At the last IAAPA conference in Orlando, a special virtual reality coaster was offered to attendees at Fun Spot America’s Orlando theme park. According to our friend, Ken of The Orlando Tourism Report, it was a very enjoyable and immersive experience, and that was on their Vekoma family coaster. Among the convention atendees seen riding the virtual reality coaster were representatives of Six Flags. I was told they seemed to be enjoying the attraction a lot, and clearly they were. Not so long ago, Six Flags over Texas leaked on their Twitter page that a “VR Experience” would be coming to their park in 2016 with a link to the Six Flags website that did not work. This was promptly deleted. Today, not only was it confirmed by Six Flags that they’d be creating a Virtual Reality coaster at Six Flags over Texas, but eight other parks would too.
Although the exhibitor of virtual reality on the Fun Spot Coaster was a German company called “VR Coasters,” Six Flags has gone with a someone else. They are using Samsung’s Virtual Reality technology for their two VR experiences. It should be noted that guests 12 and under will not be able to experience these attractions with virtual reality due to requirements from Samsung. Fortunately, there is going to be an option to ride without the virtual reality goggles for everyone.
The first of these two Virtual Reality Experiences is “The New Revolution.” This experience will immerse riders into a futuristic battle where they will save Earth from invading aliens. On the lift hill, guests will climb up as their weapons are revealed. They will be able to test these weapons as they go up, then on the drop, they will be in an immersive battle! The New Revolution will debut on a total of six roller coasters.
Here is a list of the roller coasters “The New Revolution” will be featured on:
The New Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain (This is a complete surprise) – Opening March 26th to Passholders
Shock Wave at Six Flags Over Texas – Special Passholder Preview on March 10th
Dare Devil Dive at Six Flags over Georgia – March 12th Passholder Preview – According to information sent by Six Flags over Georgia, “The virtual reality coaster will open to the public on March 19 for a limited time only.” I am unsure whether or not this is true for the other virtual reality coasters.
Ninja at Six Flags St. Louis
Steamin’ Demon at The Great Escape
Goliath at La Ronde
The other virtual reality experience coming to Six Flags parks is a Superman VR Experience! Guests will start off on a leisurely tour of Metropolis from the kind folks over at Lex Corp, but in a true theme park fashion something will go wrong when Lex Luther shows up with an anti-gravity gun. Fortunately, Superman will try and stop him with his heat vision as he saves the city from chaos. This virtual reality experience will arrive at three parks this year!
Here are the three coasters which will feature Superman in Virtual Reality:
Superman Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas
Superman The Ride at Six Flags New England
Superman Ride of Steel at Six Flags America
My Take – I am VERY excited for the news of virtual reality coming to Six Flags parks (in particular, my local park, Six Flags America). I have heard fantastic things about the current test installations at parks across the world, in addition to the demonstration at Fun Spot, and I think a full rollout of this technology was bound to happen. I am happy to see a regional park doing it. I think Six Flags will be able to rival Disney and Universal in terms of immersion if this experience is created well. Virtual reality is the future of theme parks, and I am excited to try this out. I am particularly interested to see how they implement Superman into the ride experience, because implementing popular characters into virtual reality attractions could become a trend for the chain in the future.
What do you think of these virtual reality roller coasters coming to Six Flags parks? Let us know in the comments and be sure to follow Theme Parks and Travels on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more information! You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel! Don’t forget to give our west coast correspondent, Michael, a follow on Twitter and Instagram! Finally, as of now, Apple News should be working once again. Upon site transfer I neglected the feed, but now if you search “Theme Parks and Travels” in the app we should be found!
