2022 looks to be a pretty strong year for new roller coasters.
You have a handful of rides originally meant for 2020 that were delayed 2 years due to
the pandemic that are finally set to open.
And then there recently was a flurry of new announcements at IAAPA.
So in this video, I will countdown my most anticipated roller coasters for 2022.
This list is not necessarily my prediction how I would rank these rides.
For example, some clones may place lower than a new custom ride.
The ranking is a balance between the ride’s expected quality and uniqueness.
25) Unknown Spinner at Sunac Cultural Tourism City- This is a Maurer SC3000 spinning coaster.
I love the Maurer spinners with the larger and more expansive layouts.
I’m most intrigued by the large straight drop to start the coaster and this funky looking
top hat element.
Those could be quite thrilling if you’re spinning like a top.
The rest of the ride consists of a large helix and some off-axis bunny hills for variety
that should further promote spinning.
24) Space Warp at Oriental Heritage- The second Vekoma Space Warp is sure to be a winner.
Formula at Energylandia is a short but sweet coaster.
It has a solid initial launch, three fun inversions, some forceful turns, and decent airtime hills
mixed in.
This is a dynamic coaster that offers a little of everything and I’m happy to see more
on the way.
23) Giant Digger at Lotte World- Magic Forest- This is a Blue Fire clone.
This Mack launch coaster is a fun, well-rounded attraction.
The launch is pretty good, the first three inversions have good hangtime, and the final
inversion has some violent laterals and hangtime.
Add in some pops of airtime, some of the most comfortable trains in the industry, and a
glass smooth ride and you have a crowd-pleaser.
22) Storm at Dubai Hills Mall- This Intamin creation is being built inside a massive 164
foot or 50 meter tall dome.
We don’t know too much about this coaster, but it will have an LSM lift hill and it sounds
like it will have a layout similar to the polar coasters.
The coaster will have 2228 feet or 679 meters of track, but we don’t know what type of
elements will be included.
Depending how many inversions and airtime hills are included, this coaster has the potential
to move up on this list once we learn more.
Especially if there are some cool visual effects inside the dome.
21) Emperor at SeaWorld San Diego- This Bolliger and Mabillard dive coaster looks to have a
faster-paced layout than their other dive machines.
The first drop should offer the usual floater airtime and then I’m interested to see if
the 3 inversions and the rest of the layout feel any snappier than usual.
20) Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger at Six Flags Fiesta Texas- This B&M dive machine
looks better than Emperor.
I always love the sustained floater airtime on these dive machines, so I’m intrigued
if a beyond vertical plunge will be even better.
The rest of the layout has the usual Immelmann and a hangtime filled zero-G roll plus another
airtime hill or two.
And I also can’t wait to see what Fiesta Texas does with the themed queue line.
Their most recent queue lines have felt like attractions in themselves with all their detail.
19) Top Gun Coasters at Fantawild and Fanta Park Road of Rejuvenation- This entry refers
to three different Vekoma Top Gun launch coasters coming to China in 2022.
The prototype didn’t look as intense as expected.
The pacing looked a bit off and it didn’t look to have as much airtime as Vekoma’s
other new loopers.
But the inversions look wonderful, particularly that high speed barrel roll that should be
loaded with laterals and hangtime.
18) Prairie Screamer at Traders Village- The relocated Scandia Screamer will re-open at
this flea market just down the road from Six Flags Over Texas.
This is the largest coaster Miler ever built and it is a deceptively strong airtime machine.
I have a separate review for Scandia Screamer, but this coaster had some solid laterals on
the unbanked turns and plenty of ejector airtime.
17) Hot Wheels at Mattel Adventure Park- It took way too long to get another Chance GTX
and this one will be a lot different than Lightning Run.
This one will have a launch and the layout looks to have more of a focus on twists and
inversions.
The ride should be very smooth, but the rest of the ride seems like a wild card since we
haven’t seen something like this from Chance.
But I think this has the potential to match some of the new-age Vekomas we’ve seen in
Europe.
16) Palindrome at Cotaland- This may be the shortest Gerstlauer Infinity coaster, but
it has some interesting elements.
The twisting initial drop looks like it could offer an awesome combination of ejector airtime
and laterals.
Then I can’t wait to try those two inversions going both forwards and backwards.
The zero-G stall over the roadway looks like it will offer awesome sustained hangtime in
both directions and the inline twist looks like it will be super snappy.
Add in some weightlessness on the far spike and a spot where the ride will pull 4.5 Gs
and this could be a sleeper hit in 2022.
15) Relocated Kanonen at Lost Island Theme Park- This Intamin hydraulic coaster is being
relocated from Liseberg in Sweden.
The smallest accelerator coaster may only launch you to 47 mph or 75 kph, but it looks
to have some punch to it.
You then have a fast-paced layout with several airtime hills, tight turns, and two hangtime-filled
inversions.
This looks to be the best ride at this new Iowa park.
14) Defiance at Glenwood Caverns- This Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter may be short, but that placement
atop the mountain will make this coaster special.
The visuals look world-class.
The layout isn’t too shabby either.
The beyond vertical drop should deliver ejector airtime, some of the valleys should have some
force, the banana roll should be disorienting, and the inline twist should have great hangtime.
The wild card is the top hat.
Sometimes these offer great airtime and laterals on Gerstlauers, other times they’re duds.
Either way, that unique setting will make this coaster stand out.
13) Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot- This prototype Vekoma spinning coaster
looks intriguing.
