Sonic: The Theme Park Ride?!

http://www.altontowers.com/theme-park/fun-rides/sonic-spinball/

You're hearing me right. I ain't pullin' nobody's leg here.

I was browsing on the micro-site for SEGA All-Stars Racing today, and found a little tab that led me to the Alton Towers website (Alton Towers is a really popular British theme park that's about 2 and a half hours drive from where I live). And there I saw a webpage link for a rollercoaster called "Sonic Spinball". I was bowled over by it!

Now, to be fair, Sonic Spinball is not a completely new coaster, it's simply an older version of the coaster (formerly known as 'Spinball Whizzer') given a make-over with the Sonic franchise. Basically it's like a wild mouse coaster but the carriages can freely rotate as you go round the bends, and there's this really freaky bit where you're thrown up and the track is on a nearly vertical slant. Here's a picture to clear things up:



It officially opens on February 13th, and if I have the chance, I would definitely go down there and check it out.
Discuss now!

OMG that's pretty awesome...

why cant we get something this cool in the states

agreed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNVG7nviJkI&feature=player_embedded

^ video of the ride in action

Proud to announce that I have spent a weekend at the Alton Towers Resort and rode this ride... twice... among a mess of other rides.

Also thrilled to report that I was not disappointed by it! There's some really good music to listen to as you wait in line, and you literally have no idea which way you're going to face going down that massive drop to the top of that turn. Fantastic! One criticism: they have shunned the world of voice acting with a very unconvincing performance of Sonic giving the safety briefing. I mean, they could have made the effort to actually ask JG to do the voice.

Other than that, I highly recommend to all you foreigners to get your arse over here to the merry land of England and check this thing out!

Oh jeez, it looks amazing if i do say so myself. My mom knows some people in England and they wanted to invite us there one of these days. Oh god if they live close to that ride...

Apparently there was a squirrel that liked to ride said roller coaster, and they named him Sonic. He was recently banned from the ride, though, because he almost died once.

seth_the_fox wrote:agreed

When you post something, make sure you type more than just a few words. One word posts are not acceptable. Try to attribute something to the conversation.

This sounds so cool, I wish we had a ride like that in the US. Curse you England!

Apparently though, you've not got forever to get over to England and see this thing. SEGA may be the theme park's official gaming sponsor, but that won't last.
In something like 2013, the sponsorship is due to end and the Sonic livery will all be taken down and the ride might be moved to somewhere else in the park with something new painted all around it.

So get shifting people!

Well, I'm screwed then. Unless we go there for our senior trip, which I doubt.

I seem to be the only one not really excited about this. It's rollercoaster, so what? I'll meet ya at the arcade...

That looks so cool! I am hoping to go there sometime.

yeah that does look pretty amazin