Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson, New Jersey, has unveiled Bizarro. Themed around the DC Comics character of the same name, this newly-enhanced rollercoaste now features high tech special effects and on-board audio system to assault the senses.
Originally introduced in 1999 as Medusa, the ride was the world’s first floorless coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard and totals 3,985ft in length.
Known as a peculiar Superman-like creature from a parallel Earth, Bizzaro believes in “doing the opposite of all Earthly things.” Because he is the imperfect duplicate of Superman, his powers and abilities manifest themselves as opposites of Superman’s powers including freeze vision, heat breath, spotlight vision and x-ray hearing.
The Bizarro experience at Six Flags Great Adventure begins the moment guests enter the queue through a custom-created comic strip designed exclusively for the park by DC Comics. The ride itself stats with a pulse-quickening climb before plummeting 61 mph through Bizarro’s freeze vision “cool zone.”
The rush continues as riders twist and turn through seven loops, blast past bursts of fire and race by other illusions and effects. The journey concludes as riders are sent head first into a spiked-shaped “Auger of Doom” set inside interlocking corkscrews (pictured above).
“With this transformation, no other coaster compares,” reckons Six Flags Great Adventure’s Mark Kane.
For the launch of the ride the park introduced a unique multimedia, interactive marketing campaign, encouraging participation via an online alternative reality game (ARG).
After an intense five months of participation from more than 500,000 players, Six Flags Great Adventure hosted a final in-park scavenger hunt rewarding 30 individuals exclusive access to the grand opening.
The debut of the ride in New Jersey coincided with the grand opening of Bizarro at Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts (pictured below). Formerly Superman: Ride of Steel, it is considered by many (Park World’s own Paul Ruben among them) to be the world’s best rollercoaster.
Now the Intamin ride features custom audio built into each headrest. After a menacing climb, riders plunge 221ft into the first of two fog-filled. Throughout the three-and-a-half minute journey, passengers fly 77 miles-per-hour through high bank twists and turns while soaring through bizarre building structures and sprinting through open-aired “S” shields.
The thrills continue as the train enters a “spaghetti bowl” of twists and turns that trigger fiery flame effects programmed perfectly in synch with the heart-pumping audio. The journey is capped off with a second plunge into a tunnel of effects before returning to the station house and back to “Earth.”
