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Superman: Ride of Steel | Six Flags America

Joel
Roller Coaster Reviews

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 madSuperman Ride of Steel - Six Flags Americae 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 theSuperman Ride of Steel - Six Flags America 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.

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Joel
Founder of CoasterCritic.com. My favorite coasters are B&M hypers and gigas. I'm also a huge fan of terrain roller coasters.

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11 Responses

  2. 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…

  3. 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.

  4. 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)

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

  6. 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!

    1. 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.

  7. Pingback: Fly With Me? Take To The Skies With These Superhero Roller Coasters | Republic of Geek

  8. I rode it today in the last row. It was much better than I remembered it. The last time I rode it in in the front row in 2004. Having been on I305 and Apollo's Chariot a lot lately I was not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. It was really cool flying down into that trench for the 1st turn. The first hill is still a bit light in the airtime department, but every other hill had great airtime. I found the 1st helix to be very fun because it was so long. It reminds me a bit of the first turn on I305. Those tiny tight humps at the very end have sick strong air.
    As far as Six Flags America's bad rep… I think it's continuing to improve. Everything was clean. All of the staff I encountered were very outgoing and friendly, They had someone high five-ing all the riders as they entered the ques. Also every single ride op had a lot of energy and each had their own way of trying to pump up the riders.
    It seems as if they got the memo about customer service for sure.
    Only one train running on each coaster today [Thursday 7/12/12]. An op that I spoke to said they run two trains on Wednesdays [Pass-holders bring a friend for free day], and Fridays.
    What a shame they have been neglecting this park for so long. There seems to be a huge amount of space for expansion. It's weird they have not tried harder because this park is 20 minutes away from one of the richest markets in the country.

  9. It is quite sad when your hometown park’s best roller coaster has a straight-away in it. I’m still not convinced that Roller Coaster Tycoon played no part in the designing of this coaster. It’s great to have a hypercoaster at your hometown park though, since some parks don’t even have one, but it’s just frustrating knowing how lame it is in comparison to other hypercoasters.

    I’ve heard rumor that a ride in the front seat is actually better then in the back. I’ve only sat in the very back; not the very front, so I plan to do just that this Saturday and see if it’s any different.

    Maybe one day they can have Intamin come in and rip up the straight-away and replace it with a bunny hop; I think that would actually do wonders for the ride; the end is similar to other hypercoasters, where it actually provides some decent airtime.

  10. I agree that the front is the best for this ride. When I sat in the front it provided some good airtime moments and was very smooth. I actually have this rated higher than the New England version due to the pain I experienced on the New England version. By layout, however, obviously the SFNE one is better.

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