Most underrated rides/roller coasters

July 5, 2016, 9:45 AM

Some of mine are...

Dueling Dragons - IOA

Goliath - La Ronde

Boomarang - La Ronde/Sea Serpent - Morey's Peirs.

Superman Ride Of Steel - Six Flags America

Roar - Six Flags America

Bizzaro - Six Flags Great Adventure

Replies (16)

July 5, 2016, 11:43 AM

I'm gonna toss Disneyland's Space Mountain into the mix. Sure, it's not an intense coaster by any means, but between the music and smoothness of the tracks, I'd say that this coaster is criminally underrated.

July 5, 2016, 12:08 PM

Silver Bullet. Its really unique and I like coasters that are original

July 5, 2016, 1:09 PM

@Jaiden -

Dragon Challenge is not underrated, because it no longer duels. The coasters by themselves are middle of the road inverts (Chinese Fireball being a couple ticks better than Hungarian Horntail).

Superman ROS is decent, but Intimidator 305, which is less than 90 minutes away at Kings Dominion, is light years better. The VR is interesting, but it doesn't change the fact that Intamin trains of that era are uncomfortable (why I never rank Millennium Force really high).

I'll give you Roar, especially after the recent retrack. Hopefully, though it will get the RMC upgrade soon just like Roar/Joker at SFDK.

Bizaro was good when the audio and affects were running - they gave new life to the world's first floorless coaster. However, it is really showing its age, and there are other floorless layouts that are far superior, which leads me to one of my most underrated coasters...

Superman: Krypton Coaster at SFFT... Setting is everything, and this coaster uses terrain like no other roller coaster (other than Iron Rattler of course).

Afterburn...Alpengeist and Montu stole all of the publicity when B&M started building inverts around the country, but Afterburn, formerly Top Gun: The Jet Coaster, has an unrelenting layout that's like Montu on steroids.

Lightning Racer... El Toro deservedly is one of the best woodies on the planet, but after that, Lightning Racer should be in the top 5 of any wooden coaster ranking.

Mystery Mine... It's not one of the smoothest experiences, but Dollywood doesn't get the credit for putting a solid theme on a roller coaster.

Manta (SWSD)...Sea World managed to build a world-class roller coaster that passed through the NIMBYs on the San Diego Planning Board. That by itself should be be worth 7 points on a 10-point scale. It doesn't hold a candle to Manta in Orlando, but for an installation that doesn't exceed 30 feet, it's a pretty impressive machine.

Phantom's Revenge...The park took a top 10 coaster in its prime and made it even better (and more accessible in the process). Sure, it's not as long as most other hypers, but no other hyper on the planet can duplicate the second drop through the Thunderbolt.

July 5, 2016, 3:55 PM

In no particular order...

Legend (Holiday World): Holiday World has three wooden coasters and this one seems to get the least respect. However, I've always thought it was still a top tier ride and actually enjoy it more than Raven.

Kentucky Rumbler (Beech Bend): This one is likely underrated because it is at a tiny park in the middle of Kentucky, but I actually think this is one of GCI's better creations. I'd go as far as saying the park is worth a visit just for this ride if you've never been.

Flight of Fear (Kings Dominion/Island): The biggest surprise for me at these parks. It's a very compact, very intense launched coaster in the dark and way more fun than I expected.

Raging Bull (Six Flags Great America): Not the greatest hyper coaster ever, but far from the worst as it is sometimes made out to be.

Afterburn (Carowinds): Similar to what Russell said, this is a very good inverted coaster that, while smaller than other inverts like Alpengeist, packs a bigger punch and has a more unique layout.

Ride of Steel (Darien Lake): The ride from which SFA's is cloned, this was one of the earliest hyper coasters and still provides a better ride than at least half that came afterward.

July 5, 2016, 8:12 PM

I'm also going to add Batman Backwards (I liked La Ronde's) and Jokers Jinx (SFA) onto my list.
@Russell
I still really love Dragons because it is smooth and packs a punch.

July 6, 2016, 3:55 AM

Since Raging Bull was already said, I was going to put the Whizzer at Six Flags Great America.

