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Continental Collision

MestnyiGeroi

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
A lot of forumers have ridden coasters entirely or mostly on one continent (myself included).

But for those of you who have traveled to many of the major parks in both North American and Europe (and possibly Asia), are you able to pick an overall winner for coasters? Obviously, there are many great coasters in Europe and in North America (and in Asia), but can you say that on average the coasters in X continent are superior? Or is it a draw? Or is it a matter of chalk and cheese (or apples and oranges)?


(NOTE: I am SURE that this topic has been discussed on this forum before -- probably many times -- but I recently discovered the rules of the forum post that discouraged "necroposting" and encouraged re-starting any topic that hasn't been discussed in the last three months, so that's what I'm doing.)
 
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'Murica wins it for me. Nobody does it like the 'Muricans. Sure, I love a well themed, well planned, well executed but medium sized coaster just as much as the next man, but you can't beat the sheer excess of the big, North American thrill parks like Magic Mountain, Cedar Point and Canada's Wonderland, where it's all about height, speed, world records, extreme launches, crazy airtime etc..
I love it when a park's ride line up is just massive coaster after massive coaster.
 
I'm not well traveled but I'm going to give my opinion anyway I think north America still looks like it has the ultimate coaster line up. They've got a huge variety of coasters through several decades too. Literally looks soooo much better than Europe. I think Asia have overtaken Europe over the last few years, leaving it in the dust and are closing the gap between them and NA. If they keep up adding all these RMCs, NA should stay top dog for a while though. Poor Europe.
 
MestnyiGeroi said:
OK, so which hemisphere for you has the better coasters on average?
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Let's put it this way: If every coaster in the southern hemisphere was demolished overnight, I wouldn't cry for more than the two, maybe three ones I've actually ever learnt the name of down there. Two of them are named Tower of Terror, neither are supposed to be that great either.
 
Pokemaniac said:
Let's put it this way: If every coaster in the southern hemisphere was demolished overnight, I wouldn't cry for more than the two, maybe three ones I've actually ever learnt the name of down there. Two of them are named Tower of Terror, neither are supposed to be that great either.
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Yes, when I asked which hemisphere, I assumed we were talking Eastern vs. Western.
 
While NA and Asia may have numbers over Europe I still think its mostly mass over quality in many places. Smaller CP and SF parks have mostly variations or clones of the bigger parks in their chain. Unique coasters are mostly found in their few signature parks and Universal/Disney - and some amazing classic parks like Knoebels or Kennywood. Busch also has some uniques but hasn't pushed with prototypes in the last years. I give the US a major advantage on classic wooden coasters - Europe has some in the UK and Scandinavia but most burnt down in WWII - and Asia mostly didn't know what coasters were at that time.
But speaking of unique and prototype coasters I think Europe is heads on - mostly because we still have the most coaster manufacturers here. Lets say the firsts in current years: Mack Mega (Blue Fire, Helix), Mack Wing Coaster (Lost Gravity), Gerstlauer Kataplektor (Fluch), Gerstlauer Infinity (Smiler, Karacho, Kärnan), Maurer SkyWheel, Intamin preFab (Colossos), Vekoma Space Warp (Engergylandia and Legendia parks). Europe may not have the highest, fastest and longest records but gets new tech first on a regular basis - like the re-introduction of lapbars for inversion coasters.
US has regained the head on wooden coasters from Intamin with RMC. Japan also re-emerged as Sensei S&S came with their FreeSpin - hope for more from Osaka in the future...
 
I can't believe some of what I'm reading. The US Eastern Time Zone has most of the world's best coasters.

If someone has the opinion that Helix or Taron is the best coaster, that's fine. Both look like fun. But it's not an opinion that most of the most highly regarded coasters are in the US Eastern Time Zone.
 
BigBad said:
I can't believe some of what I'm reading. The US Eastern Time Zone has most of the world's best coasters.

If someone has the opinion that Helix or Taron is the best coaster, that's fine. Both look like fun. But it's not an opinion that most of the most highly regarded coasters are in the US Eastern Time Zone.
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Nobody said the opposite. He just stated that Europe is good at innovation. You cannot deny that.

I'd point out, however, that Europe is ridden with Boomerangs and SLC clones, maybe even more than the US (i don't know the numbers).
 
I think the US definitely has a lot more quantity of great coasters, but quality-wise there doesn't seem to be much difference. Europe has very few of each type, but it's often one of the best of its kind. Take B&M hypers or inverts for example. The US has a LOT more of them, but Shambhala, Nemesis, Black Mamba, Katun and Oz'Iris are often mentioned among the best of its kind. There's only one RMC in Europe but it still seems to be one of the best ones. Then there's Helix and Taron, which don't really have an American equivalent. The US definitely has the bigger coasters, but with all the restrictions that European parks have, they seem to have the more creative, original and imaginative coaster layouts.
 
ThomVD said:
I think the US definitely has a lot more quantity of great coasters, but quality-wise there doesn't seem to be much difference. Europe has very few of each type, but it's often one of the best of its kind. Take B&M hypers or inverts for example. The US has a LOT more of them, but Shambhala, Nemesis, Black Mamba, Katun and Oz'Iris are often mentioned among the best of its kind. There's only one RMC in Europe but it still seems to be one of the best ones. Then there's Helix and Taron, which don't really have an American equivalent. The US definitely has the bigger coasters, but with all the restrictions that European parks have, they seem to have the more creative, original and imaginative coaster layouts.
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I completely agree, but I do feel the need to mention that many of the US (North American) B&Ms are mentioned among the best of their kind too.

Batman clones - boring, sure, but they do pack a hell of a punch
Patriot - may not have the brilliant theming of the European models, but it's a brilliant invert
Fury - best B&M hyper ever made, I'd say
Nitro - another brilliant hyper
Leviathan - also ranks very highly

Granted, as a proportion of the total number of coasters, these are much less, but they are definitely up there (and in some instanced better) than their European cousins.

As for Helix and Taron, whilst you're definitely right, don't forget that Maverick exists, and Maverick is fab. <3
 
Yeah, I meant that the top coasters of most types on both continents are a pretty fair match, while the US simply has more of each type (most of which is not as good as the top ones).
 
America does still obviously have the best collection, like, obviously.

Asia is building the best stuff and if you looked simply at Coasters less than say, five years old, it would win.

Europe does have some excellent Coasters, and some stand outs in their type (OzIris is the best Invert, Taron the best launched) but we just don't have the quantity of top tier rides.
 
I haven't been to Asia, but have done most of the must do's on 'Murica's east coast and the offering is much better that Europe's. There's a few world class rides over here, but there's simply more in the US, plus the majority of the airtime machines are there.
 
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