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Here are some of the coasters, and what
we think of them, at Six Flags Great Adventure.
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 - This
used to be our favorite roller coaster of them all! And
it's not just because it's where we got engaged,
In fact, we got engaged here because we loved this ride so much.
This coaster, which has copies scattered around the country, was an astonishing
breakthrough in coaster design when it was first introduced. Instead of sitting
in a car that rests on the track, you sit in chairs that are suspended from the
overhead track, kind of like a ski lift, with your feet hanging free below you. 
By itself, that would make this at least an interesting ride, but Batman throws
you through vertical loops, "heartline" rolls (like doing a barrel roll),
curves and twists with such speed and non-stop intensity that you can't help
but be exhilarated when the train finally hits the brakes at the end of the
ride. Not only that, but Bolliger & Mabillard (the ride's makers) have made a
name for themselves by also providing comfortable and extremely smooth rides.
Riding Batman is like sitting in an easy chair, except your chair is flying
through aerobatic maneuvers at 50 miles per hour.
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- Another B&M innovation, this conventional steel twister is conventional only
in the sense that the trains ride on top of the tracks. But after you get into
your seat, the floor drops away so that your feet dangle freely just above the
track. As the train flips through loops and rolls at over 60 miles an hour, the
sensation of flying is especially strong with this lack of visible support.
Although Medusa has a lot of different exciting elements, like loops,
corkscrews, and heartline rolls, overall this ride is not as exhilarating as
Batman.
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- Batman & Robin: The Chiller
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The Chiller is actually two rides. Each one is a Linear Induction Motor
launched shuttle coaster. Batman's blue track leaves the launch area and goes
straight up, around 130 feet. It loops around half of a vertical 180, then
comes straight down. Back up again, it goes through a heartline roll and on up
to the end, pointing up to the sky, 200 feet in the air.
Robin's red track curls up from the launch into a curving loop, then it
parallels the Batman track: up into a heartline roll before it, too, ends
sticking into the air.
 The
launch is what makes this ride exciting. If you haven't been on it, you can't
imagine it. It's a full four seconds of acceleration unlike any other.
Perfectly smooth, yet quite literally breathtaking. The first second or so
seems almost familiar, like bottoming out after the first drop on a coaster.
But the sensations continue. Look at your watch for four seconds. It's really a
long time to be pushed like that. Yet a really short time to end up doing over
70 miles an hour! The rest of the ride is short (takeoff to station return is
35 seconds), and rough (Batman more so than Robin).
The other ride highlight is the end of the forward trip. You head on up a track
that just ends in midair, and hope you run out of momentum before you get
there. Right before you do, there's a gentle nudge of more LIMs pushing you up
even closer to that edge (to make up for friction losses), because now you go
through the same track backwards.
- This is a very fun mine-train type coaster. Like all of these kinds of rides,
it's supposed to look and feel like a train careening out of control. There are
wildly banked curves and short, quick drops and bumps. Mild enough for kids,
but still a good time.
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- A traditional wooden racing coaster, Rolling Thunder, like Batman & Robin, is
actually two rides. There are slight differences between the two tracks, with
one having more large and steep hills, and the other providing those little
air-time inducing bunny hops. It's the only wooden coaster at this park, but
it's a little boring. There's not much that's very exciting about this ride.
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- Steel loops to the max. Coaster designers have been saying that seven
inversions in one ride is probably the limit of endurance for most coaster
riders. Well, this Arrow ride pushes up to that limit. Vertical loops and
corkscrews follow one after another on this 173 foot tall steel behemoth. And
since they replaced the wheels a few years ago, this ride is also pretty smooth
and comfortable.
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- Another mine-train type coaster, but this one really feels like a mine,
because it's totally enclosed in a dark room. The usual sharp curves and sudden
dips attack you, but you can't see them coming. But it's not very long, so this
fairly small coaster is only worth riding if the line is short.
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- Black Beard's Lost Treasure Train
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A small steel "family" coaster that's mild enough for children, but not very
exciting for older folks. If you sit in the back of the extremely long train,
you might experience a bit of airtime on this noisy coaster.
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- Yet another B&M creation, Nitro is a "traditional" hypercoaster. It's mostly
out-and-back layout takes you on a trip through the Jersey Pine Barrens at 80
miles an hour. But what really makes this ride exceptional is when you ride
near (or at) the rear of the train. It's there that Nitro delivers massive
amounts of floating air time as it falls down each of its huge hills.
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- Superman Ultimate Flight
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Another gimmick? This time, you ride in a prone position. Face down, flying like
Superman, you dive, swoop, and turn through the air and, even, dive headfirst
into a vertical loop. The loop is pretty intense, but the rest of the ride
quickly loses its novelty appeal. Although, being from the masters at B&M, it's
more comfortable than it looks.
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There were other coasters at this park
that have since been removed. Some are described below.
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 - The first drop of
Viper was great: it was very steep and you really felt it in the pit of your
stomach. The rest of the ride flew by in a blur. The train hardly slowed down
at all, so it got from the top of the lift hill all the way back to the station
in just over 30 seconds. Viper's gimmick was that it performed a heartline
(barrel) roll, but it was an "ordinary" coaster with cars that sat on top of
the track. The rollover was done very slowly, leaving you hanging from the
shoulder harnesses.
After just a few years, this ride became very rough and painful. Made by a
company called TOGO (which we like to joke stands for "Try once, get off"),
Viper became nearly unrideable, and was finally removed. It's been replaced
with a new, heavily-themed area that includes some new (and hopefully better)
coasters.
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