The FAILURE of Six Flags' VR Roller Coasters
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Virtual Reality Roller Coasters never really became a big trend. But why?
FLAT RIDE POLL LINK: forms.gle/31Ze...
MERCH LINK: teespring.com/...
TikTok Link: www.tiktok.com...
Patreon Link: / themeparkcrazy
Music: ES_Wine & Spirits (Instrumental Version) - Xavy Rusan.mp3
ES_See the Moon (Instrumental Version) - Gamma Skies.mp3
I honestly think I enjoyed my ride on Kong more with VR because I was too busy blasting aliens to notice my head getting bashed by the coaster.
When six flags first released kong was getting VR, one of the comments on instagram was “what is the VR going to be? A gorilla punching your head back and forth?”
I will always be grateful for VR coasters. I used to have an incredibly fear of going upside down on a coaster but when they added VR to the shockwave in Arlington, it gave me the confidence to try it out. Now I can ride any roller coaster without having a panic attack during the line
Coincidentally, that was also the same roller coaster that sparked my passion for riding more thrill rides. All thanks to both being a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, and my friends “dragging” me to these coasters!
I love how in-depth you were in researching VR coasters, but I also like how you covered the resurgence of VR in the mid-2010s in general. I know VR is still around, but the hype around it and rush to implement it feels like such a specific era in retrospect-somehow, a recent but also weirdly distant time.
Anything that happened pre-COVID seems weirdly distant to me.
You forgot to mention the solution to VR wait times at Europa Park. On their new cancan coaster they added a separate station for VR riders. This eliminates the additional wait times for people who want to ride it without VR! (edit: the VR experience even has a different name: Eurosat Coastiality)
for the record, I actually got to experience a couple of these VR coaster experiences (they had one at Over Texas and one at San Antonio). The Over Texas one on the Shockwave was…uncomfortable to put it lightly, and the one at San Antonio with the Superman Coaster literally malfunctioned (or I guess ran out of battery which you described in the vid lol) as the coaster did the first drop, so I was staring at a black screen while violent movement was going on around me. I was nauseous that day lmao
It should be noted that the people shown tapping the headsets are actually playing the VR game. One would tap the side to fire your virtual weapon. Which was sometimes hard to do during the ride. You’ll be fighting the g’s with your arm pulled in the opposite direction.
Only needed to ride Shockwave once to know it was no bueno.
That's correct. It would be hilarious though if Six Flags' own promotional video showed people struggling to use the headsets. And I imagine people did the same thing when they glitched out.
💯
Thank you for your explanation. I was gonna ask what on earth they were doing..! 😀
This explains why the weapon gets disabled at the top of the lift.
I love coasters, and I'd never care to have VR on any of them. Less screens, more thrills and REAL scenery!
One thing most people compliance about at OG universal studios is TOO MANY SCREENS!
But as far as coasters without scenery go, I still prefer to see the natural surroundings. So much more enjoyable.
I thought this was a good idea at first, I first experienced this on Galactica at Alton Towers, it seemed cool, but the VR headsets kept switching off at certain points, & the VR bags on the restraints kinda ruined the experience tbh.
Meanwhile the VR headsets at the Ghost Train ride at Thorpe Park is now gone for good
@@thecinematicmind good they are gone. I went there on June of last year, my set was buggy where i didn't enjoy the experience at all
@@thecinematicmind I'm actually not happy about that becauze I never got to experience the VR on that. I kinda feel like the branding should've changed
@@thecinematicmind galactica's vr headsets are gone for good now too! :3
I enjoyed the vr on galactica, it added a twist to the ride, unfortunately it did slow down the operation time so can see why they removed it.
Still think that it needs to be re-themed to reflect the forbidden Valley and Nemesis better
Isn’t it ironic that these VR headset experiences we’re only on literally some of the worst coasters ever
Revolution at SFMM is decidedly not one "of the worst coasters ever", neither is Superman at SFFT.
I rode the Superman Krypton Coaster with VR, after like 30 seconds the screen blacked and I would see flashes of what was supposed to happen every once in a while. The darkness had little specs that made it look like a starry sky which was nicer than complete darkness though.
