A new E-Ticket ride opened at both Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St. Louis two months ago and God knows why i missed its opening. It's a very interesting ride as for the first time Six Flags is launching an ambitious ride that we usually see mostly, if not only, at Universal Studios ( Spiderman, Transformers rides ) or Disney ( DLP WDS Ratatouille ride ).
The three minutes ride is titled Justice League : Battle for Metropolis and is of course based on DC Comics Super-Heroes and villains, and was produced by major industry players Sally Corporation and Oceaneering International. The trackless ride vehicles with a simulated platform are done by Oceaneering and can tilt and spin, complete 360 degree turns and virtual loops. And just like the Universal - Disney similar rides guests wear 3D glasses to enjoy the 3D projections on the 18 giant screens which includes five 17×30 foot interactive screens that are used during the shooting part of the ride. But Six Flags add a "shooter" dimension as guests also have laser guns to shoot at more than 600 virtual enemies that pop up during the course of the ride. A ride which also include mechanical elements, a themed queue that includes video screens playing Justice League-related content, and an Audio-Animatronic figure recruiting patrons to fight alongside the Justice League. and of course special effects - smoke, fire, lighting, etc... Entertainment Designer did recently a good article about it that you can read HERE, and as E.D notes "one of the most innovative developments of the ride is a fog screen which has villains projected onto it. The ride cars pass through the wall of fog, adding a whole new level of interest to the 4D experience."
Now, as i'm sure you'll like to see the full ride i've found three good videos for you. The first one shows the ride filmed with a camera placed at the top of the last row in the ride vehicle, and also have the full Audio-Animatronic scene in the pre-show. The AA though as not perfect as one from WDI is quite good but it seems to me that at the time the video was filmed there was a little problem of audio synchronization, apparently the man who's doing the AA voice is speaking too quickly for the AA moves. Also, during the ride itself, the top of the projections on the ride screens is partly out of the frame of the camera.
The second video is coming from Sally Corporation - who produced and designed the ride - and this one shows the full frame of the ride projections on giant screens. The video is a bit darker than the first one but that's okay.
And you also must watch this third video as it shows very different views of the ride vehicle moving in the sets but filmed from outside of the vehicle, as well two guests on-ride shooting at will with the guns.
So, does it look as good as similar rides at Universal or Disney. It looks really good, and certainly very good for a Six Flags ride. And as Six Flags don't have the same budget than Disney or Universal for their rides i'll be curious to know the cost of the ride. If anyone knows, thanks to let me know in the comments! I still think that the Spiderman ride at IOA is better, but i don't want to speak too much about this Justice League ride as it's not fair to judge a ride that you didn't ride "physically". One thing is sure, if i was living nearby i will for sure go right away to Six Flags to ride it!
Picture: copyright Six Flags - Sally Corp
1 comment:
I rode it in St. Louis last month, and it's a really cool attraction. I would agree with you that Spider-man is better, but this is miles ahead of the dark rides we usually see from Six Flags. The interactive side of it is very strong, and I love the chaos of it. I was only able to ride it once since it broke down a lot, but it's definitely worth doing. I expect it's going to appear at a lot more Six Flags parks down the road.
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