News Project 2028 (?): Kumba’s Revenge (Giga?)

[GASM]

If it's something big and new, it deserves its own identity—it's both disrespectful to the new coaster AND to Kumba to essentially steal it's identity to market something largely unrelated.

This is exactly why I roll my eyes whenever I see the idea of a future coaster at Great Adventure sharing Kingda Ka’s name in some capacity. Whatever ends up in Ka’s plot will very clearly not be a hydraulic launched strata, there’s no need to theme it to one.

Unless by “extension” they mean they’re quite literally extending Kumba, which I would bet money I don’t have on NOT being the case, this name serves no purpose outside of mass confusion.

The reason I’d be fine with another coaster using the GASM name at Great Adventure is not only because I would expect it to be a large modern looper, whether that’s a tilt, dive, etc., but because it’s also been 16 years since GASM’s removal. Kind of a big difference from immediately regurgitating the theme.

 

[Mushroom]

Unless Kumba’s Revenge really is just a substantial renovation of Kumba (doubtful), it seems like they just saw The Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge as a success and decided to reuse the format. But The Wolf’s Revenge only even remotely works because the entire ride is clearly a deliberate homage to the original — down to the theming (including the village), the colors, and even the type of ride (cars hanging below the track).

Unless Kumba’s Revenge does something very similar, they missed the point of why The Wolf’s Revenge works. TBBW:TWR was built to answer the immense nostalgia for the long-retired original coaster that had legions of fans asking for it to be brought back for 15 straight years. The gap in time between the two coasters is what makes TWR feel like a feel-good throwback, a “They’re bringing back the Big Bad Wolf!” headline, and not a lazy recycling of an existing theme because they couldn’t think of a new one. (Even though it may have been a bit of the latter too.)

And that’s on top of the fact that The Big Bad Wolf: The Wolf’s Revenge is a terrible fucking name in the first place. On top of how clunky it is, it reeks of creative bankruptcy in the same way that RMCs which just had “Iron” or “Revenge” slapped onto the name of the original wooden coaster do.

So this name is like three layers of lazy. It’s a lazy attempt to copy a lazy name of a (arguably) lazy nostalgia play.

So in other words, it’s classic modern-day BGT.