The best implementation is also at Europa Park but on Eurosat, it has a separate station for it and switch track so it doesn’t affect the throughput for people riding without
I remember Sea World also tried a VR idea with their Kraken coaster in Florida. As far as things went, I don't think it had an impact on how many riders rode it in the short time it was around.
I actually did that when Six Flags Great Adventure used it for Skull Mountain as a Fright Fest exclusive. It was not back the next year and I did not know why, but my guess was probably the laborious task of cleaning all the headsets before they were to be used again by the next group of riders is why it failed. I didn’t think it was bad though when I tried it out.
Six Flags over Georgia also had VR on Dare Devil Dive Gerstlauer coaster in 2016 and Acrophobia Intiman drop tower in 2017.
Yep. It was pretty widespread in the chain.
I rode Acrophobia with the VR headset and the video never even started, I could look around the little VR landscape but the action never started. It was kinda terrifying to know you’re up 200 ft in the air and you can’t see anything lmao
Mind Eraser is the most literal name for a roller coaster EVER!
It's also the name of a cocktail that has vodka, Kahlua, and club soda.
Most appropriate name for a Vekoma SLC indeed.
@@ThemeParkCrazy I'm just thankful Montezooma's Revenge isn't the most literal name ever. 🤢🤮💩🤣
We rode the Goliath with VR in Quebec some years back, and it was wild. It was a struggle with my glasses and poor eyesight, but worse was my friend who has the helmet slip into a blindfold! The ride operators were gracious enough to let my friend ride again, though!
Yeah, glasses added another level of pain to the experience, both physical (on rides with OTSRs) and visual if your glasses didn't cover really close vision issues (many oldsters use reading glasses for closeup work, not their regular glasses).
The VR on the Scream at Six Flags Fiesta Texas was a cool experience. 😎
Same for me with New Revolution at Magic Mountain. It was a blast.
Kinda sad it didn't work out myself. I thoroughly enjoyed New Revolution at Magic Mountain. I was lucky enough to experience it while it was working properly and it was a completely unique experience.
MM is my local park and I was bummed I never got to experience it. Good or bad I would have liked to give it a try.
Same it made an old ride feel new. It worked flawlessly for me as well so we're some of the lucky ones I guess. 😁
Tbh, I always saw VR even riskier than a Wii remote...This time, you can't even see what you're doing in real life, so instead of a remote being thrown, someone may get hit in the face.
But I'm also rather old school. Just gimme a handheld device or console like the PS2 (yes, 2), and I'm all good.
I'd be terrified to ride a coaster either way, hahaha.
I will never understand why they chose Dare Devil Dive for the VR treatment at Over Georgia. That line doesnt move anyway but adding VR just slowed the line to a crawl.
my biggest issue with VR is that if the feed is slightly off or there is no clear track you cannot brace yourself for certain parts of the rides. This can be a significant issue on more rowdy ride...
i used to work for zumanjaro drop of doom six flags great adventure, while i didnt work there when the Spider VR was still around, the shelves that held the VR headsets remained in the que line for the entire year i worked for the ride, same thing happened with Skull Mountain, they didnt remove the shelves used to hold the VR headsets, to make matters worse, the park didnt tell guests the VR was discontinued and guests were still asking us about the VR rides, they were really mad when we told them they were discontinued
The idea of VR on a roller coaster is like putting watermelon on pizza. It just doesn't mix well.
I love how you said watermelon instead of pineapple to not offend Peter who's quarter Italian
@@sr.chi7741 If he had said pineapple, that would mean VR on coasters is awesome, which it clearly isn’t.
@@StamfordBridge Pineapple doesn't fit on pizza tho
@@sr.chi7741 You do like a joke.
@@sr.chi7741 Pineapple does mix well with pizza
Not going to lie, I had a fun time with the VR on ShockWave at SFOT 😅
It had potential, and it was pretty fun when it worked on Superman. But it was miserable on Mind Eraser and nobody liked the inflated wait times.
I think VR on rollercoasters will be good in the future like there was one on a inverted coaster in movie world in australia on the Gold Coast
Overall, I'm glad I never go to experience this, because it looks like I would've thrown up, passed out, or both.
