• Superman: Ride of Steel | Six Flags America

  Written by The Coaster Critic 7 Comments
  Last Updated: November 2, 2006

  Superman: Ride of Mediocrity | Six Flags America
  This is by far the most ho-hum hyper coaster around. As coasters go, it’s not a complete failure, but compared to other hyper coasters it’s in the back of the class. The fact that this Superman at Six Flags America (near Washington D.C.) is even made by the same designers that built a masterpiece in another Superman: Ride of Steel located at Six Flags New England is baffling to me. They’re the same type of coaster and have the same name, but the similarities end there.

  Up, Up, and Away
  The experience starts with minimal theming in the queue and station. Where’s the Superman movie theme like in the New England version? The rides ops were indifferent and did nothing to further rile up the excited riders. Intamin’s seats aren’t as wide open as B&M’s, but the back seat of each car did appear to be raised slightly in a stadium seating fashion. I sat in the last car on all of my rides. After a long climb, you’re treated with the highlight of the ride. You drop down a great 200′ hill next to a green pond. There’s no telling if it’s green by design, if it’s some form of toxic waste, or if it’s just algae. It should be dubbed Kryptonite Creek, because from there on the ride’s less than ’super’.

  The Ho-Hum Hyper Coaster
  The banked turn along the ground is actually pretty fun, but the second hill is weak and offers NO airtime. The first helix is fast, but nothing special. The third hill, a short drop into the second helix offers a good pop of air. The second helix offers more of the same. Then you enter the finale. The bunny hills are adequate and one of them has the camera. Then you hit the brakes. For a hyper coaster, this S:ROS is subpar, if I were comparing it to others it would get a 4 or 5. As a roller coaster, it’s still good. There’s nothing offensive about it, it just scratches the surface of what a hyper coaster can be. Did I mention it wasn’t as good as the SFNE version? Final Rating – 7.0 (Good)

  What’s Your Take?
  Want to share your experience on S:ROS? Leave a comment below.

  

  Related Posts:

  1. Superman Ride of Steel Goes Bizarro at Six Flags New England
  2. Superman Ride of Steel Goes Bizarro?
  3. Superman Ride of Steel to be Enhanced for 2009

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7 Comments

1. #1 Anonymous says:
   July 20th, 2008 at 4:04 am

   They got their ride!

   Reply
2. #2 mike says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pm

   I used to think this ride was lame compared to other coasters of its stature that I have ridden. But I recently revisited Six flags america, and rode in the front and the back, of both the blue and red trains of the ride. The ride was great in the front of the blue train, got some ejector airtime in places, the ride was rather rough in the back, with the feeling of barely making it over the 2nd and third hills. But in the red train.. for some reason the ride seemed completely lame. It felt much, much slower and tamer throughout…

   Reply
3. #3 Matthew says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 5:27 pm

   Man just looking at this ride, this is a great hyper coaster. Just looking at the theming of this ride its just amazing. It also looks pretty smooth. I wish i could ride this.

   Reply
4. #4 Rollercoaster Dude says:
   October 4th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

   Back about 8 to 10 years ago, we use to get season passes here. I rode it in the first year it opened. It’s truely the best coaster at Six Flags. I love the first, second, and third hills. But besides this and the drop zone, there is not much else to this park, unless you like the water park. That feels good on a hot day. But after visiting Busch Garden’s Water Country USA, that is the bestest water park in the Mid Atlantic by far! Wooohoooo (I agree with the alge-water…LOL….coaster critic, it should be called cripto, LOL)

   Reply
5. #5 Quil says:
   December 4th, 2009 at 6:48 pm

   i realy enjoyed this coaster. it had a great drop, awsome speeds, and my favorite finale on a coaster.

   Reply
6. #6 Mike says:
   August 8th, 2010 at 9:10 pm

   Just got back from SFA today and added 6 new coasters to my list. I realize you visited a few years ago so I think some things have changed since then. I had a great experience with this coaster. All I heard were bad things about the park employees, the park itself and operations. I can tell you that out of 5 parks I’ve visited this year the Superman crew was the best when it came to having fun and getting riders pumped up. Got there early and it is the only park where no matter what time throughout the day if there was no one in the que they would let us re ride and pick out seats. The crew was also chatting with us and giving us high fives before and after rides. As for the coaster I rode 4 times in front and 4 times in back. For some weird reason the first 4 rides in the front were on the blue train and my last 4 rides in the back were on the red train. So in the front it seemed the drop dragged over the first drop and the 2nd hill had a tiny bit of air but the 3rd hill had great ejector air. When I rode in the back I was thrown over the first drop for a little air, the 2nd hill had some good air and the 3rd hill still had crazy ejector air. I was really surprised at how much I liked the coaster. Personally I’d rate it just a little higher at about an 8. It definitely doesn’t come close to the greatness of an Apollo’s Chariot but there were certain parts (the airtime) of this ride that I liked better than the Intimidator 305. As a side not Batwing is one intense ride!

   Reply
   • #7 The Coaster Critic says:
     August 8th, 2010 at 10:57 pm

     You’re right it’s been years since I’ve been to Six Flags America. It’s good to hear that the park has improved its operations. It can’t be that hard to train your employees well and just fire the ones who act like they don’t want to be there.

     Reply