Edited: July 6, 2016, 6:17 AM

@AJ/Jaiden -

You both mentioned Premier spaghetti bowl clones (Flight of Fear/Joker's Jinx), but the best of the bunch, and most underrated is actually Poltergeist at SFFT. While it's not inside like the Flight of Fears, it actually launches at a faster speed (60 MPH versus 55 for the others - RCDB says Jinx launches at 60 now, but it hasn't launched at that speed since it first opened, even after the valley a couple of years ago. Poltergeist is a noticeably faster launch). KI and KD do get points for the theming, even though they abandoned it when they lost the rights to the Outer Limits after Paramount sold the parks. All of the Premier spaghetti bowls get bonus points after swapping out the OTSRs for lap bars.

@Jaiden - I can see your point about Dragon Challenge, and Chinese Fireball has a pretty interesting layout. However, the repetition of elements (back to back Immelmans to start) and the extended straights, explicitly designed to enhance the dueling aspect of the coasters (more prevalent on Hungarian Horntail/Ice with the long run up to the castle wall into the cobra roll and the really long straight into the dueling vertical loop), puts them both below all of the Batman clones in my book. They're still better than Great Bear, the worst B&M invert in North America, but just about every other installation is better. The only thing really going for Dragon Challenge is the lack of an MCBR. I don't know if you've ridden Talon, another B&M custom layout invert without an MCBR, but even that one, which typically ranks pretty low because it's rather small and compact, is better than both dragons when not dueling.

July 6, 2016, 6:33 PM

@Russell
The reason why I love Dragons so much is because they were my first big roller coasters. They will always have a special place in my heart. It's the same with Hulk for me and a lot of people.
Do you think SFA launches Jinx at a slower speed because they don't what to pay for extra power or matinance? If so that is really stupid.

July 7, 2016, 4:54 AM

Agreed on Manta is an incredible coaster. For underrated I'm going with HippoGriff at IOA. Yes it's a Kid's Coaster but has great views, solid turns, smooth ride and is a B&M.

July 7, 2016, 7:54 AM

Montu - BGT - Great coaster that is never mentioned.

July 7, 2016, 1:44 PM

How could you all forget any of the Six Flags Ninja coasters?
Vastly underrated.....totally rocks my world...puts me in a totally different frame of mind...helps me forget myself for a while.

July 7, 2016, 2:44 PM

@Robert Morris
? Hippogriff is a Vekoma
@Tim Hillman
Same reason why I "love" SLCs and Standups!

July 7, 2016, 3:04 PM

Intimidator at Carowinds is my favorite coaster ever, bar none. It's a shame it gets overlooked by its cousin at Kings Dominion.

July 7, 2016, 10:26 PM

Aight let's do this

Sierra Sidewinder at KBF- At first glance this looks like a boring, spinning family coaster. However, the actually ride is fairly intense and includes several over banked turns and some great helixes. Not a fantastic coaster by any means, but still vastly underrated.

All Wild Mouse Coasters- Wild Mouse coasters are often written off and boring and repetitive, but I personally find lateral g-force to be really fun.

Space Mountain at DLR- For some reason this ride is never ranked as one of the best Disney rides out there. Why not? This ride is pretty thrilling and has some amazing theming! Also it's a nice, long, smooth ride.

Manta at SWSD- This isn't just a family coaster, it's a great coaster. This coaster is full of high g-force and some great moments of air time. Definitely underrated.

Indiana Jones at DLP- This ride is no where near great, but I don't get why people would call it "bad". It's a little rough at some parts but I wouldn't call it terrible and I would definitely ride it again if I ever went back to DLP.

Riddler's Revenge at SFMM- I'm just putting this here because I feel like almost everyone puts RR below rides like Goliath, Scream! and Batman: The Ride when they rank their favorite SFMM rides but IMO this is the 6th best coaster in the park.

July 8, 2016, 6:54 AM

Colossus at Thorpe Park. With Saw (Eurofighter with a greater than 90 Degree drop) and Swarm (Wing Coaster) also in the same park (amongst others) its perhaps easy to overlook this 10 inversion thriller on a classic coaster train, but if you're not laughing in joy by inversion 3, then you need to consult a psychiatrist.

July 8, 2016, 2:43 PM

I'd like to throw in Arthur the Ride from Europa Park. The ride is Disney/Universal quality but most people in the United States haven't heard of it. It's definitely up there for me with Indiana Jones, Spider-Man, Radiator Springs Racers, The Tower of Terror and The Harry Potter Dark Rides on my favorite attractions list.

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