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Bizarro @ Six Flags Great Adventure
From Medusa to Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure: The World’s First Floorless Roller Coaster Takes a Bizarre Twist
Back when new CEO Mark Shapiro took over Six Flags he was interviewed at Six Flags Over Georgia. He pointed at the brand new 20-story hyper coaster Goliath and stated “No more of those.” Now, after 2008’s X2 at Magic Mountainand this year’s Bizarro-themed roller coasters we know that the new Six Flags strategy is moving the company away from huge, expensive thrill rides and towards roller coaster makeovers.
Medusa opened in 1999 as the World’s first floorless roller coaster. On Medusa’s open trains riders are basically seated in a chair (with restraints) with their feet dangling above the track. Now, the transformed seven-looping monster sports what Six Flags calls a “multi-sensory ride experience with all-new thematics and innovative, state-of-the-art visual, audio and sensory effects launching it into another dimension of thrills and excitement.” While that all sounds good, let’s take a closer look at the new elements of Six Flags Great Adventure’s Bizarro.
To help introduce Bizarro, a lesser known super villain, comic-book style signage can be found throughout the queue. Right off the initial 120′ drop, the train is sent speeding through Bizarro’s “freeze vision cool zone”. There are a number of shield-shaped archways that douse the riders with a mist. Following the large vertical loop, the dive loop has been spiced up with a set of flame throwers. These babies look like they could easily be felt by the riders speeding by. Next, the train traverses the popular zero-g roll and then a cobra roll over the ride’s entrance path.
Bizarro finishes with the train spiraling over the misting ”Auger of Doom”, a spike-shaped cylinder placed in the center of the interlocking corkscrews. It looks to give a pretty head chopper effect, but I can’t imagine that it’s
actually all that close to the trains. Six Flags doesn’t need another suit on their hands.Coasterer on ThemeParkReview didn’t hate the new Bizarro coaster, but he said that the new elements were ‘unnecessary.’ He liked that the ten year old roller coaster got some love with a new paint job and theming, but he didn’t feel that the effects really added that much to the overall ride. He also went on to share his views on the on-board sound system:
“I wasn’t the biggest fan of the on-board sound system however. I thought the yelling and explosions and stuff you heard going up the lift hill were unnecessary, and to be honest, nobody in our group even noticed that there was a soundtrack over the course of the ride, while it was in motion. And then, on the brakerun, the Bizarro chants were a little much too. Also, with the noise, it is impossible to carry on conversation with your friends and those you ride with.” - Coasterer on ThemeParkReview
Medusa, I mean Bizarro, has been a great ride for years. It doesn’t sound like the makeover hurt the ride, but it doesn’t sound like it improved it a whole lot either. Check out this POV video of Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure:
What’s Your Take?
Have you ridden Bizarro? How do you think it compares to its former life as Medusa? Leave a comment below. Images from ThemeParkReview & GADV
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I paid my first visit to Great Adventure 2 weekends ago. What I great park! El Toro managed to grab the #2 spot on my top 10 list along with Nitro coming in at #9. The sudden upheaval in my list caught me quite by surprise! I managed to ride Bizarro twice, both times in the last row, and I have to say that I agree with Coasterer. The quality of the sound was poor, so it was more annoying than entertaining, especially while waiting to enter the station to unload. The fire might be exciting to, say, fourth-grade boys, but it did nothing for me. The mist, on the other hand, was quite enjoyable on a hot day. I enjoyed the ride, but I’ll take Dominator any day.
Yep. El Toro is an amazing roller coaster. That’s why I gave it a 10/10. Thanks for the mini Bizarro review. I was curious to hear what people thought about the redesign.
Thanks for reading!
Hey TCC Thanks for making me like coasters.
and i’m making a new YouTube Show the “Roller Coaster Critic” that was inspired by you,Thank You!
From: Cole
I saw photos of the revamp a while back. Reminds me of the ‘ride-that-wasn’t-supposed-to-be-IoA’s-Incredible-Hulk-but-actually-was’ from “The House on Haunted Hill”. They portrayed it as a harrowing overly-themed ride with a false train flying off a hinging track. A stretch, I know, but that’s what I thought of the before/after.
I really have to disagree with most of these people. On Medusa, the chainlift was kind of boring because it was hard to see other rides, but this new soundtrack adds a whole new thrill level. Sure, it’s not great… but you can’t walk in expecting Universal. I liked going through the superman-shields, especially at night… and the flame effects are awesome. the “Auger of Doom” is also pretty cool… Medusa was a great coaster already and I think this made it better. You can even hear some famous movie lines in the ride if you listen carefully, from “Superman 2″, “Scarface”, “Shrek”, and more… this doesn’t make sense but this ride is really fun. And don’t forget the hip hop song at the end.
This “new” version of Medusa is….well, it’s hit and miss. I liked sitting in the back and being pretty much by myself because they took out the two back middle seats. The “soundtrack” made absolutely no sense, and I couldn’t hear the spoken parts half the time. I liked the mist, I jumped at the fireballs, and the Auger of Doom DOES appear to be pretty close to your head. That being said, I really feel like these effects were just tossed in there to claim that Great Adventure got a “new” ride. I talked to quite a few people who were under the impression that GAdv got a new coaster and were sorely disappointed to learn that it was just a revamp. I wasn’t expecting Universal, but Six Flags (if they weren’t bankrupt) would do well to consider hiring new people for the special effects so that they are more integrated and not so random-feeling.
I was thinking that Why couldn’t six flags have “revamped” the Medusa and still kept it Medusa. In other words, Built on the theme that was already existing instead of changing it completely. I hope Six Flags doesn’t do it to my favorite ride Medusa on the West Coast.
After going on this ride eight times in a row at night with the effects working the way they should every time I think it’s safe to say that I disagree with your opinion. I love the Gandalf quote right on the first drop and every other quote (Aliens, Superman Returns, Shrek, Zoolander, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Superman II to name a few) were fabulous. I liked the ride before, but now I found it to be the most entertaining ride at the park now and easiest to get on.