The penultimate installment to my coaster ranking series, I now get into my 20 favorite roller coasters of all-time.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8
20. Copperhead Strike – Carowinds (Fort Mill, South Carolina)
Mack Rides, 82 ft tall, 50 mph, 3,255 ft length
Easily one of the most unique roller coasters I’ve ever been on, this Mack Rides LSM launch coaster doesn’t blow riders away with height, speed, drop, track length or even its launch – instead going all out on getting the most out of the ride’s five inversions.
With Copperhead Strike only reaching a top speed of 50 mph, these inversions are all absolutely packed with hangtime – or the sensation of being held upside down on a coaster for a longer than normal period of time.
Mack Rides was able to execute this on a smooth, small-scale ride that doesn’t leave you feeling too jumbled after inverting five times – with one of those inversions being a slow Jo-Jo roll directly out of the station.
The later inversions of this ride send passengers flying up to the top of the inversion before coming to crawl during their descent, making you feel every inch of the ride’s loops and corkscrew.
Obviously, this is probably a ride to skip if you’re not too crazy about being turned upside down – but for those who don’t mind, this wildly unique coaster is the kind of experience you’re not going to find anywhere else.
19. GateKeeper – Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)
Bolliger & Mabillard, 170 ft tall, 164 ft drop, 67 mph, 4,164 ft length
This gargantuan B&M wing coaster welcomes guests at the front of the park as they make their way into Cedar Point, being greeted by the ride’s classic near-miss keyhole element that gives a sign of what’s to come in a day full of thrills at the country’s most iconic amusement park.
GateKeeper lives up to its name and billing as the headline attraction at the front of the park, opening back in 2013 just as B&M began to expand the presence of their wing coaster model – placing two riders on winged seating that rests on both sides of the track, providing unique sensations during the elements of the ride.
I rode this a few months after it opened in August 2013, and had gone in with the experience of riding X-Flight at Six Flags Great America, a smaller-scale wing coaster that opened the year prior. This is probably among the rides I want another ride on the most – as I caught this coaster on our way out of the park as the last ride of the day, and I was nursing a pretty bad headache before even getting on the ride.
This coaster is equally graceful and smooth as it is intense at moments, with the ride’s opening 164-foot plunge being one of the more unhinged descents I’ve ever felt on a coaster – feeling like an endless drop.
Furthermore, this is much more than a one-trick pony, providing a wide range of elements and sensations while not cheaping out at all when it comes to the floater airtime that many B&M coasters have become known for.
I’d love to have a more refined perception of this coaster, but I’m very confident that I’ll greatly enjoy my next ride on it.
18. West Coast Racers – Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California)
Premier Rides, 67 ft tall, 55 mph, 4,000 ft length
I know I’ve called plenty of other rides unique on this list – and they are! Yet there’s something to be said about West Coast Racers at Six Flags Magic Mountain, a ride with the height of a family coaster that still packs in four launches, four inversions and a dueling race experience on every ride.
Unlike racing coasters of the past where two trains on two separate tracks are loaded and dispatched simultaneously, West Coast Racers loads trains one at a time – sending riders on the white track first before launching the next train as the original train begins to traverse the yellow track.
This coaster is in the back of the park and has poor capacity despite its always-racing configuration, so this is a fantastic ride to start your day with on a visit to Magic Mountain. Yet outside of the low capacity and awkward “comfort collar” restraints, there really are not any drawbacks to this ride.
Furthermore, this coaster is actually themed incredibly well – a stark contrast to the experience on most Six Flags rides. Made in collaboration with West Coast Customs, this ride pays homage to the significance of Southern California car culture, containing plenty of references to the 2000’s MTV hit show Pimp My Ride.
The guarantee of a race on every ride only adds to excellent theming of the coaster, while also acting as a solid moderate thrill coaster for young riders who are curious about bigger, more intense rides.
17. The Incredible Hulk Coaster – Universal Islands of Adventure (Orlando, Florida)
Bolliger & Mabillard, 110 ft tall, 104.9 ft drop, 67 mph, 3,700 ft length
An absolutely wild ride, this served as the highlight of my visit to Islands of Adventure, a rain-soaked Orlando day in March 2011 that made the opportunity to get on rides of any kind few and far in-between.
Thankfully, towards the end of our visit, The Incredible Hulk Coaster got back into operation, and I caught a late afternoon ride in the rain on this B&M sitdown looper that has stood the test of time since its opening back in May 1999.
Starting riders off on an enclosed lift hill loaded with special effects, passengers are launched by tire propellers from 0-to-40 mph in just two seconds off directly into a zero-g roll and the ride’s opening drop of nearly 105 feet.
