Today I will be reviewing the Roller Ball coaster model from Ride Engineers Switzerland.
These coasters look exciting.
They look like wild mouse coasters turned on their side.
These are 4th dimension coasters where the vehicle is mounted to the side of the track
and can rock freely during the ride experience.
But if you had dreams of flipping, I’m going to squash them now.
This does not ride anything like an S&S free spin or an Intamin ZacSpin.
It is much duller.
This is arguably the most over-braked roller coaster in the world, which results in one
of the dullest and most awkward rides.
So in this video, I will be reviewing the Roller Ball model.
I will be discussing my experiences riding Wilde Hilde at Schwaben Park and Roller Ball
at Wiener Prater while also analyzing the newly announced Fireball coming to New York’s
Adventureland for the 2022 season.
The story for this ride begins in 2005.
Hersheypark was to add a roller coaster from Interactive Rides called Turbulence.
This was a frequent faller model that had a lot of similarities to the Roller Ball.
However, the project was cancelled after Interactive Rides significantly raised the attraction’s
price after the contract was signed.
Ride Engineers Switzerland introduced a similar concept over a decade later.
Wilde Hilde at Schwaben Park in Germany was the first Roller Ball opening in October of
2018.
This was the company’s 19 meter or 62 foot tall version.
Then in 2019 and 2020, the company opened two larger versions that stood 28.5 meters
or 93.5 feet tall at Parc Spirou Provence in France and Wiener Prater in Austria.
This was the same ride with two extra raven turns at the start.
Adventureland’s new-for-2022 Fireball will be the smaller model and the park is thankfully
appropriately marketing the attraction as a family coaster.
That’s the biggest issue with this attraction.
The ride looks like a thrill ride.
Off-ride, it appears that the ride vehicles will be capable of inverting like the other
4th dimension coasters out there.
And this ride carries the 48” height limit you find on most major coasters.
However, upon closer inspection you may be sorely disappointed.
On every raven turn or drop, there are trim brakes.
So you fall at a slow and controlled rate.
This keeps your speed around 10-15 mph or 16-24 kph for the entire experience.
And it neuters any possible flipping.
You just rock back and forth after each drop.
Based on my experiences with the model in Europe, the ride looked intimidating for a
lot of kids and then adults expecting a thrill ride would come off bored.
At Wiener Prater, Roller Ball was a complete walk-on.
I visited on a summer Friday night and had to wait 10-15 minutes for someone else to
ride to get the off-ride footage shown on the screen.
At Schwaben Park, the ride had a steady 15-20 minute wait mostly driven by its low capacity.
Each car only seats 4 riders- 2 sit on each side back to back.
The ride has a theoretical hourly capacity of 360 riders, which is pretty low to begin
with.
But practically I think it may be even less.
I don’t believe any of the brakes on the main course function as block zones, so I
believe you can only have one vehicle on the main course at once.
Both Schwaben Park and Wiener Prater wouldn’t dispatch the next car until the prior one
reached the second-to-last level of the ride.
Unless you can have multiple cars on the lift at once, I think the limiter is the lift speed.
The super slow lift hill takes just over a minute for these Roller Ball coasters.
So practically, I think the max capacity may be closer to 240 riders per hour assuming
you have the next car ready to go once the prior one clears the lift.
If not, the capacity is even lower.
Now let’s talk about the ride vehicles.
I love how open they are.
You just have a minimalistic lap bar, so you feel very exposed.
The other notable thing is their axis of rotation.
Unlike the S&S free spins and larger 4th dimension coasters that rotate around the rider, the
Roller Ball coasters rotate around the center of the vehicle like the original Intamin ZacSpins.
This makes the flipping feel more forceful and intense…assuming you flip.
Which you will not on the Roller Balls.
Most of these installations are unthemed and it looks like Adventureland’s will go down
this route.
The one exception is the prototype.
Wilde Hilde at Schwaben Park has a bizarre chicken theme and it’s honestly the highlight
of the attraction.
The queue line is a chicken coup with one of the best and catchiest theme songs ever
devised for an amusement park.
Basically it’s a mash-up of chickens clucking and techno music.
It sounds stupid, but it’s amazing.
Just listen.
Wilde Hilde also has a bunch of chicken figures and cutouts on the side of the attraction
that help give it some additional character.
Once dispatched, you slowly ascend the vertical lift hill.
But due to the weight of the vehicle, you will remain level with the ground at all times.
The lift takes just over a minute on both versions of the attraction.
If you dispatch the station backwards, you’ll get a cool aerial view of the ride’s layout.
Outside of that initial view, it doesn’t matter which side you sit on.
The experience feels identical.
Once at the top, you travel down the only unbraked drop on the ride.
It’s this little 5 foot or 2 meter plunge that will have you gently rock back and forth
on the initial straightaway.
Then you hit the first set of trims.
And get used to those magnetic brakes bringing your vehicle to a crawl.
It will happen before every raven turn and continue through the first 3/4 of each raven
turn.
You will be rocked at roughly a 45 degree angle at maximum coming out of all these raven
turns.
And the process repeats itself as you progress through each level of the ride.
The experience is very repetitive and offers no variety.
One of the hallmarks of these 4th dimension coasters is a wild and unpredictable ride
experience.
But every ride is equally as dull on these Roller Balls since the brakes will consistently
limit and prevent motion.
The ride is very smooth and comfortable, but it just doesn’t do much.
I’d love to know what one of these things can do without the brakes, but considering
the axis of rotation, it could have some of the comfort issues we see on the early Intamin
ZacSpins where your body is forcefully thrown into the restraint.
But as it stands these Roller Balls are awkward family rides.
So what would I rate these Roller Balls?
I would give these coasters a 3 out of 10.
These are pretty poor roller coasters in my opinion.
The riding position and concept is cool, but the execution is very flawed.
This may be the most overbraked coaster model in the world.
The brakes on the straightaways and every single raven turn prevent almost all motion.
You just get some mild rocking.
Maybe that was deliberate so this experience is a comfortable family ride as opposed to
a wild and potentially uncomfortable thrill ride.
However, the ride has the looks of a thrill ride as opposed to the family ride its meant
to be.
And it also has that higher height restriction than a lot of family coasters.
However, I do understand why parks may look to add these given how marketable, unique,
and compact they are.
And I hope it works out for those parks.
Just don’t go in expecting a thrill.
So those are my thoughts on the Roller Ball coasters from Ride Engineers Switzerland.
What are your thoughts on these coasters?
Are you looking forward to the one at Adventureland or more being built?
Let me know what you think down in the comments.
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