Two little stories:
First, I visited Six Flags New England for my first ever time in Summer of 2016. This is when Superman VR was running nonstop, all day. In a park where I was able to barely wait for anything with the Flash Pass, Superman still took over half an hour. I was standing around to be next in line for the front, and during that wait, I counted to number of cycles that ran on one hand. As if the U-Brick lap bars didn’t ruin the ride enough for me…
Second, as a Six Flags Great America native, I was there for the PR fiasco when the park announced that VR was going on Raging Bull, their highest capacity coaster, and also among their most popular. Having experience the disaster at SFNE just a month or two prior, I had a lot to say to their poor social media team. The backlash was so strong. Knowledgeable guests already were fed up with VR at that point. I was so happy when they moved it to Demon. Oh, by the by, Revenge of the Gargoyles was a multi-hour wait, while Bull never cracked ninety during my Fright Fest visits. I’m not waiting three hours to get my head bashed into a Samsung smartphone. So glad this trend died in obscurity.
Thanks for the perspective! And thanks for watching!
I'm surprised you didn't talk about Galactica at Alton Towers. It was the first rollercoaster to be fully dedicated to VR.
I remember Alton Towers doing something similar with Galactica.
The VR is long gone, but the theming still remains
Now, in 2016 when the VR on coasters came out I it was a great idea and all my friends were telling me about it. But later in 2019, I realized how terrible of an idea that is! Great video though!
I definitely remember the hype. It feels like just yesterday.
@@ThemeParkCrazy yess
Speaking of VR on roller coasters, apparently The Big Apple coaster at New York New York had VR headsets and the worst CGI known to man at one point. I was just visiting Las Vegas and the coaster was active and I just thought of the VR failure on rides. I don't think I'd ride it anyway because many people said it bruises you due to the rough track.
Goliath at la ronde also had vr for the 2016 season, you needed to be 13 or older to experience the ride with vr, during tyhat season, goliath haw two lined, one for the normal ride experience and one for the vr experience, I did not ride it with vr beacuse I was too young :(
I remember going to Six Flags America on a Tuesday afternoon in Summer. Mind you literally all the other rides at the park had a 5 minute wait. The VR they put on Mind Eraser made the wait a 1.5hr wait. My VR headset didn't even track properly, it didnt move with the ride.
One of my craziest theme park experiences happened at Six Flags New England when they made Superman The Ride into VR.
My friend and I waited roughly FIVE hours to get on the ride. It was already near closing time and we wanted a night ride, so we figured, "why not?"
What was so memorable was the atmosphere of the line of frustrated park goers who waited to ride over 2 hours after park closing and after a day of walking around the park under roughly 100 degree heat.
Any time a Flash Pass rider would pass by the normal queue, they would get booed and cursed at. I witnessed nearly 2 fights break out due to line cutting. My friend rapped entire Biggie Smalls songs from memory and got the crowd around us to turn up 😂 The line would also randomly erupt in chants as a sort of call to action to make the line move faster or to beg to turn off the VR
What slowed the line down so much was the wait for the headsets to be cleaned. They would not start the ride until the cleaning cycle completed
What a night
very well researched and narrated video, loved it. i personally think crazy bats works pretty well and the ride experience is cute, fun and high quality. but overall i've had more bad experiences with vr than good on rides so far.
great job making it into a video!
@@kolbeawsome oh nice, I hadn't even seen it yet but went to check right after I read your comment - that's so cool haha
i think six flags & those other parks with vr coasters could of had “one size fits all” vr units built right in the over the shoulder restraints & had computers built in the trains that directly connected into each vr unit installed. this way, they didn’t have to worry about fitting all of them on each guest & syncing issues. but they would still have to clean them though
im sorry i had to stop right after the clip of people in vr headsets but no controllers, acting like theyre still interacting with something virtual XD imagine the director being like "just poke at the air or something, like those sci-fi movies or whatever" and the actors just going with it lmao
your videos are very info-driven and I love that
I went to Six Flags Great Escape in 2017 or 2018, and they were selling The New Revolution t-shirts in the gift shop.
