Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure was the first Bolliger and Mabillard floorless coaster.
Originally opening in 1999 as Medusa, this was an extremely important ride for the amusement
industry. It was among the most successful prototype coasters ever built both in terms
of quality and reliability. So in this video, I will touch on this ride’s history
and provide a detailed review for Bizarro. Six Flags Great Adventure went on
a roller coaster binge in the 1990s. In 1993, the park added one of the first B&M
inverted coasters in Batman the Ride. This coaster was an absolute crowd-pleaser with its forceful
inversions and glass-smooth ride. And it’s still among the park’s most popular coasters today.
In 1995, the park added Viper, a problematic Togo prototype. This coaster was not only unreliable,
but it was extremely rough, which is why it was removed after less than one decade of operation.
In 1996, the park added Skull Mountain, which was more of a family coaster, but they added another
thrill coaster in 1997 in Batman and Robin the Chiller. However, this dueling Premier Rides
launch coaster was a disaster from day one. While the ride was enjoyable and very intense,
it was among the most unreliable roller coasters in the world. The ride’s official opening was
delayed until 1998 and the coaster closed in 2007 after a decade of sporadic operation.
Originally, Great Adventure planned to add a Cyclone wooden coaster clone to
the park in the late 1990s. Six Flags had Cyclone clones at 4 of their parks already.
You had Texas Cyclone at Astroworld in Houston,
Georgia Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia, Psyclone at Six Flags Magic Mountain,
and Viper at Six Flags Great America. So this was a layout Six Flags had a lot of experience with.
This coaster was expected to go in the back corner of the park, just beyond the Runaway Mine Train.
However, these plans were scrapped. The exact reason has never been given. I believe three
factors were at play. First, several of the cyclone clones in the Six Flags chain were
gaining reputations as rough rides. Second, Great Adventure’s past two thrill coasters were arguably
busts because of how unreliable they were. Third, B&M had just developed a new prototype in the
floorless coaster. Six Flags was no stranger to prototype rides, especially the ones from B&M.
In the past, Six Flags Great America had been the guinea pig for B&M’s prototypes,
but Great Adventure decided to be the first to purchase one of B&M’s floorless coasters.
This would be a variant on the company’s sit-down coaster. The seats would be raised and the floor
would be eliminated, which allowed the legs of riders to dangle freely above the track.
This gave riders more freedom and a unique visual.
The coaster was built in the back corner of the park as part of Frontier Adventures,
where the Cyclone clone was planned. Originally named Medusa, this seemed like a curious name
for a western themed section, but Great Adventure themed the ride to an old mine haunted by Medusa.
The theme was rather odd and the striking yellow track and purple supports were stark
contrasts to the faded color pallets in the rest of Frontier Adventures, but people were forgiving
because of how great the coaster was. Medusa opened in 1999. And it was a major
success for both the park and B&M. Medusa was a high-capacity, ultra-smooth, crowd-pleaser,
which was just what Great Adventure needed after the park’s last two thrill coasters were flops.
And the success of the ride spurred Six Flags to order three additional floorless
coasters for their parks in 2000 in Superman Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas,
Batman Knight Flight at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure- aka the former Geauga Lake, and
Medusa at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, which had a different layout despite sharing the same name.
B&M would go on to build 13 floorless coasters in total, including two more at Six Flags parks.
Batman the Dark Knight opened at Six Flags New England in 2002 and Scream opened at Six Flags
Magic Mountain in 2003. The latter is particularly interesting since it is a mirror image of
Great Adventure’s original floorless coaster. However, Scream is a worse ride for two reasons.
One, it was literally built on a parking lot so it feels soulless.
Two, it tends to have a nasty vibration. But back to Great Adventure, Medusa was
transformed into Bizarro for the 2009 season. This was the same year that Six Flags New England also
decided to transform Superman: Ride of Steel into Bizarro. Given a dark blue paint scheme,
Bizarro is one of Superman’s most formidable foes, so it was another curious fit for Great
Adventure’s frontier themed area. The retheme was accompanied by some additional effects,
most of which still remain to this day. The coaster received mist-filled S-shields
at the base of the first drop. The ride received an intense fire effect on the ride’s dive loop.
The ride received some cardboard cutouts, most notably in the entrance to the ride’s area
and after the ride’s mid-course drop. The coaster also received this weird spiky cylinder that was
placed underneath the ride’s corkscrews. I’m not quite sure what its supposed to be, but
it causes one of the most shocking headchoppers of any coaster. Plus it also emits fog and has
some multi-colored lights at night. All of the aforementioned effects are still in place today,
but there is one that was removed. Bizarro originally opened with on-board audio.
