#maxx force

[topthrill2]

Get well soon Maxx Force!

[tacoma-narrows]

Tac Talks Coasters - Post 150: #20

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

Maxx Force at Six Flags Great America!

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Opened: 2019 Manufacturer: S&S - Sansei Height: 175 ft (53 m) Speed: 78 mph (126 kph) Length: 1,800 ft (550 m) My most recent ride: 2024

Welcome to my top 20, and here we have my favorite ride at Six Flags Great America! One thing you may have noticed, and will definitely become clear as we get further into my top coasters, is that I am a huge sucker for launch coasters. There is just something else about that feeling of instantaneous acceleration as you take off down the track. I've talked about powerful and punchy launches before on rides like Kingda Ka and TMNT Shellraiser, and Maxx Force delivers the same. In fact, Maxx Force is actually the fastest accelerating launch in North America, going from 0 to 78 mph (126 kph) in just 1.8 seconds. With the closure of Do-Dodonpa at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan, there's some debate over whether Maxx Force is actually the fastest accelerating coaster in the world. Stealth at Thorpe Park in the UK also claims the fastest accelerating title, but like I said, there is still some debate as to which ride is the true world record holder.

But enough about stats and numbers and stuff, let's talk about Maxx Force itself. Let's get one thing out of the way real quick: the ride is short. It's only 1,800 feet long and only lasts about 25 seconds launch to brakes. But, it's what it does in that time that makes it so great in my opinion. Even with that little track length, they managed to cram five inversions into this thing. It's actually kind of remarkable that they were able to put so much into this ride. AND four of those five inversions are one of a kind, not found on any other coaster aside from Maxx Force.

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. When you ride Maxx Force, or at least when I do, it's for that launch. Now Maxx Force is unusual in the fact that most launch coasters built within the last decade use magnetic systems to launch the train. But Maxx Force uses compressed air to thrust you into the ride and that's what makes all the difference here. That acceleration is so instantaneous and powerful, it'll really take your breath away. As you're getting ready for it, there's no lights, no countdown or anything to tell you when you're about to go other than seeing the rollback brake fins retract (which you can only really see if you're in the front row). Then out of the blue, you go hurtling down that launch track into the layout. Right as you launch, you zoom through a tunnel under the park's train tracks, which makes for a cool moment, but you're going so fast that it's like a blink and you'll miss it kinda thing lol.

Even though the launch is my favorite park of Maxx Force, there's more to the ride than just that. The first element following the launch is the dog tongue. Yes, that's actually what it's called lol. This is two inversions in one, and it kinda feels like halfway between a banana roll and a traditional cobra roll. You shoot up, twist upside down, sort of level out right side up, twist upside down again and dive back towards the ground. It's definitely a funky maneuver, especially since it gives Maxx Force something I wasn't expecting: hang time. With a ride this rapid fire and fast, I would not have expected it to have hang time, but it actually has a fair amount of it. Another thing that was cool about the dog tongue (how often can you say that sentence lmao) was when I rode Maxx Force, at the peak of this element, I turned and looked down at the ground. It was really cool to see just how high off the ground you are for that.

After swooping down from the dog tongue element, you have a really forceful banked turn that dives under the launch track and immediately banks into my favorite of the ride's five inversions. This heartline roll is so snappy and fast and provides some sweet laterals too. When Maxx Force opened, Six Flags touted the roll as the fastest inversion on a coaster, taking it at about 60 mph (97 kph). I don't know if it still holds that record, but it's still gotta be up there. After the heartline roll, you flip up into the other one of a kind element, the Maxx Dive Loop. This is similar to a regular dive loop where you twist upwards and upside down, but here, you keep twisting to sort of 270 degrees where you hang sideways for a second and then twist back upside down and dive towards the ground. It's another very weird element but it's another good hang time moment for sure.

The downside with the Maxx Dive Loop though is that the ride's brakes kick in as you finish descending it, so it makes for a bit of a jarring stop. But with how little space Great America had to work with for this ride, I understand why they had to configure the brakes like they did. It's a bit of a weird ending, but it doesn't hurt the rest of the experience very much if at all in my experience.

