Dark Knight Roller Coasters Swoop into Six Flags in 2008
Six Flags looks to mass produce (well mass produce in coaster terms) a new indoor roller coaster for three of its parks. In 2008, Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, NJ), Six Flags New England (Springfield, MA), and Six Flags Great America (Chicago, IL) will get Mack Wild Mouse coasters enclosed in a Batman themed building.
The Name Game
Normally I can’t stand Six Flags excessive recycling of names, (see my rant here) but at least these Dark Knight coasters will coincide with the Batman Begins sequel. Christian Bale will reprise his role as Batman as he battles the Joker played by Heath Ledger in the “Dark Knight”. It’s set to open July 2008. Six Flags had to rename the B&M Floorless Coaster also called Dark Knight at Six Flags New England to avoid confusion. So there’s more strategy behind the naming of these new coasters than usual.
To get an idea of what Dark Knight will be like, check out this onride video of the Ricochet at Carowinds . It’s the exact same Mack Wild Mouse model that will be used in the new ride. Just imagine it in the dark with lots of Gotham City-esque theming.
**UPDATE – 04/30** – Six Flags New England’s Dark Knight will not open this year. More..
**UPDATE – 05/22** – Check out this new Dark Knight video that Six Flags just released.
What do you think of the new Dark Knight coasters? Leave a comment below.
October 18, 2007 at 15:15
Impatient to watch this movie !
December 29, 2007 at 11:54
It should be a real coaster…its gonna be horrible and put shame to the name of batman at six flags
January 22, 2008 at 04:14
At a max speed of 60 miles per hour in the dark and great theming in the queue and beyond. You won't be dissapointed. This is a unique "indoor Wild Mouse" and "Wild Mice" are usually not fast, usually 28 mph max. This one will 60 mph max and will be equiped with a unique breaking system as the joker torments the riders through a series of scary effects (sought of a stop and go fast). The Carowinds ride is not even close as an example of the "Dark Knight Coaster". Read below:Wikipedia Six Flags Great Adventure Park section Movietown Type Steel – Wild Mouse – Enclosed Status Under Construction Opened May 2008 Manufacturer MACK Rides Designer Werner Stengel, Six Flags Model Wild Mouse (2nd-gen compact mobile) Track layout Wild Mouse Height 155 feet (47.2 m) Length 1,213 feet (370 m) Max speed 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) Duration 2:00 Cost $7.5 million Height restriction 48 inches (122 cm)
January 22, 2008 at 16:08
Trav, chalk this one up to some misinformation from Wikipedia. Someone's playing a little loose with the facts over there. There's no source material to back up the stats in the Wiki posting. Like you said Trav, wild mice are usually about 28 mph, so a wild mouse at twice that hardly sounds possible or at least likely. That'd probably be too intense for those little cars. And the 155 foot height is outrageous for a wild mouse. I'm sticking with RCDB's updated listing that reports that it will be a Mack wild mouse similar to this one in France called Schlitt'Express at Nigloland.<a HEF="http://www.rcdb.com/">RCDB is the gospel in the theme park community. Thanks for stopping by.
January 24, 2008 at 04:52
Hello there, Coaster Critic. I'll have to agree that the numbers from Wikipedia are skewed. However, I'm still excited about some of the theming elements proposed for the ride. We won't know the true height and speed until more info is made available, so, it is safe to assume the ride will have similar specs to Schlitts's Express like you said. But, I think the extensive theming will out weight any specific speed and height spec. From what I'm reading, this ride may be getting a lift system similar to the Scooby Doo Spooky coaster. The city simulated building and subway system will also look authentic. Refer to link below:http://coaster-net.com/forums/index.php?s=9a421cc5ae7a50b5db0b704e036654c6&showtopic=7578&pid=175368&st=50&#entry175368
February 5, 2008 at 07:21
That was the weakest coaster I think i've seen. Thats what all the "Hype" is about? I hope its in the kiddie area.
February 6, 2008 at 01:45
It'll look a lot cooler in the dark, with walls next to the track, kind of like a faster version of a fun house. That being said, I don't think it's a true 'thrill' ride, but should appeal to a broader audience, which I'm sure is the point.