Crazy Bats with VR is literally the worst experience I have ever had on any amusement ride. Never again
I only experienced this once with Superman at Six Flags America. It took 13 minutes to dispatch one train.
I'm glad I got to ride the New Revolution with VR several times since it worked really great -- mind-blowing even. It seemed a perfect fit for Revvie's mostly-mild forces and rather lengthy track. If it ever returned as an up-charge attraction I'd pay extra for it (and I never pay for up-charge attractions).
The coaster at the NY, NY hotel in Las Vegas also had a VR option!
Hello, I love your videos so much. This was good to talk about!
I’m not surprised it failed, shaky rides equal bad experience with VR
Yeah... I'd rather look outside. That's the fun about tall roller coasters at Six Flags! Sure the kids might like it, but on thrill rides? Nah, being scared about the irl height of the ride is a major part of the adrenaline for me, looking down at the entire park and the people. People looking back at the ride too as we pass! I'd rather not have a very bulky and suspicious headset blocking my view while I'm riding. lol.
I’m glad they got rid of the VR. I did it once at CP on Iron Dragon and felt like I was going to barf. Plus, the VR always held the line up, and it took away from the fun coasters. For the next failed roller coaster video, you should do Psyclone at SFMM or Son of Beast at KI.
I will never use VR because I don't know if I will get dizzy or not. But some Rollercoasters have great VR like Eurosat can can coaster at Europa Park and Crazy Bat's at Phantasialand. 💖
I thought both of them removed the vr or was that just a COVID thing
I would love to go on one of those roller coaster concepts. Keep up the good work Theme Park Crazy love your content.
VR Coasters seemed like a great concept but I can see how they would be a logistics nightmare. Still, the thought of a renegade headset flying off mid ride and rocking some poor rider in the dome piece while they're in virtual reality, makes me giggle! I can just imagine someone getting off the ride like "yo... that VR was insane, it really feels like I got smacked in the face by that dragon."
I'm glad I got to try Kraken Unleashed once with VR. It was actually pretty cool, but definitely more of a novelty.
This is really cool. I have always wanted to ride a Virtual Reality roller coaster. I never knew Iron Dragon at Cedar Point (my favorite park btw I'm going this year again) Used to have VR. Love your videos keep up with the good work.
I rode the VR experience on The New Revolution at Magic Mountain. The ride typically didn't have long lines (because the ride is mid) so the increased wait time wasn't as brutal. However, I had the issue of the phone in the VR headset overheating and resulting in a totally blindfolded ride. 🙃
I still remember a magazine advert for Alton Towers which showed a bit of the ride Galactica. The people (a teenager at the front) were wearing the VR headsets.
I remember riding the Superman ride in MA when they had VR. I tried it, and the entire time I was riding, I was afraid the headset was gonna fall off, lol
The real question we should be asking is why did they think this was a good idea in the first place. It should have never happened.
India has its own VR roller coaster - Tunnel Twister at Essel World (temporarily closed)
It's a refurbished 'Big Apple' coaster model.
My god were we not ready for it.
It is the most intense, disorienting experience in all of India's theme parks.
The video and the ride are never synced properly!!!
And the animation... dear god.
I remember VR on shockwave and it was actually so much fun, compared to the other popular coasters shockwave’s queue went by pretty decent cause it’s never popular until VR, I kinda miss it but also not really
I totally forgot about when Shockwave at Six Flags Over Texas had VR.
I’ve only done VR once (Galactica at Alton Towers) and it just made me feel sick, and they slowed down the ride itself.
As soon as I heard "Using Gear VR" I immediately understood why vr failed with these coasters, If they decided to use the higher end tech the issues would be almost non-existent, if you want to do something, do it right, not half baked.
VR arcade games make me horribly motionsick even though I’m standing still. I would vomit on a VR coaster before it left the station.
I was apart of the opening team for Kraken VR at SeaWorld. That was partly true but another reason was that the company that installed the VR one night installed an update to the system and kept causing the VR to crash an we were doing more resets than running the ride
While the concept is great and can be perfected down the road, I ultimately don't want to wear a VR on a rollercoaster. I go to theme parks to ESCAPE from screens and return to a form of reality. I stare at my phone and computers all day long, and dont want to stare at yet another screen for enjoyment. I'd rather be present in the moment and enjoy visually experiencing the ride than a simulation on top of it.
