While the majority of the most thrilling coasters to ever exist remain in operation, a few rides from yesteryear stick out as missed opportunities.
With weather beginning to warm up in many parts of North America, I myself have begun to think more about long days at the amusement park and riding roller coasters – a summer pastime only baseball could contend with.
Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to ride dozens of incredible roller coasters in an array of different regions across the United States, with most of these visits occurring in 2024.
In addition to handful of visits to my former home park of Six Flags Great America when I lived in Chicago, I’ve also gone to Kings Island, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Six Flags Over Georgia in the past few years, among others.
On these visits, I was able to check off several roller coasters I’ve wanted to ride for years, while even taking a bit of a detour during a visit to Atlanta to ride what is now my favorite roller coaster I’ve had the chance to experience – ArieForce One at Fun Spot Atlanta.
While I continue to look ahead to some of the coasters I hope to get a chance to ride as I near 100 total credits, I’ve also started to think about some roller coasters that no longer exist – and how cool a chance to ride them today would be.
I was able to think of four roller coasters that particularly stood out to me as rides I missed out on, while also considering my personal circumstance and likelihood to have ridden the coaster when it was around.
All four of the coasters on this list operated within my lifetime, and are all demolished – meaning there truly is no way left to ride them. This keeps a coaster like the former Deja Vu at Six Flags Great America off the list, which now operates as Aftershock at Silverwood in Idaho.
Additionally, these coasters all feel like near-misses to me in some regard – either by me being too young by a few years, or by weather or another unfortunate circumstance.
Here’s a look at some blasts from the past I wish I got to experience:
1. Shockwave, Six Flags Great America (1988-2002)
A record-setting looping coaster from Arrow Dynamics, Shockwave was the tallest and fastest steel coaster on the planet at the time of its 1988 opening, while also featuring a record seven inversions.
At a height of 170 feet with a 155-foot drop, Shockwave’s 65 mph top speed and seemingly constant inversions helped the coaster quickly develop a reputation as a bumpy, head-banger of a ride.
Much of this can simply be attributed to the time of its opening, in an era prior to computers being able to aid in calculating the forces exerted onto a rider – making the first, rather tight vertical loop of the coaster feel especially intense to those that rode it.
Though I of course never rode Shockwave, with my first visit to Great America coming in August 2003, one year after its closure, I have gotten a chance to ride Shockwave’s only surviving clone, Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
While Viper is regarded as slightly more tame than Shockwave, the constant cadence of inversions and anything-but-smooth ride make the complaints add up.
Shockwave was ultimately closed instead of the family-friendly Whizzer after the 2002 season, owing to rider complaints over pain, low ridership and high maintenance costs. The coaster was replaced by Superman: Ultimate Flight the following year.
2. Son of Beast – Kings Island (2000-2009)
Arguably the most infamous roller coaster ever built, Son of Beast wasn’t meant to merely break records, but to obliterate and redefine them. Originally opening in 2000 as what is still the world’s only wooden hypercoaster to ever exist, Son of Beast reached towering heights of 218 feet, plunging riders down a 214-foot drop while reaching speeds of over 78 mph.
Oh yeah, the ride included a vertical loop as well, the first wooden coaster in the modern era to do so.
Constructed in a hurry by Roller Coaster Corporation of America, it became clear not long after the coaster opening that the ride was perhaps a bit too ambitious for its own good. The ride’s massive scale and streamlined construction were widely viewed as contributing factors towards the coaster’s significant structural issues, which impacted operations throughout its existence.
After a major derailment incident in 2006 that led to 27 hospitalizations, the ride was remodeled with lighter trains, which necessitated the removal of the vertical loop as the new trains were not heavy enough to make it through the inversion. Another rider injury in 2009 spelled the end of the coaster at the park, with its last day of operation coming on June 16, 2009.
I saw Son of Beast for myself during a family vacation to Kings Island in July 2002, though at just six years old, I was nowhere near being able to ride the coaster. My older sister did however get to experience Son of Beast in its original glory, praising the vertical loop and first drop as the ride’s highlights.
3. Dragon Challenge, Universal Islands of Adventure (1999-2017)
A rare example of fully defunct Bolliger & Mabillard coasters, Dragon Challenge offered an incredibly unique experience to thrillseekers at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando. Also known as Dueling Dragons, Dragon Challenge was a set of intertwined inverted roller coasters taking the names of Chinese Fireball and Hungarian Horntail, respectively.
As someone very acquainted with the many iterations of Batman: The Ride at Six Flags parks, Dragon Challenge seemed to offer a slightly elevated, more intense experience. Both coasters reached a maximum height of 125 feet, with Chinese Fireball reaching speeds of 60 mph while Hungarian Horntail topped out at 55 mph.
During the lifespan of the coasters, the two rides were often dispatched simultaneously, leading to several unique near-miss elements throughout the coaster for riders on both tracks. The coasters also stood out as thrilling options in a more theming-heavy park such as Islands of Adventure, which has since added the widely acclaimed Velocicoaster to its lineup.
This was the narrowest miss for me of the coasters that are on this list, as my visit to Islands of Adventure came on a rain-soaked day in March 2011. The coasters were only sporadically open throughout the day, and I was unable to get a ride on either of them – settling for a ride on The Incredible Hulk Coaster instead.
Though I’m typically not the biggest fan of inverted roller coasters, this looked to be an experience unlike any other in an American theme park.
4. Kingda Ka, Six Flags Great Adventure (2005-2024)
Perhaps the gimme inclusion on this list, I unfortunately never made it out to Six Flags Great Adventure to ride what was the tallest and fastest coaster in the world for quite some time – with Kingda Ka reaching heights of 456 feet with a top speed of 128 miles per hour.
With that said, I was lucky enough to get a pair of rides on the original Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point in August 2013, and I don’t think it’s wild to say that the Kingda Ka experience wouldn’t have been radically different.
Yet Kingda Ka was still a gargantuan achievement in the history of coasters, and one to truly celebrate as well – as coaster enthusiasts now have to have morals in line with spineless stand-up comedians to ride Falcon’s Flight at Six Flags Qiddiya in Saudi Arabia – the current world record-holder.
While Kingda Ka wasn’t the full-circuit coaster that Falcon’s Flight is, it still offered a glimpse into what is now a brief era in the history of roller coaster records – abandoning all other elements in favor of giving riders the tallest heights and fastest speeds possible.
My wife and I initially had plans to make it out to New Jersey to visit the park in May 2024, the final year of the coaster’s operation – but a conference in Atlanta redirected our trip down south and to Six Flags Over Georgia instead. Great Adventure is certainly still worth visiting, but I will have forever missed out on this record-setter.
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