May 17, 2008 at 17:20
This was one of the worst rides I have ever rode in my life. Worse then Skull Mountain. I was EXTREMELY disappointed, it was a really really big let down. There was a small drop that i didnt expect that got me but that was it, no exaggeration. Just think of skull mountain but way worse.
May 18, 2008 at 04:48
Holy crap, I can NOT believe I waited 90 minutes for this crapfest. They tore down movietown water effect, batman & robin the chiller and freefall for this piece of dung? As usual, the themeing is quite good and we basically are led to believe that we're going to be in a subway car which the joker takes over. and then…we're stuck on a dark ride wild mouse that has lame "surprises" that aren't worthy of a old western wild mine ride from the 50's. there's maybe two or 3 drops. it's not fast, it's not scary, it…. I can't express how LAME this is. I still have high hopes for the movie, but whoever greenlit this ride and attatched the Batman name to it should be fired.This ride has no business in a major theme park. It barely qualifies for the NJ meadowlands fair IMHO.Have I mentioned how bad it is?Oh, and bonus! The guards at SFGA are absolute zealots this year. They threw one guy out of the park for smoking where he shouldn't, then the guard at this ride was screaming at guests for sitting on the railings and threatening them with getting tossed off line. I wish he had tossed me off, would've saved me 90 minutes of my life I can't get back.
May 18, 2008 at 11:31
I just did this ride at Six Flags Great Adventure last night. It was to be our last in a long day of coastering, and we saved it until the end because we expected it to be the highlight of the day.We knew it wouldn't be as extreme as Kinda Ka, Medusa, Nitro or El Toro. Instead we were expecting a fun experience themed to match up with the upcoming movie.The theming was bizarre. In the last 1/3 of the line, which was in an indoor industrial-themed area, there was a video on a large screen of Harvey Dent making a speech about crime. Toward the end the video was "hijacked" and replaced with creepy-ish garbles. Then the lights flickered and went out and hidden projectors put multi-colored, scrawled words all over the walls and ceiling — Joker slogans like "Why so serious?"The next room was similarly themed, with some random tv screens and stuff. The cars are small 4-person affairs made to look like smashed-up subway cars.The ride itself was…awful. Sort of a cross between Skull Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. I didn't spot a single recognizable Batman-related element — neither Batman nor the Joker showed up throughout the entire ride. There were canned noises of evil laughter, scrawled weirdness, broken windows. The track twists and turns unexpectedly, and the darkness means you can't tell what it's going to do. As a result, I started to feel sick to my stomach and just wanted the stupid ride to end — something I have never before felt on a roller coaster. There are a couple of otherwise mild drops that are surprising only because of the darkness. All in all this might be worthwhile if you have children, since it's very tame — don't worry that Heath Ledger's terrifying-looking Joker will show his face, because he won't. Neither does Batman. At the end of this ride, hurt and angry, you ask yourself: is that really it?It was a terrible end to an otherwise fantastic day. Don't bother waiting in line. In fact, even if you have children, you would be better off avoiding the line and riding the teacups 5 or 10 times.
May 18, 2008 at 14:45
Thanks for the reviews guys. I really thought the concept of a dark, themed wild mouse sounded good, but apparently Six Flags didn't pull it off so well. Interesting to hear that Batman didn't show up during the ride.It sounds like you were all disappointed across the board. But what was the worst part of the ride? Was it the that the theming, the ride, or that it just didn't all fit together well?
May 18, 2008 at 15:56
Outside of the indoor building on the queue, there is no theming at all. The building is nothing more than an aluminum frame with some awful sky colored painting on it. Once in the building, it seemed hopeful. The video was pretty cool leading to the ride, but after the video you are led to another area that doesn't look finished. The theme inside doesn't match the video.As for the ride, it's terrible. I'm approaching 30 and have probably had season passes for 10 years, plus I worked at Great Adventure for a full summer. I've been on every ride the park has to offer over the last 20 years. This is the worst. There is no close second. The ride itself is boring. It's not really dark so you can see all the "surprise" elements; however, the tracks are so short you can't see any of the theming going on in the coaster. I get what the park was trying to do, but it was very poorly executed. A roller coaster/haunted mansion could have worked, but like I said the tracks are too short to take anything in. If El Toro is a 10/10 and Kingda-Kaa is a 9.5/10, I have no hesitation giving this 1/10 stars only appealing to those who frightening by the Runaway Train and first time coaster-goers.