I’m not sure how thrilling this coaster will be, but the spinning and theming should
result in a pure fun ride experience.
And there will be a lot of ride too.
Guardians will shatter the record for the world’s longest indoor roller coaster.
I’m glad Epcot is finally getting a roller coaster.
12) Unknown Launch Coaster at SeaWorld Abu Dhabi- This Intamin launch coaster looks like
a combination of SeaWorld San Diego’s Manta and Steel Dolphin.
The ride looks to have at least 3 launches and a super long layout.
Without a POV, it’s hard to tell how much airtime, whip, or hangtime this coaster will
have, but I am placing faith in Intamin’s track record that this will be a super fun
ride with a diverse range of forces.
11) Ice Breaker at SeaWorld Orlando- This Premier Rides launch coaster has the stats
of a family coaster, but it looks to have some surprisingly strong airtime.
The extended launch sequence should offer some good weightlessness and then the main
layout has a lot of sharp airtime hills that should abruptly pop riders out of their seat.
10) Turbo Turtle Power at Nickelodeon Universe (China)- This Intamin creation looks very
similar to Gerstlauer’s TMNT Shellraiser at the New Jersey Nickelodeon Universe.
I love Shellraiser’s layout.
It has a strong launch, an amazing beyond vertical drop, and 7 inversions with tons
of hangtime and disorientation.
Unfortunately that ride is plagued by a rattle.
If Intamin can transform that layout into a smooth experience with an extra inversion,
this ride will be fantastic.
9) Tron Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom- This Vekoma motorbike coaster looks visually stunning
with all those lights.
Everyone I know who has ridden the version in Shanghai has nothing but positives to say.
And if this coaster has some force on the turns as well, it has the potential to be
the best roller coaster at Walt Disney World.
8) Wonder Woman Flight of Courage at Six Flags Magic Mountain- This is Six Flags Great Adventure’s
Jersey Devil Coaster with an extra turn.
And that isn’t a bad thing.
Many have called Jersey Devil the worst Rocky Mountain Construction coaster, but I think
that ride has some underrated power in the back row.
The first drop is one of the best in the world, the zero-G stall and zero-G roll have incredible
hangtime, and then every other hill offers varying levels of airtime.
This will likely be the third best coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain which is no small
feat.
7) American Dreier Looping at Indiana Beach- Quimera was arguably the most intense coaster
I ever experienced when I rode it at La Feria.
I go into more detail in a review, but the coaster was incredible.
It ran trimless and hauled through the layout.
The three inversions had insane positive Gs and caused me to greyout.
Then the lack of braking caused the dips and twists in the second half to have much stronger
airtime and laterals than expected.
I’m excited to see this Schwarzkopf triple looper make a triumphant return to Indiana
Beach and it will be interesting to see how fast it runs.
6) Unknown Vekoma at Fanta Animation Park- This Vekoma Renegade model looks like a combination
of their well-received Bermuda Blitz and Hyper Space Warp models.
The steep first drop should offer strong airtime.
That big stall should have great hangtime.
And then it looks like it has plenty of low airtime hills that should offer some strong
airtime.
And if this ride also has the positive Gs of Lech Coaster, it will be one of Vekoma’s
best.
5) Fenix at Farup Sommerland- This Vekoma Wildcat coaster looks fantastic and boasts
14 different airtime moments according to the Dutch manufacturer.
The initial drop should have awesome airtime and that inverted top hat looks like it could
be one of the best inversions out there.
Then the rest of the layout looks has elements of Lech Coaster including that awesome corkscrew
through the station.
Many of the airtime hills look more drawn out like Abyssus, but they should still offer
fun floater airtime at worst, and the overall layout looks well-paced.
4) Leviathan at Sea World- Gravity Group has been knocking it out of the park with their
layouts.
They are usually smooth and packed with some good airtime.
The reason I placed Leviathan so high is the backwards facing car.
I’m a sucker for backwards airtime and this ride should offer almost a dozen instances
of it.
3) Pantheon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg- I saw this coaster test back in March and
my hype for the attraction only grew.
The first half should have a punchy launch, some incredible hangtime on the zero-G winder,
and some mild airtime, but it’s the second half that looks world-class.
That multi-pass launch sequence should offer a mix of airtime and weightlessness.
Then the top hat and giant outward bank look like they could be two of the strongest and
most sustained ejector airtime moments on the planet.
You then have a stall that should offer some wild hangtime like the one on Velocicoaster
and another airtime hill before the brakes.
This ride looks varied and intense.
2) Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa- This gigantic RMC hybrid conversion looks like
a speed demon.
The 206 foot or 63 meter drop should offer some fantastic ejector airtime.
Then from the testing footage, Iron Gwazi looks to fly through the layout.
The ride has more overbanks and twists than RMC’s other creations, but I have little
doubt this coaster will have several great spots of ejector airtime and hangtime-filled
inversions.
1) ArieForce One at Fun Spot Atlanta- I still can’t believe this park is getting a RMC,
especially one this ambitious.
The ride looks like a mix of Zadra and Untamed, which are two of my favorite RMCs.
The first half has an amazing looking drop, a unique dive loop, a stall that should offer
amazing hangtime, and an outward bank that reminds me of the one on Steel Vengeance.
Then the second half has a rapid blitz of ejector airtime hills
and an additional inversion.
So those are my top 25 most anticipated roller coasters in 2022.
Hopefully none of these get delayed, but we will see what happens!
What is your most anticipated coaster for 2022?
I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these rides or any I missed down in the
comments.
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