Overall, Maxx Force was easily my favorite ride at Great America, even though I only rode half of their coasters the one time I was there. Everything I didn't get to ride either had a clone I'd already done at another park, was a kiddie coaster, or doesn't look it would stack up anywhere near to Maxx Force. Even their new B&M Dive coaster Wrath of Rakshasa, even though it looks solid, I highly doubt would top Maxx Force for me. I'd imagine that landing at my third or fourth fav in the park, behind Maxx Force and Goliath and maybe X-Flight. But I'll have to get back to the park to check it out for myself sometime down the line. And you can bet the next time I'm back, I'll definitely be getting more rides on Maxx Force as well :3

Thanks for checking out today's coaster post! Keep an eye out for tomorrow's coaster!

[thrillrid3s]

【ｍａｘｘ　ｆｏｒｃｅ】

[flojector]

i have literal hundred of these little clips from various rides and after recently discovering this gif making feature… yay! so now you can see them

[rollercoastersxflightragingbull]

Maxx Force has to be my favorite launch coaster I’ve ever ridden and my 3rd favorite roller coaster at Six Flags Great America.

[tacoma-narrows]

Six Flags Great America! - 5/4/24

Finally decided to put together my post from going to Great America about two weeks ago lol. Sorry it took so long! With moving back home after college, I kept getting distracted by other things haha.

Here are some of my fav pictures I got! In-depth thoughts about each coaster I rode are below them!

So I went with a friend from college and rode about half of all the major coasters there (7 out of their total of 15) since lines were pretty long all day. American Eagle, Whizzer and Sprocket Rockets were closed all day (this was only the third weekend of the season so it was to be expected - you know how it is with Six Flags lmao), and then everything else we didn't get to ride was either a kiddy coaster (Little Dipper) or has a clone somewhere else that I've ridden before (Batman the Ride, Joker, Flash: Vertical Velocity, Superman Ultimate Flight). So not super bummed about missing any of those. Getting on American Eagle and Whizzer would've been fun since those are both classics, and even with clones, a credit is still a credit lol. My friend and I are hoping to go back when we come back to school in August, so we'll hopefully be able to ride what we missed then.

But enough about what we didn't ride, onto what we DID ride! (This will be in the order we rode them throughout the day, plus what number they are in my credits list)

Maxx Force - Credit #162! This was easily my favorite coaster in the park! I am a huge sucker for launch coasters, especially ones with powerful launches. With Maxx Force now having one of, debatably the, fastest accelerating launch on any coaster in the world, that did not disappoint! The funky inversions were a lot of fun and I really liked the high speed heartline roll in the middle. Of course the one downside to Maxx Force is that it's a very short ride in duration, in addition to the brakes kicking in while you're still going through the final element. But overall, it was still an absolute blast of a ride and I definitely wanna ride it again next time I'm at the park!

Raging Bull - Credit #163! I knew this B&M Hyper has gotten mixed reviews in the past, so I knew going in it wasn't going to be the best Hyper out there. I did really enjoy it's more unconventional layout for its model and the focus more on lateral and positive forces throughout the layout, and it was pretty smooth all the way through. What did disappoint me a bit though was the airtime. Like I said, I knew not to expect the 5+ second floater airtime hills you get on other Hypers like Diamondback or Candymonium, but I had heard that in the back row, the main first drop off of the pre-drop had some crazy ejector air in the back row. We rode in the back row and there was definitely some air, but not the crazy throw-you-out-of-your-seat type air that I was expecting. There were a few other good pops throughout the layout, but like I said, I liked it's focus on laterals and positives more. Definitely solid all around.

Viper - Credit #164! Viper I was slightly underwhelmed with. Going in, I had heard that Viper is one of the more underrated coasters in the park, both from other enthusiasts and locals who visit the park regularly. It was definitely smooth for a wooden coaster, it had clearly been well taken care of and looked to have gotten some recent re-tracking, which was very welcome. It also had some good laterals going around some of its turns, but similar to Raging Bull, I found it to be kinda lacking in the airtime department. Again there were some good floater hills here and there but not every hill hit like it should I felt like. This is one I wanna give another shake next time I'm there to see if I just missed something.

