I'm sure we all heard the rumors over the summer about Six Flags Great America's ride mechanics modifying Batman to ride backwards and having some willing employees be the test dummies to ride it. Well Screamscape and the park both recently confirmed that Batman will indeed run backwards for a small portion of 2013, obviously trying to bring attention back to an older ride and play off of the recent fetish of running rides backwards.
This begs the question, are some rides just too intense to ride backwards? I speak from experience with its cousin in New Jersey that Batman is easily one of the most intense inverted coasters in the world, even moreso than the likes of Alpengeist, Raptor, Talon, Great Bear, and (not) Dueling (anymore) Dragons. Batman has blackout enducing loops and a 270 degree helix that'll surely force all the blood into your legs if you're not ready for it, now imagine not having much of an idea when they will happen. I really think SFGAm is pushing the envelope a little too far, but what do you guys think? Is this really a case of being to extreme or is it just a nice way to freshen up a ride that is 2 decades old and one of the most popular cloned rides in the country?
This begs the question, are some rides just too intense to ride backwards? I speak from experience with its cousin in New Jersey that Batman is easily one of the most intense inverted coasters in the world, even moreso than the likes of Alpengeist, Raptor, Talon, Great Bear, and (not) Dueling (anymore) Dragons. Batman has blackout enducing loops and a 270 degree helix that'll surely force all the blood into your legs if you're not ready for it, now imagine not having much of an idea when they will happen. I really think SFGAm is pushing the envelope a little too far, but what do you guys think? Is this really a case of being to extreme or is it just a nice way to freshen up a ride that is 2 decades old and one of the most popular cloned rides in the country?