Batman: The Dark Knight @ Six Flags New England
No, I don’t have a time machine (yet!). I rode the floorless roller coaster formerly known as Batman: The Dark Knight at Six Flags New England in 2005. This year, Six Flags renamed it Batman: The Ride so that they could add one of the three new Batman: The Dark Knight clones to the park. Make sense? Onto the review.
Batman The Dark Knight was a floorless roller coaster with open cars. It had a mostly smooth ride, some decent theming, and a nice looking station. My favorite inversion, the zero-g roll, was among the coaster’s five loops. Also, because of it’s capacity, (like with most B&M’s) the line should always move relatively fast. However, when I was at Six Flags New England there wasn’t a line. All of these pluses added up to a ‘Good’ coaster, but nothing more.
The layout was pretty short and uninspiring, while still being a good use of the little land they had to work with. The ride started with a
swooping 117′ foot drop that’s immediately followed by a large vertical loop. A dive loop follows and then a banked turn that passes through the previous vertical loop. Next is a sweet zero-g roll that twists over a path. The Dark Knight’s finale was the B&M signature interlocking corkscrews (seen here). Unfortunately, they are uncharacteristically rough and they’re immediately followed by the brakes. The train was still traveling at a pretty good pace as I hit the final brakes, and the ride’s over.
I’m not a huge fan of compact roller coasters with multiple loops as they tend to have their inversions too close together. That wasn’t so much of a problem with the first three inversions, but the rougher than usual corkscrews and slamming into the final brakes hurt this coaster’s chances of a higher rating. Lastly, it’s compact size keeps the speed and intensity at a
minimum. Which isn’t completely a bad thing, but when I got off I wasn’t like, “Wow that little coaster packed a punch”. It was more like, “Okay. That was a B&M floorless.” The Dark Knight is still a good installation for any park. Final Rating – 7.0 (Good)
This coaster is rated ‘TH’ for Thrilling. It’s a 3 out of 5 on my Thrill Scale because it includes loops. If you fear going upside-down, then you may want to skip Batman.
What’s Your Take?
Have you ridden Batman The Dark Knight (now known as Batman The Ride) at SFNE? What did you think? Leave a comment below.
January 13, 2008 at 17:51
hahaha, so right about the muting thing… if I was in the park I'd definitely check it out, but I don't know if that ride would be my sole reason for going.
July 1, 2008 at 06:43
how in the world did you take it without dropping the camera?
July 1, 2008 at 13:15
I don't actually take the onride videos myself. I just post the videos I find on YouTube. But 'gees97' who took the video did do a good job holding the camera still. Thanks for stopping by.
July 5, 2009 at 16:03
hey TCC perfer compact floorles coasters like this over something like medusa?
July 5, 2009 at 18:55
No. I'd say that I prefer Medusa and Dominator over this floorless. I didn't mind the size, but this one just didn't seem to grab me. Still a fun ride though.
July 9, 2009 at 06:06
When I went I didn't think it was too rough,just a little bit. I like how it dosn't have a block brake before the corkscrews as other B&Ms do. I also think it was kinda intense
August 6, 2012 at 11:45
This is a ride id like to ride again becuase i didnt quite enjoy it and like to give it a second chance. well i did enjoy it but it seemed kinda "head bangish" at some parts compared to the awsome superman krypton coaster. I had a headache at the time due to stupid Mind Eraser which kinda made it less enjoyable. But idk didnt quite grab me either.