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 Review of Nitro @ Six Flags Great Adventure
4 Rating Posted by: Timberman on 8/10/2005 8:19:00 PM
"Nitro" has become my shorthand for the path modern roller coasters are taking away from the rough and tumble lumber heaps of yore to the towering steel giants, smoother than egg whites on polished marble, that anchor many themeparks today. Personally, I dont welcome this trend, but I will try to rate Nitro on its own merits, rather than treating it as yet another nail in the coffin of the traditional roller coaster experience.

Judged in isolation, this ride is hopelessly enjoyable. My biggest complaint is with its Fisher-Price my-first-roller-coaster aesthetic (big, bulky, brightly-colored, kind of synthetic-looking). The ride quality, however, has to be experienced to be believed; it is a reminder that while humanity still remains, on many levels, little more than a collection of shaved apes, it is also capable of manipulating the world around it in amazing ways. This is as close as were likely to get to capturing the feeling of a magic carpet: smooth, swoopy, open, quiet. Ride Nitro at night, and you will feel like youre flying. I hate to lapse into cliches like that, but trust me, its an accurate description.

Yet while most hypers these days are fast and smooth, Nitro ups the ante with a layout that deftly exploits its strengths. The first hill may not be the steepest in absolute terms, but its profiling creates a rarely equaled impression of steepness. Viewed from the front seat of the comfy trains with the relatively minimalist clam-shell restraints, the first drop actually seems to bow inward. Hill number two gracefully transitions into the second act, which goes soaring through the woods over a couple of mammoth hills and through the sort of heeling, overbanked turnaround that is a now a staple on these types of coasters. The ride then enters an upward helix, and for the first time, its passengers are treated to a hint of intensity from the mild positive Gs. After the obligatory brake block, Nitro brings it home over a series of bunny hops (although that term is perhaps misleading on a coaster of this size) which briefly offer some mild weightlessness. What airtime exists on this coaster strikes me more as a gentle manipulation of gravity. At times you will feel heavier (as in the helix) and at times you will seem momentarily to float. What you will not feel is launched sharply in one direction or another.

Now comes the difficult part: summing up the Nitro experience. Subjectively, I view Nitro as TOO refined for my personal tastes, like a magazine model whose characterizing features are treated as blemishes and airbrushed away. Nitros most recognizable trait is, in fact, an overall sublimity that I find strangely alienating. If it were a record, I would say it was overproduced. I like to feel some heart, a little grit, in my roller coasters. Nitro, however, seems to exist above the fray. It will treat you to quite a show, but its a notably passive experience. Your eyes water from the wind and your hair gets a bit mussed, but otherise, youre as serene and comfortable as a first class passenger on a jumbo jet cruising calm skies.

Yet this, of course, is among the keys to Nitros popularity. Whatever else I say about Nitro, the handwriting is on the wall: this is the roller coaster for the modern park-goer. Whether that makes it something worth celebrating is, for this critic at least, still up for debate.
 

Review Comments

coaster05 on 8/10/2005 10:31:38 PM said:
Shaved Apes is so funny. I have found that I really enjoy both the modern hypers along with gems like phoenix, hades, avalanche also. For me one does not detract from the other. I do believe huge parks will continue with these rides and smaller parks will continue to have more dominance on the wood coaster rankings.
fergusonat on 8/10/2005 11:22:56 PM said:
Yeah, I can definitely see where youre coming from man...the ruggedness of the classics is still unmatched. But I think in this day and age, the general public wouldnt tolerate that kind of "grit" in coasters as you said. In an era where personal comfort is foremost, the roller coasters will inevitably follow the trend. As for me, I like both types of coasters. The down-and-dirty woodies with insane air and abrupt changes in direction are just as great as the graceful motions of Apollos Chariot and Lightning Racer in my mind. But you have some excellent points....very good review
papa1958 on 8/11/2005 11:19:09 AM said:
Thanks again Timberman for yet another thoughtful review. Did you try the back, it actually gets some good air back there?
Timberman on 8/11/2005 7:40:50 PM said:
Papa1958 -- Ive ridden Nitro numerous times in the first and last rows. I agree that the airtime is more noticeable in the back, but overall, Nitro has never impressed me as an "airtime coaster" in the same way, for example, that Magnum XL-200 or Phantoms Revenge do.
coaster05 on 8/11/2005 11:35:51 PM said:
I found last time that a lot of Magnums airtime was not as noticeable.
larrygator on 8/15/2005 12:00:11 AM said:
I never had a problem with lack of airtime on Nitro or Magnum.
BobFunland on 8/15/2005 1:19:16 PM said:
And the forces of fanboysism dealt Timberman his first bad rating. Oh well, as much as I liked Nitro this is still a good review, even if Timberman represents a minority in the mindset of parkgoers.

I think we know, and could have taken an educated guess, that Timberman is an ejector guy who likes his airtime to be violent, so this opinion comes as no shock to me. I dont mind either way so long as Im being hurled out of my seat.
praxis on 8/15/2005 2:01:46 PM said:
I was at SFGA this weekend, and Nitro looked just fine. For that matter, the whole park did. Now SFA in Martyland, thats another story...
Timberman on 8/16/2005 12:16:02 AM said:
I can only hope the bad rating came from a wooden coaster diehard who thinks I sold out the faithful by writing so many nice things about Nitro. The truth is, I really like this ride, especially at night. By giving it an 8, Im placing it in the 80th percentile of roller coasters that Ive ridden, so this is high praise from my perspective.
coaster05 on 8/16/2005 7:08:02 PM said:
I cant believe someone gave a bad rating for this review. Now I wish I would have given you one for Shivering Timbers since I dont agree with it.(just kidding)
fergusonat on 8/17/2005 11:10:24 PM said:
I think this is a great review...just because you dont give a ride a 10 doesnt mean you dont like it. In fact, I need to start cracking down on rides a little more. :o
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