May 22, 2008 at 10:50
i can not believe that i waited two and a half hours for this ride! this truely was a TERRIBLE DISASTER! how can you have a Batman ride without seeing Batman throughout the entire thing! sixflags has really messed up for spending 7.5 million dollars on it! the theming i thought was actually pretty good from the line to the preshow. but the ride experience was horrible. the only exciting thing was the first drop that you could not see because of the darkness. as soon as i got off the ride i was begging people not to go on because the ride was so horrible. but i can see that sixflags is trying to appeal to the families which is ok. but if you ae a ultimate thrill seeker i am begging you to NOT GO ON THIS RIDE!
May 22, 2008 at 12:27
Hello There All, I just got back from our Six Flags Physics Day In the IL park, and it went well, the only thing my group and I regret is ever going on this roller coaster. The person at the front of the line said no more than a 45 minute wait, which at peak hours seemed reasonable,but it turned into a 1hour 30 min wait. The thing they do not want you to know is … inside the building it looks like the line only goes on for a short while, once you enter there there is a line that is 3 times bigger, then a room where you watch a rather intense video, which i'd say was the best part of the ride. then you are disappointed and have to wait in another line that goes through pretty badly themed joker stuff. The actual ride is pretty horrific, It is almost the Exact same design that is shown in the video above, and batman, nor the joker show up during the ride, the ride is not fast, the drops are somewhat expected because it is not in complete darkness, and the cars are so small that during any given turn you can hit your elbow and bruise it pretty badly. Unless you have small children that are scared of larger coasters, I would not suggest this ride, most of the kiddie rides like orbiter, or revolution are better than this coaster. If I had known the design of this coaster before going on it I would have not gone unless the wait was less than 5 minutes.
May 22, 2008 at 14:22
What I really was really lame about this ride is that Six Flags in IL has the same ride 150 ft away called the Ragin Cajin. Didn't six Flags look at what the parks had before purchasing the same ride and putting it inside…Duh. The fact there is no Batman and Joker is the least of their worries, it's supposed to be a dark ride but is reasonaly lit so there is no suprises. What a dissappointment. I will never ride again. My 3 year son said this ride was weak, who are they kidding.
May 22, 2008 at 15:42
I arrived at Six Flags Great America today very excited for my day of roller coasters, and after a quick run on the Whizzer (as a walk on) and the Raging Bull. Two great rides and we though, before the lines got too long, we would take a run over to the Dark Knight. We thought the line would move fast, we thought the line would be pretty short, and we were dead wrong.We arrived in front of the queue and I was immediately disappointed. I took the building housing the queue as a store front, NOT as a themed ride. But that was it–that was the theming, and I decided it would be better inside. I ignored the oversized aluminum shed housing the coaster and the disappointingly chincy queue front and proceeded into the line. At the beginning of the queue my friend was handed a yellow ticket and was asked to give it to an employee on the platform so they could get a better idea of how long the line was taking. Worried, my party stepped into the line which appeared surprisingly short. We went through a few bends, mazing our way to the door, walked through, and after 20 minutes of a line we saw another hour (at least) ahead of us. At least they had some of the new LCD tvs the entire park was sporting with suprisingly entertaining shorts. We wined through the queue for another hour or so, and after an hour and 10 minutes we arrived at a door. The man directing the line here was very nice and told us that we had a short preshow and then we'd pretty much be on the loading platform. Well, we got in to the preshow, which I was actually rather impressed by (it left a good impression), and then went through a door to a short hallway. That short hallway turned into a longer hallway–and after ANOTHER 15 minutes we were FINALLY at the loading platform. This was one other place I was kind of impressed–we were actually instructed to board the car while it was still moving (which I thought gave it a special kind of touch)–but the novelty of boarding a moving coaster car quickly wore off as I realized these cars were NOT made for 6 foot tall guys, actually, they weren't made for guys at all. I shoved down the bar, more cramped than I've been on a theme park ride before, and got shoved into the dark abyss–except it wasn't very dark. I ignored that for a minute as we rose up the lift hill surprisingly quick. We got to the top and–"ow"–wait, was that supposed to hurt, all we did was reach the top of the lift hill, and it hurt–it hurt bad. We took a 90 degree turn and headed straight–there were lights flashing in different corners of the room, along walls, and then all of the sudden we turned 180 degrees–"Ow!"