The Best Batman-Themed Roller Coasters
With the Dark Knight movie on pace to set a new box office record (look out Titanic), I figured counting down the top Batman-themed roller coasters would be appropriate. This year’s new Dark Knight coaster isn’t getting the best reviews, but this week’s Top 3 has the most popular Batman coasters around.
3 – Batman & Robin: The Chiller @ Six Flags Great Adventure
The Chiller operated at Great Adventure from 1998 until 2007. As the name suggests, it features a Batman and a Robin track that dueled at two points. While the Batman train performed a top hat, the Robin train did a cobra roll. Then, both of them did corkscrews together as they reached the pike, before they repeated the trip in reverse. Unfortunately, on both of my visits to the park it was closed. Likely because of the frequent downtime, Chiller was scrapped in 2007. Again, I never got ride it, but the theming looked pretty strong and the concept was definitely unique. Dueling launched shuttle coasters don’t grow on trees.
2 – Batwing @ Six Flags America
Batwing is a Vekoma flying coaster that does an excellent job of simulating flight. Riders ‘fly’ face down while the track performs several inversions and swooping turns. It’s easily one of Six Flags America’s best rides. It’s similar to Firehawk at Kings Island and Nighthawk at Carowinds.
1 – Batman – The Ride @ Various Six Flags Parks
Bolliger & Mabillard changed the game in 1992 with this popular inverted coaster that’s credited for revolutionizing the coaster industry. First built at Six Flags Great America near Chicago, the ride was so successful it was cloned at 8 other Six Flags parks. Then the same layout was applied to five other coasters around the world. Click here to see all the Batman clones. The ride is short and bit compact for today’s standards, but as a prototype it is still quite impressive. The 2700′ course is packed with 5 inversions including a loop, zero-g roll, loop, corkscrew and another corkscrew. Check out this onride video at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Best Bat-Villain Coasters
Riddler’s Revenge is a record-holding stand-up looper at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Mr. Freeze is a launched shuttle coaster at Six Flags St. Louis. Joker’s Jinx is a launched looper at Six Flags America. It’s an outdoor version of Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion. Read a full review here.
What’s your favorite Batman-themed coaster? Leave a comment below.