Wicked Cyclone — Attraction in Agawam

This and Superman: The Ride are the two world-class, mind-boggling, bucket-list roller coasters at Six Flags New England, and I think Wicked Cyclone may actually be the better of the two (which is high, HIGH praise given what Superman is). Regardless, both are absolute must-rides for real thrill-seekers. Wicked Cyclone is not the biggest or fastest coaster at SFNE, but it is the most hyperkinetically intense.

Rocky Mountain Construction has been making a name for itself with its conversions of deteriorating wooden coasters into wild steel-track hybrids. In this case, RMC transformed a ride that had acquired a reputation for bone-shaking roughness into a glass-smooth but relentlessly intense airtime machine. This coaster does not let up for an instant. From the first drop to the station brakes, it packs in a different disorienting surprise every couple of seconds, including three inversions. My favorite of these is the first inversion, the zero-G stall, a roll that reverses direction midway through. The other two are zero-G rolls embedded within the wooden support structure. Another high point of the ride is the double down, a twin pop of pure ejector airtime.

For a ride this wild and compact, it actually gives a fairly long experience, because the track makes three laps around the ride's footprint. I have seen reviews complaining that the ride slows down too much on the third, lowest lap, but I did not find this at all--maybe it was running unusually well when I rode it. More recently I've seen some consensus that Wicked Cyclone was running generally better in the 2021 season, so maybe SFNE did something to help it maintain speed all the way through.

You ride through all this in cars without over-the-shoulder restraints, held in only by a seat belt and a somewhat bulky lap bar. I did not have problems with these restraints, but some riders might. I did notice that I had to bend my knees far enough that before my recent knee-replacement surgery I might have had some trouble with it. Regardless, the absence of anything holding in your upper body gives a tremendous (and slightly unnerving) sense of freedom, with no danger of banging your head on anything as you whip through the inversions and overbanks.

There is some clever storm-related theming around the queue, which also goes under and through the structure, giving you great views of what you're about to be...

The old Riverside Cyclone was a shell of its former self. Ridership was waning due to the way the coaster has deteriorated throughout the years. They reprofiled the ride to a slow crawl that only had decent airtime in the backseat.

I've ridden its reincarnated version the Wicked Cyclone about ten times so far, and it's just an amazing coaster. Whether you want to call it a steel, a wood, or a hybrid coaster is irrelevant. It's just an amazing ride from start to finish. IMO, it's more fun than Bizarro (Bizarro has terrible restraints and trains). RMC has taken a restrictive layout of the old Cyclone and injected tons of great elements in every section of the track. Every train that comes back to the station is accompanied by clapping and cheering. You only really hear that for Bizarro (and even then it's not as frequent as it used to be)

For those who are disappointed about the destruction of the old Cyclone, I would argue that the Thunderbolt is more legendary and consistently gave better rides than Cyclone, at least in the 2000's. Even today, the Thunderbolt is still a fun air-time filled and...

I have to say this was my absolute favourite ride in the whole of Six Flags! It might not be classed as one of the top 3 but we both enjoyed it the most! I assume it was once a fully wooden coaster but it was now had steel tracks added - this makes it so smooth and didn’t shake you around like many wooden coasters. I had loads of air time (out of my seat) and it’s really fast so provides loads of thrills. Given you only have your legs in a brace (and a seat belt) you feel really ‘free’ and so the spins and twists were really felt. Great great ride and would have gone on it again had the queue not been quite long! Has a pouch on the ride for small items like phones and glasses - this...