Shredder at Nickelodeon Universe opened as the world’s tallest and longest free-spinning,
full-circuit coaster. This giant Gerstlauer spinner is a mesmerizing mess of track off-ride,
but does it ride as well as it looks? Find out in this review!
The original Nickelodeon Universe is located at the Mall of America. Owned and operated by Triple
5, that park features the original Gerstlauer spinning coaster in the Fairly Odd Coaster. That
ride has a familiar layout, but it’s more exciting than usual as it twists over pathways and rides.
When Triple 5 built the new Nickelodeon Universe at New Jersey’s American Dream mall, they
unsurprisingly added some familiar attractions. This included another Gerstlauer spinner. But
this one was far bigger and more ambitious. Shredder would stand 85 feet or 26 meters tall,
making it twice as tall as most Gerstlauer spinners. And this ride looks fantastic.
The purple track is intertwined with another Gerstlauer in TMNT Shellraiser.
This results in some exciting near-misses for both riders and observers.
Some of these clearances are shockingly tight. And there’s 2247 feet or 685 meters of track,
so there’s more coaster here than other spinners. That track height and length makes it the world’s
tallest and longest free-spinning full-circuit coaster. There are taller and longer spinners,
most notably the Xtreme spinners from Mack, but those coasters have a controlled spin.
They rotate freely, but their rotation speed is dampened due to the more intense layouts.
Shredder is themed to the antagonist of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The ride has a great entrance sign with a cool archway and a full-size statue.
Before hopping in line, you want to stop at the free lockers. Loose articles are not allowed
on this attraction. And operators sometimes ask you to empty your pockets.
While you can place these on the storage platform, I prefer to put these in the locker for security
purposes since this ride runs multiple cars. Lines for this coaster are usually manageable.
Each car holds just 4 riders, but there are usually 4-5 on the course at once
so the line is fine for this park’s crowds. The longest I’ve had to wait for this attraction
thus far has been 15-20 minutes on a weekend. If you’ve ridden any of the Gerstlauer spinners,
the vehicle set-up should be familiar. Two ride forwards and two ride backwards.
It doesn’t matter which side you pick since you start rotating off the lift before the drop.
Then you’re secured by a bulky t-bar. Once dispatched, you turn 180 degrees
out of the station and ascend a lift hill that pierces through Shellraiser’s inside top hat.
At the top, you turn right and the spin begins as you navigate a fairly shallow drop.
It’s not too crazy but then you twist around and navigate a small horseshoe turn. This overbank
is quite disorienting between the spinning and how it abruptly changes you direction. You then
twist upwards into the first of several brake runs, and unfortunately you are slowed down.
This is the biggest con with Shredder, the pacing. You have multiple mid-course brake runs.
This is similar to other Gerstlauer spinners, but on the others you usually cruise through
them uninhibited. The ones on Shredder always slow you down. This ruins any momentum and spin.
It’s possible to get some good spins on this coaster if you have an unbalanced car,
but the spinning never gets as wild or sustained as the other Gerstlauers.
You then twist off the first mid-course and navigate a few quirky turns that lead to yet
another brake run. This section is mostly about the views- and those are great especially if you
time it right with Shellraiser- but you also have another downside to cope with- a rattle.
This ride’s valleys, particularly in the first half, have a very noticeable shuffle to them.
This usually isn’t an issue for Gerstlauer spinners, but it interestingly also is an issue
for Galaxy Orbiter at the West Edmonton Mall and multiple coasters at this Nickelodeon Universe.
I’ve heard it may be related to the footers, but I have no concrete evidence.
The next section of Shredder are these hairpin turns. This is the best section for spinning.
You’ll get whipped around these sharp turns and hold the spin. But of course you hit
another mid-course right after to stop that. Next are back-to-back helixes. The first one is
a downwards one that’s particularly forceful. It’s the strongest element on the ride. The
second one is upwards. The positives aren’t as strong on this one, but they’re still present.
After- you guessed it- another brake run, you twist downwards and head over two consecutive
bunny hills. Had you not been slowed down, these would be wild with the rotation from the drop
and airtime. But instead, you crawl over these hills. They’re pretty sterile.
You then go into the final mid-course. If you’re keeping score back home, that makes 5 of them.
All that’s left is a twist downwards and navigate a slow upwards helix into
the final brake run, ending the coaster. So what would I rate Shredder? I would give
this jumbo Gerstlauer spinner a 5 out of 10. This layout definitely has potential. It’s big
and expansive with some creative visuals. However, those trim brakes really hamper the experience.
I get why this coaster needs to have multiple brake runs to accommodate multiple vehicles,
but I wish they didn’t need to slow the vehicle. This hurts both the pacing and spinning. If the
brakes were milder, this ride would be a much more interesting and wilder spinning coaster.
That being said, this coaster has its moments- particularly towards the middle of the coaster-
and the sightlines are consistently strong start to finish.
I ultimately have this as one of the worst Gerstlauer spinners.
It’s a fun ride. It just doesn’t deliver on its full potential
and have the same out-of-control feeling their other ones can generate.
So those are my thoughts on Shredder at Nickelodeon Universe at the American Dream mall.
What are your thoughts on this coaster? Do the brakes cause the same issue for you?
Let me know your thoughts down below. If you enjoyed this review, I’d appreciate it if you
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more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!