While it felt like needles were hitting my face throughout the entire ride as it was still raining pretty hard, this was such a fun ride – maintaining speed astonishingly well throughout its layout while zipping through the coaster’s seven inversions.
In trademark Universal fashion, the theming is there too – with the opening tunnel being an incredible introduction to a coaster that feels and looks as gargantuan as the Incredible Hulk himself.
While this coaster was the park’s headline attraction during my visit over 15 years ago, this park is absolutely stacked today – meaning you probably won’t have to wait in as long of a line to hop on this one with attractions like Velocicoaster spreading out the crowd.
16. X-Flight – Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, Illinois)
Bolliger & Mabillard, 120 ft tall, 55 mph, 3,000 ft length
Previously mentioned above in my write-up for GateKeeper, this B&M wing coaster was just the second of its kind to open in the United States, serving up its first thrills in May 2012 as it has since become a key supporting coaster in Great America’s all-star team of a lineup.
Not nearly the size and scale of GateKeeper, what X-Flight lacks in speed and height is made up for with its butter-smooth ride experience and well-themed near-miss elements, with this coaster being a streamlined version of everything you could want in a ride of its kind.
I got my first ride on this just a few weeks after its opening, and I’ve since gotten the chance to experience this coaster dozens of times, remaining one of my favorites at my old home park. Each seat provides a different ride experience, with the outside seat on the right wing being my personal favorite – leaving riders dangling far off the track before the coaster’s opening drop.
While the inversions are all remarkably graceful and smooth, one overlooked element of this coaster is the final helix, which always catches me off-guard with some potent positive Gs after spending most of the ride feeling completely weightless in a flight-like sensation.
Although a ride of GateKeeper’s size may be too intimidating for some, this is an excellent middle-of-the-road thrill coaster when it comes to intensity, once again speaking to the amazing depth that Great America’s lineup has.
This may no longer be a headline coaster in Gurnee, but you’d be a fool to pass this one up during a visit to Great America.
15. Top Thrill Dragster – Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)
Intamin, 420 ft tall, 400 ft drop, 120 mph, 3,422 ft length
A record-shattering ride that is viewed as a signature attraction of the coaster wars, Top Thrill Dragster opened in 2003 as the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world – and it remains the tallest and fastest ride I’ve experienced, and likely will ever experience.
It wouldn’t take much more than a quick look to realize that Top Thrill Dragster is a gimmicky ride designed to break records and not much else, catapulting riders with a 120 mph LSM launch that sends riders up the 420-foot tall structure before descending 400 feet back down for the conclusion of the coaster.
I got two rides on this back in August 2013, and while the coaster obviously doesn’t do a whole lot, the sheer speed and height make this one of the most frightening, exhilarating experiences you can have on a coaster.
With around a half-minute of ride time, this is the kind of coaster this over within the blink of an eye. Still, it’s impossible to forget that split-second memory I have of looking down at the rest of the park at the top of the coaster – putting into very brief perspective just how fucking massive this coaster is.
Of course, this ride is now reimagined following the closure of the original ride in 2021. This happened after a guest waiting in line for the coaster was struck in the head by a piece of metal that had dislodged from the train, leading to the Zamperla-led revamping of the ride as Top Thrill 2.
This coaster was an incredibly expensive novelty and ultimately turned out to be a questionable investment from the park, given the ride’s frequent downtime and plethora of issues. Still, this is one of the most important roller coasters of all-time – and it gave a ride experience that is more than worthy of that recognition.
14. Maxx Force – Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, Illinois)
S&S, 175 ft tall, 78 mph, 1,800 ft length
It probably feels weird to have experienced a 0-to-120 mph launch and for it not to be the most powerful launch I’ve ever experienced – but Maxx Force somehow dethroned Top Thrill Dragster in that category.
Utilizing a very loud air-compressed launch that can be heard throughout much of the park, Maxx Force thrusts riders from 0-to-78 mph in just 1.8 seconds – a jolt that you truly feel throughout every part of your body.
While the coaster is a whopping 175 feet tall while somehow packing in four inversions in just 23 seconds of ride time, the scariest part of the ride is undoubtedly waiting for the coaster to launch – even as a seasoned coaster enthusiast, merely typing out this sentence is giving me a sense of anticipatory anxiety.
With how short of a ride it is, the launch acts as the primary draw to the coaster and the main gimmick of the ride, but there is still plenty to experience in such a short amount of time. As if the inverting dog tongue at the maximum height of the ride wasn’t enough, riders race through a heartline roll at 60 mph – making it the world’s fastest inversion at the time of its opening in July 2019.
The incredible intensity of the launch makes this one of the scarier coasters one could get on, but the thrill and pure elation that comes with that acceleration is truly unmatched among the coasters I’ve been on.
