The entrance is marked by a question mark encircling the words, “The Riddler’s Revenge” on top of a stone gateway with the green metallic beast looming behind. The line winds under the coaster toward the station. The inside of the station is splattered with green question marks and in the terminal there is a green and black train with no seats. On this coaster, riders stand. There is a securing shoulder harness and little padded arm in between the rider’s legs with a strap that attaches to the shoulder harness and that’s all. There are none less than 54 inches tall that may dare to ride, else they slip out of these “seats”. In each car, riders stand 4 across in 8 cars per train.
Leaving the station, the train turns slightly to the right toward the chain lift. It ascends 156 feet pulled by the clanking chain through two loops that are to come. Once at the top, the train drops slightly until it turns with a steep drop that dives down 146 feet achieving a speed of 65 mph which will push it throughout the course.
With its newly acquired speed, the train climbs up 124 feet, into a back flip, flipping over the lift hill, and barreling back down creating a giant vertical loop. Then it races upward only to flip upside down sideways and come crashing down the other side in a dive loop, sending it back the way it came, but closer to the ground. Out of that it streams over the chain lift into another dive loop followed closely by a fully banked 360-degree turn that rises at an almost vertical angle creating an inclined loop. It seems like a leaning vertical loop.
The train then turns up into a brake run, which slows the train a bit. A short drop pulls the train out of the brakes and then pushes it up and sideways flipping it over in a corkscrew. The train is then sent under the chain lift and into a 270-degree turn that pulls out for an quick dip and back up to turn again. The train then flips through one last corkscrew before u-turning back to the station. The train has now made its complete circuit ending back at the station 3 minutes, 4,370 feet, and 6 inversions later.
The Riddler’s Revenge is the tallest, longest, and fastest standup roller coaster in the world, designed by Bolliger & Mabillard, one of the first class roller coaster designer companies of the world, which is based in Switzerland. It was built at Six Flag’s Magic Mountain in Valencia, California in 1998 costing $14,000,000 ($14 million).
Roller coasters are an incredible part of life and should not be taken for granted nor scoffed at. Appreciate these beautiful beasts as what they are: thrills of a lifetime. The Riddler’s Revenge is one of those “must ride before you die” roller coasters, so ride it before you die.