Unreal 5 on a roller coaster would be dope though, if they can use it for movie making it can work 2 inches from your face.
I’m a big fan of vr technology but I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone thought this was a good idea.
The way Six Flags and Samsung handled it was very cheap. It can work nowadays with better tech and less prep time.
@@Clay3613 unfortunately, the damage has already been done. Never again will they do VR roller coasters.
I think AR could work well instead and probably be a better fit
I completely definitely disagree with you!!!!!!!!!
Personally I believe that most every coaster is thrilling on its own, they didn’t need this fad.
A Six Flags VR attraction is named after a soccer team. The design has red, white and blue.⚽
My one and only ride on a VR coaster was in December 2016 at Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was a holiday overlay for Revolution. Not only did it have the longest wait in the park, but when I rode it, the VR footage was MIRRED from the movements of the coaster (example: When the coaster took a left turn, the footage turned to the RIGHT). I rarely get motion sickness on anything, but that really messed with my senses and made me dizzy. After that, I decided to never ride a VR coaster again, and have no interest in the future.
You got to hand it to six flags. They managed to find a way to make ninja worse.
I rode The New Revolution when they had the Christmas movie playing. It was awful. Blurry and unsynchronized. I can’t believe they once had it running on KONG.
My friends and I rode "Crazy Bats" in Phantasialand, and we all got nauseous. Never again.
I rode Revolution at 6 Flags Magic Mountain when VR first came out in 2016...Christmastime. Yes, there was a one hour waiting-in-line, but no big deal...It was well worth it!!! The VR had no problems and everyone seemed to enjoy it. So I give it a big 👍.
Same! 👍🏽
Another great video. VR Rollercoasters be it on a real rollercoaster or at home all are aweful and vomit inducing. It is why my VR Theme Park is just slow moving premium Dark Rides.
In Europapark it works with the small family coaster. Its a funny extention
i worked at Superman when we had the VR headsets, one day a guest yelled at me all because their headset didnt work when they got on the ride and demanded they get a free re-ride, we had to call security to get him off the ride
It actually would be extremely easy to fix in 3 ways. #1) first, keeping it to indoor coasters/dark rides, would be able to assure an environment ideal for the technology. #2) make the set out of stainless steel, the padding out of antimicrobial foam, or give an alcohol pad to everyone letting them clean their own headset. #3) having either the headset attached like the first coaster while harnessed in by a pull down harness, a pull over design like Disney Quest had also with a pull down harness, but if you want to give a better fit, just use velcro fasteners, and let people adjust their own.
I remember trying the VR at that Superman coaster in Fiesta Texas… and I LOVED IT! I’m sad that not only will I never get to experience it again, but also I never got a chance for VR gimmicks in rides at Fiesta Texas and Six Flags Over Texas, two amusement parks I used to go to more frequently.
Nevertheless, the one experience I got was definitely worth it! Hopefully I’ll get to experience an even better VR gimmick in a roller coaster someday… if I’m super lucky.
Who would bring a vr headset to an amusement park? Thats the stupidest thing I've heard
I did a VR roller coaster at Winter Wonderland in London. I went round once, the VR didn't work so I was just riding in the dark, then they gave me a new headset and the VR worked... but it wasn't fun. The animation was good, but the whole experience made me feel quite unwell. Alton Towers had a VR option on one of their rides but that was ditched because guests didn't respond well to it.
I absolutely adore VR itself (as the amount of hours I've poured into VRChat on Steam can attest) but even I always thought retrofitting VR onto existing roller coasters was a dumb idea. Putting the headsets on everyone was an obvious operational nightmare and it really did come off as a lazy attempt at theming on Six Flags' part. Like I can imagine the Six Flags execs' mindset for these VR rides being: "Why bother adding actual scenery to our coasters when we can just build it all in a VR environment? This will save us tons of money!"