–ok, maybe I just had to reposition myself, except wait, I couldn't, I was crammed into that seat in the only way I'd fit. Another 180 degree turn… and a straight away… and a turn… and a straight away. That continued across the entire top tier of the coaster–then we dipped down, and had some turns–and there were some flashing lights–and some painful bunny hills–and some more turns–and it was over. Wait, I didn't see Batman, I didn't see Joker, I didn't see ANYTHING–except for lights, and the track (which I wasn't supposed to see), and the backs of the head of my friends in front of me. I didn't feel a rush, I didn't feel excited, but I DID feel pain. Actually, it just subsided about 2 hours ago, probably 8-10 hours after getting off the right. Actually, the catch phrase of today was "Ow, my left nut." This ride made riding a number of other things difficult–slamming against the harness in V2, fitting into the tight cars on Viper. Actually, I appreciated Iron Wolf today and the ability to position my crotch seat as low as necessary. But one thing is for sure, I will NEVER ride Batman: The Dark Knight again. I will NEVER forgive them for spending $7.5 million on that piece of garbage instead of rehabbing Dejavu–a ride with problems, but actually worth riding (when it was open). But instead they demolished a great ride to erect an eyesore that provides no enjoyment… although, I guess if you sit just right, it is cheaper than a vasectomy.
May 23, 2008 at 14:00
If anyone is interested, I've posted my footage of Baghdad Roller Coaster and amusement park–circa 1992 — at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohyGpYc_mao
May 23, 2008 at 15:07
Thanks for all the reviews! Maybe you'll save others from the disappointment and punishment.
May 25, 2008 at 04:30
I was looking forward to the new Dark Knight Ride. This would have been the newest inside roller coaster I have been on. I was thinking that with the technology today for building coasters this would be an awesome ride especially with all the movie related effects that were promised. I went on the one at Six Flags Great adventure. I always get the Flash Pass so I didn't have to wait in the long line waiting to go on the ride. The first thing you see is a short film done up in CNN news style that gets interrupted by the joker and they have some cool light that put writing by the joker on the walls. This is cool but after you see it once it’s enough. You then are released into the ride and they have a TV monitor that puts a joker face on yours while you wait in line, which moves pretty quickly once you’re inside. once on the ride you enter and start going up a hill in the dark then at the top the ride starts it not very dark and you can see what’s going to happen which isn't much a bunch of sharp turns to the right and left and a couple of little hills much like speed bumps. There are movie themed stations through out the ride that have special effect going on in them but you cant really catch everything. The special effects on the stations is probably the best part of the ride and you have to ride the coaster more then once to really see what is going on at them. As far as the ride goes it was very disappointing and it is not worth the wait in line. I would rather ride Skull Mountain, for an indoor coaster Skull Mountain is a better ride. I can't believe they spent $7.5 million on this ride even with the special effects, for that much money the special effect could have been a lot better as well as the coaster. Not to mention they took down the Batman Chiller ride for this lame ride, BatmanChiller wasn't a great ride either but it was way better then this one. I think they should ask for there money back.
May 26, 2008 at 16:35
by far the worst ride i have ever riddensix flags has screwed up before like removing shockwave and putting superman inbut dang, this is their worst screw up yeti mean the 6 flags in IL needs a new cool real hyper coaster like raging bullevery other park gets new ones every 5 years, where is our new one?and they just tore deja vu down so next year im looking for something to WOW me