13. RailBlazer – California’s Great America (Santa Clara, California)
Rocky Mountain Construction, 106 ft tall, 100 ft drop, 52 mph, 1,800 ft length
Maintaining the theme of intensity, this was my most anticipated ride during my visit to California’s Great America earlier this month, as I had yet to experience a single-rail coaster – a model that is gaining more and more prevalence in recent years.
RailBlazer was one of two prototypes made by RMC to test out the model, with the other one landing at Six Flags Fiesta Texas as Wonder Woman: Golden Lasso Coaster. Both rides contain virtually the same layout – one that doesn’t look all that threatening to the onlooker outside of its single-rail appearance and single-file seating.
At just 106 feet tall and with top speeds of 52 mph, one may not be expecting all that much on their first ride – but let me promise you, this coaster will do everything it can to rip your face away from your head in the half-minute or so of ride time after the first drop.
I’ve never been on a coaster that maintained as much aggression and whip throughout its layout as RailBlazer did, something that becomes immediately apparent after the vertical drop that begins the ride.
While I wouldn’t call this ride rough, there is noticeably more jolt to the single-rail coasters than what you would find on a different RMC, only helping in keeping riders out of their seats for a good chunk of the ride – with the airtime moment at 1:09 of the video above perhaps being the most violent pop of ejector airtime I’ve ever felt.
The final two inversions of the ride are also in rapid-fire succession, providing an overlooked moment of intensity that had me legitimately seeing stars and feeling incredibly disoriented for 3-4 seconds after hitting the final brake run.
If you come across RailBlazer or any other RMC single-rail coaster for that matter, don’t let the unimposing size fool you – this is one intense coaster.
12. Diamondback – Kings Island (Mason, Ohio)
Bolliger & Mabillard, 230 ft tall, 215 ft drop, 80 mph, 5,282 ft length
One of the more beloved B&M hypers, this majestic coaster opened up at the park in April 2009, a few years after Cedar Fair took over ownership of Kings Island and began pouring in major investments.
Among those was the first B&M hyper in the state of Ohio, the 230-foot tall Diamondback that was built to be every bit of the crowd pleaser it is known as today.
Featuring staggered seating and the amazing clamshell restraints, riders ascend up the 230-foot tall lift hill directly out of the station before dropping 215 feet at 80 mph to kick off an airtime-filled layout.
While similar to Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia in that this is a coaster that capitalizes on floater airtime more than anything else, there’s still plenty of variety in this ride – both in the layout and the setting.
Despite its location towards the middle of the park, Diamondback’s layout does an excellent job of getting away from the noise and traversing through a mainly wooded area where the ride’s lateral force-filled hammerhead turn takes place.
While Diamondback doesn’t employ the twister layout seen on a few B&M hypers, it does still provide some solid moments of positive Gs leading into the ride’s picturesque finale – a magnificent looking splashdown in front of the station, which perhaps could have been made a tad more exciting if rides actually got wet.
For fans of B&M hypers, this is a ride that embodies everything the model is about – a glass-smooth experience with comfortable restraints and seats, plenty of airtime and just enough of other elements to keep enthusiasts and regular park attendees alike thrilled.
11. Maverick – Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)
Intamin, 105 ft tall, 100 ft drop, 70 mph, 4,450 ft length
Earlier in this list, I mentioned how Top Thrill Dragster was seen as a definitive coaster of the coaster wars that lasted throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s – where manufacturers and parks alike were building coasters for the sole purpose of chasing records that they’d be able to market to the public.
Yet after Kingda Ka opened at Six Flags Great Adventure in 2005 to break the height and speed records of Top Thrill Dragster, many wondered what else could really be done for roller coasters – with those rumors picking up intensity as Cedar Point had their next big project underway for the 2007 season.
Instead of upping the ante in the coaster wars, Cedar Point debuted the ride that proved to end the frivolous battles – a 105-foot tall steel coaster with a pair of inversions and an LSM launch that reaches top speeds of 70 mph.
With the height and speed records feeling too extreme and expensive to go after, Maverick at Cedar Point went after a different novelty – featuring a cable lift hill that leads into a wild 95-degree beyond-vertical drop that acted as the biggest marketing point of the ride.
From there, Maverick takes riders on a remarkably complete coaster experience, piling on positive and lateral G forces with a flood of S-curves – one of which replaced a heartline roll that was initially slated to be the third inversion of the coaster before being proven to be too intense during ride testing.
If the pair of corkscrews and series of helices weren’t enough for you, Maverick then launches riders from 0-to-70 mph in just three seconds during the second half of the ride. This gives a punchy jolt to the rest of the layout, which continues to stack up the positive Gs in its fast, low-to-the-ground course.
Don’t be fooled by this coaster’s size – this is one of the more intense rides in the park, and is absolutely worth a shot on any visit to Cedar Point.
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