Kraken Unleashed at SeaWorld had VR for a year and got rid of it thank goodness. That was the biggest trainwreck ever. The dispatches got to like 10 minutes. It was so awful, they also were doing virtual queue reservations. Just bad stuff.
I'm so glad they didn't do it to the raging bull. I don't ride the demon anymore so I didn't even know that it has VR one season. Honestly imo the best "reality" on a rollercoaster is an indoor coaster. I've loved every indoor coaster with good effects and visuals I've experienced and The Mummy will always be my favorite ❤
The Raging Bull at Illinois Great America definitely does not need VR, it is already an incredible ride experience and part of the reason it is so popular is because it usually runs 3 trains that fit a lot of people so the line can be long but it always moves fast. Choosing the Demon couldve been a good idea if it wasnt already the most nauseating ride in the park without lagging or tilted VR. They should have added VR to the X-flight because that ride severely lacks thrill and speed, it already has a slow boarding process, and the queue line is drawn out
Also the former Derren Brown’s Ghost train at Thorpe park has reportedly had its VR removed for this year as part of its retheme
I had no idea that VR was around for so long. I thought it first appeared in 2016/17
I just never understood why this would be considered a good idea. I'm on a coaster to experience the coaster. However now I do understand the idea of updating an older or tamer coaster with vr to add to the experience. But if it's a new coaster or a particularly popular coaster, this still makes no sense.
The most successful use of VR imo was on DB’s Ghost Train at Thorpe Park and even that was problematic.
VR in general being successful is a miracle I swear
Why?
I feel like its a task failed succsessfully
@@Courier_333 most VR related projects go horribly wrong.
@@InsanityContainmentz in theme parks or in general? Lmao
@@Courier_333 well the comment said in general
Thanks for the shout out!
I hope they make a vr roller coaster based on the virtual boy in Super Nintendo World that makes everything look red and black
Great video! Would love to see more industry trend analysis videos.
There's a 9D virtual theater near me that has a rollercoaster ride and it goes upside down and let me just tell you my VR headset turned off about halfway through so I was staring at a blank screen while I was being jolted around not knowing
If VR on actual roller coasters was in theme parks, wouldn't there be a chance that no one would know there would be an accident that was REAL while they still have the VR
Canada's wonderland did this on Thunder Run and it was available to season pass holders.
It was gearVR on crappy for the tike phones so it was graphically underwhelming, but it was still neat. It synced up with the motion perfectly and the idea behind the scene was pretty cool, being chased by a dragon.
Given we have phones that can emulate Nintendo switch, the graphical capabilities are quite a bit better and the concept would be better realized now if they invested in decent hardware. It's a nice upgrade to what would otherwise be a fairly boring coaster.
Canada’s Wonderland is my home park but I had no idea they tried VR on Thunderrun. I think that’s a good coaster for a VR addition. Once I reached a certain age, I _never_ rode it. The line was always too long for such a lame ride; it wasn’t worth the wait (lol). I would’ve stood in that line for VR, though!
in Europapark, vr is a seperate line from the og ride line , in Alpine express we are around the end of the vehicules , in CanCan coaster , we have a train just for the vr and we don't go in the og loading and exit area
they tried VR in Gardaland Italy in 2017 too with the rebranding of the iconic Magic Mountain roller coaster to “Shaman”. It only lasted a few months and since then it operates without any headsets.
I rode the Wonderland Thunder Run VR a few times, but only paid once. The first time my friend's headset was black, so they let us ride agian. The second time my headset was showing everything backwards, so they let us ride again. The third time it worked for us both.
I'm glad I got to try it when it was on Kraken. It was arguably the best implementation of it (better hardware, very good graphics), but even then, I still noticed bad headset shaking and some latency/syncing issues that made me feel pretty sick. The big killer was how much it crippled capacity. Between cleaning the headsets and adjusting each one, on top of the safety checks, it was usually 8-10 minutes between dispatches. That meant they'd get maybe a couple hundred riders per hour on a ride that should have been able to do at least a thousand.
I'd tried it at Great Escape in New York. They were shooting a promo for it then too. It was terrible. I was a kid, so the headset didn't sit on my face well, which made everything really blurry. I still couldn't tell you what it was about, but they said something about shooting things.