heard it described as one of the weaker, rougher GCIs, so I’m keeping that in mind. But I don’t have my own experience with the manufacturer yet, and the layout still gives me plenty to look forward to. I’d like to find out what I’ve been missing.
5. Scream!
Batman: The Dark Knight at Six Flags New England was my first floorless coaster, and it left me wanting another. Among the B&M models I’ve ridden, wing coasters are still my favorite, but floorless coasters come in second. I haven’t ridden a giga yet, before anyone asks.
Scream looks like a very appealing way to get more of that experience. There’s no floor beneath your feet, and the layout sends the train through seven inversions, including a vertical loop, a cobra roll and two corkscrews. It looks like there’s plenty here to enjoy beyond the novelty of the seating.
Then there’s the parking lot. Scream gets criticized for being built over one, and I can understand why, especially when Ninja is right here demonstrating how much a setting can add. Still, the layout looks fantastic to me. I’m excited enough about another floorless coaster that the asphalt underneath it isn’t going to push it down my list.
4. Tatsu
Considering that I kind of dislike Superman: Ultimate Flight, fourth place might seem generous for another B&M flying coaster. But almost everything about Tatsu’s setting and layout makes me want to give this one a chance.
The lift hill looks intimidating before the train even reaches the top. Riders are tilted forward into a flying position, facing the ground, and Tatsu takes that position up over Magic Mountain’s hillside. Where Ninja looks appealing because it moves through the terrain, Tatsu seems to use the terrain to put even more space beneath you. The scenery, sweeping turns and graceful-looking rolls make the flying idea much more attractive to me here.
And then there’s that damn pretzel loop.
The train dives into it headfirst, carries riders through the bottom on their backs and climbs out again. That downward loop is a very different proposition from those graceful rolls, and it’s the part I’m least excited about. Without it, Tatsu might actually be at the top of this list. As it is, I’m hoping the rest of the ride is as good as it looks.
3. Superman: Escape from Krypton
I used to hate heights. Now I’m looking forward to a coaster attached to a 415-foot tower. Apparently, my response to getting comfortable with tall rides is to find a much taller one.
Superman: The Ride at Six Flags New England is my tallest coaster so far, at 208 feet. Escape from Krypton would be my first coaster with a structure over 400 feet tall, although that figure describes the tower rather than a 415-foot drop. The ride’s listed drop is about 328 feet. Either way, this would be a substantial jump from what I’ve ridden.
The premise is wonderfully direct: launch backward at up to 100 mph, climb the vertical track, lose momentum and come back down facing the ground. There isn’t a long course of turns and inversions afterward, but I don’t think this needs one to interest me. The height and launch are doing most of the convincing already. It may be over quickly, but it still looks like it could be one of the best rides in the park.
2. Twisted Colossus
Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England is my number-one coaster. That gives Twisted Colossus a very specific job: show me whether another Rocky Mountain Construction coaster can take its place.
Both opened in 2015, using steel track on wooden structures, but Twisted Colossus adds something that makes the comparison especially interesting. Its blue and green sections form one continuous course, so a single ride takes you up the lift hill twice. With the timing right, another train can run alongside yours through the dueling portions.
That’s the ride I’m hoping to get. The “high five” element banks the two tracks toward each other, while the Top Gun Stall lets one train hang upside down above the other. Those elements look interesting on their own, but having another train there seems like a huge part of the appeal.
I’ve heard people favor Twisted Colossus over Wicked Cyclone, and I’ve heard the opposite. I’m not sure where I’ll land, especially if I don’t get a dueling ride. Wicked Cyclone has set the bar awfully high, and I don’t want to arrive expecting its replacement to be waiting for me.
So I’m putting Twisted Colossus second. This is my attempt to keep my expectations reasonable about a ride I’m already considering as a potential new number one.
1. Full Throttle
I love launch coasters. California Screamin’ at Disney California Adventure is my favorite of the ones I’ve ridden, and it holds the number-three spot in my overall rankings. Full Throttle looks like it could give it some competition. So does Xcelerator, if we make it to Knott’s Berry Farm, but this is the launch I’m most excited about at Magic Mountain.
The opening alone makes a pretty convincing case. Full Throttle accelerates from a standstill to 70 mph and sends the train straight into a 160-foot vertical loop. That is a daunting amount of loop to be looking at from the station.
There’s more to the launch setup, too. After the dive loop takes the train into a tunnel, it stops, launches backward partway up the element, then moves forward through the tunnel again with another burst of acceleration. The final climb takes it over the outside of the same giant loop it traveled through at the beginning. For someone who likes launches this much, two forward launches and a backward one are an easy thing to get excited about.
I know the complaints: the ride is short, and the brakes interrupt the final drop. I can see why that ending would be frustrating. But the launch is what matters most to me here, and the rest of the layout gives it enough company that I’m much more excited than concerned. I don’t need Full Throttle to be the longest ride in the park if those moments are as good as they look.
So Full Throttle gets the top spot. I’m curious whether Twisted Colossus can beat Wicked Cyclone, but I’m even more excited to find out what those launches feel like.
Now I just need to make it to Magic Mountain. There are whole coaster types here I haven’t tried, and I’m already debating which ride might replace a favorite. If you’ve ridden both, which would you be more excited to return to: Full Throttle or Twisted Colossus?
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