Demon - Credit #165! Demon was, not my favorite I'll say. Like it wasn't awful, I've certainly ridden worse Arrow loopers but this one was kinda middle of the road. I didn't think it rode as smoothly or had as much hangtime as the other Demon at California's Great America did. I liked the theming that this one had around it though, much like it's sibling in California. The rock work around the lift and corkscrews and the tunnel you fly through after going through the loops were both pretty cool. Other than that though, I wasn't huge on this one.

X-Flight - Credit #166! Opposite of Viper, X-Flight was better than I had expected! I had heard going in that it was the weakest Wing Coaster in the US, so I wasn't really expecting much, but really ended up enjoying it! We rode in the back row on the right side, so we really got whipped through some of the elements, especially the first wing over drop. I sat on the outside seat, so it was a little rattly there but that's to be expected with B&M Wings lol, and it wasn't really that bad. There were a lot of positive Gs that were a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the hangtime on the first drop and the final in-line twist through the tower (which was also a really cool visual moment both on and off the ride). Of the three Wing Coasters I've ridden, I put it in the middle. I liked it more than Wild Eagle at Dollywood, but not as much as GateKeeper at Cedar Point.

Goliath - Credit #167! Goliath was the longest line we waited in throughout the day at over 90 mins, but I would say it was worth it! I knew this was one of the shortest RMCs in duration, so that wasn't an issue for me but I really enjoyed the elements here. Great first drop and some really strong airtime moments. Both inversions were awesome too! The dive loop was really weird in a cool way, since I turned my head up while we were upside down to look through the structure as we dove down, which was a wild moment. And then the HUGE stall under the lift was soo cool as well. I'd only done prolonged stalls on Jersey Devil and Wildcat's Revenge (the one on Steel Vengeance is really quick and snappy unlike the ones mentioned here), but this one was just so big and so long that it was just a crazy moment. Easy number 2 in the park after Maxx Force for me!

Dark Knight - Credit #168! The last coaster we rode was Dark Knight, the indoor Wild Mouse. I know there are better coasters we could have ridden like Batman or Superman, but at this point, it was about 4 o'clock and we just wanted to get out of the heat and sun for awhile, so we chose to wait in the indoor queue of the Dark Knight lol. I knew what to expect since I had done the one at Great Adventure before, but I think this one was a bit better. The trims didn't seem to be hitting at all on the switchbacks, or if they were, they weren't hitting very hard. So lots of laterals all over, and it looked like more of the theming elements were either on or working than on Great Adventure's (at least from when I rode that one back in like 2018 lol). So it was fun, but in the end it was still just a Wild Mouse in a box lmao.

So that's my recap of my day at Six Flags Great America! I had a great time, at least until it started POURING as we were heading out at about 6 lmao. I'm definitely looking forward to going back, hopefully in August like I said. It definitely had similar bones to California's Great America, but I liked the charm of CGA a bit more, although Six Flags Great America has way more coasters lol. If you've been to SFGAm, let me know what you think of their rides or how your thoughts compare to mine! I'd love to know!

Here's all of the coasters I rode at the park from most to least favorite, along with where they landed in my overall credits ranking (plus which coasters are before and after them on my list for frame of reference):

Maxx Force (#20, between Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood and Thunder Striker at Carowinds)

Goliath (#30, between Volcano the Blast Coaster [formerly] at Kings Dominion and Candymonium at Hersheypark)

X-Flight (#46, between Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point and Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure)

Raging Bull (#50, between Great Bear at Hersheypark and Impulse at Knoebels)

Viper (#65, between Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion and Comet at Hersheypark)

Demon (#101, between Iron Dragon and Wild Mouse, both at Cedar Point)

Dark Knight (#113, between Racer at Kennywood and Dark Knight at Six Flags Great Adventure)

[rollercoastersxflightragingbull]

Happy National Roller Coasters Day to my favorite roller coasters of Six Flags Great America of 2022

[rollercoastersxflightragingbull]

Maxx Force is my 3rd favorite roller coaster