To install the audio, the middle two seats of the back row were removed.
While the audio was an interesting mash-up of music and action when it worked,
it was rather unreliable, which is why it was removed just a few years after the Bizarro
retheme. And thankfully the park did eventually re-add the middle two seats to the back row.
Because of its high capacity and location in the back corner of the park,
Bizarro tends to have one of the shortest waits of Great Adventure’s major coasters.
It’s not uncommon to see this ride running 3 trains. They will often stack the third train,
but lines usually aren’t a major issue for this ride so its not a big deal on most days.
Bizarro does not currently run for Holiday in the Park and because of its location,
it sometimes closes on off-peak weekdays towards the start and end of the season if staffing is
an issue for the park. Just keep that in mind if this ride is a priority for you.
In terms of seat selection, I prefer Bizarro in the back. While the floorless visual is not as
effective back there, the ride is more forceful. Bizarro begins with a U-turn out of the station
and you then climb the 142 foot or 43 meter tall lift hill. Because the ride
is adjacent to the safari, you get a really unique view ascending this lift.
Conversely, the best views of Bizarro can be had from the safari.
Once atop the lift, you twist to the left down the 132 foot or 40 meter tall drop. Up front,
this drop doesn’t do much, but in the back it has some solid whip. You then whiz through the misty
S-shields and navigate a giant 114 foot or 35 meter tall vertical loop. In terms of positive Gs,
this loop and following dive loop are just ok. But if you ride in the back row,
you get a little bit of hangtime atop the loop when you start to slowdown.
The same thing happens in the back row on the dive loop. This is the main reason I prefer the back on
Bizarro. And this dive loop is accompanied by the powerful fire effects. The heat is palpable both
on-and-off ride. And the visual of zooming past two tall fire jets is always a treat.
That’s followed by a fantastic zero-G roll. This element combines sustained float
with a forceful whip throughout the train. It’s probably my favorite element on Bizarro,
which is the case with most floorless coasters. You then traverse a cobra roll
by the ride’s entry plaza. This cobra roll rides similarly to the vertical loop and dive loop,
it’s not overly strong in terms of positive Gs or whip,
but it does offer a little bit of hangtime in the back row at the apexes of the inversions.
You then curve up into the mid-course brake run, only slowing down a tad, before dropping back
down to the ground. This drop fails to offer any airtime, laterals, or whip unfortunately.
But the following low turn is great. It hugs the ground with a good amount of speed, so it pulls
some good Gs. It also rockets past some cardboard cutouts that help enhance the sense of speed.
You then coast over a forceless S-hill before navigating the final two inversions,
the thrilling corkscrews. These are the snappiest inversions on the ride, but you
also have that aforementioned visual. It’s rare to get a headchopper like this on an inversion,
especially one that comes so close to the riders.
You then zip over a little speed hill that actually gives a faint pop of airtime in
the back row, and then you rise up into the brake run, ending the ride after 3985 feet
or 1215 meters of twisted track. Before going into my final thoughts,
I want to discuss this coaster’s pacing and smoothness. In terms of pacing, Bizarro is
pretty good in the back row. The zero-G roll and corkscrews are great in any row,
but the other four inversions suffer if you aren’t in the back for the surprise hangtime at the top.
In terms of smoothness, Bizarro is still very smooth even after 2 decades of operation.
There’s no headbanging. I have gotten a few rattly rides in the past, but this has not
been an issue over the past two years. So what would I rate Bizarro? I would
give this floorless coaster a 7 out of 10. This is a very enjoyable floorless coaster.
This is an extremely reridable multi-looper. All seven inversions are quite enjoyable in the back,
but the zero-G roll and corkscrews are excellent in any row. This coaster has a strong layout and
the additional theming elements along the course add some neat visuals and near-misses to help it
stand out from the other floorless coasters. I believe I underrated Bizarro in my top B&M
floorless coaster video I made last year. After my rerides on Bizarro, I think this is now my third
favorite floorless coaster after Superman Krypton Coaster and Discovery Kingdom’s Medusa. And I
much prefer this to Scream because of the ride’s setting and more importantly, the smoother ride.
So those are my thoughts on Bizarro, B&M’s original floorless coaster. Have you ridden
Bizarro? What are your thoughts on this coaster- either when it ran as Medusa or how it runs today?
I would love to hear your comments down below. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you
gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a lot
more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!