New Revolution Review: Bring on the VR!

This morning I got a chance to head to Six Flags Magic Mountain for the media preview of the New Revolution VR roller coaster, developed with VR Coaster using using Samsung Gear VR headsets. I’ll admit that I was skeptical of the VR before riding. Would it make me queasy? Would the motion feel at all realistic? I like roller coasters, why would I want to change the experience? I am now completely over that skepticism. It was a completely new coaster experience, unlike anything I’d ever ridden. And it was awesome.

The New Revolution was announced last fall, with VR announced earlier this month. Today we got to preview it!

The New Revolution was announced last fall, with VR announced earlier this month. Today we got to preview it!

For those of you who hadn’t heard, Six Flags announced earlier this month that roller coasters at nine of their parks would be transformed into VR roller coasters. These rides would all be one of two VR, with three parks receiving a Superman VR experience and the other six receiving one called “New Revolution”, which has roughly an Independence Day vibe (fighter planes fighting aliens over a city).  Not surprisingly, the New Revolution coaster at Magic Mountain is one of the rides to get the New Revolution VR. This goes along with a complete refurbishment of the historic Revolution roller coaster, which closed last September, including a new paint job and new trains.

The bright new white and blue paint on New Revolution looks really good. And really exaggerates how faded Tatsu looks…

Before diving into the VR aspect, the new train was great. Custom designed by Magic Mountain’s in house engineering team, they were smooth and comfortable seats, and the new lap and shin restraints are infinitely better than the old over the shoulder ones.  The new paint job on the coaster looks brilliant, and the bright metallic red train looks wonderful (even missing it’s nose cone for media day). Lots of the buildings nearby, like the Grand Carousel, have also received (or were in the process of receiving) new coats of paint or refurbishments, making the whole area feel fresh, similar to how the area around Twisted Colossus was completely refreshed and redesigned when it opened. Together it all makes that section of the park feel bright and new.

Painters hard at work touching up the carousel outside New Revolution (which looks like it got a new name to the "Grand American"). The whole area around New Revolution has been cleaned up and redecorated, it looks great.

Painters hard at work touching up the carousel outside New Revolution (which looks like it got a new name to the “Grand American”). The whole area around New Revolution has been cleaned up and redecorated, it looks great.

Arriving at the ride, I was handed a headset and given quick instructions for how to put on the headset. It’s pretty straightforward, but there are kind of a lot of straps. Luckily it doesn’t need to be a perfect fit, just snug enough it doesn’t flop around. After adjusting the straps you can pull the headset up while waiting in line. It’s not totally clear how they’re going to handle handing them out for a real crowd, but hopefully they’ll have plenty, and give folks plenty of time to adjust the headsets.

You can see how the new headsets look and fit. They're actually pretty comfortable.

You can see how the new headsets look and fit. They’re actually pretty comfortable.  Photo Courtesy KTLA

Upon sitting down, you pull the headset down, look straight forward, and the VR begins calibrating. After a few seconds you find yourself seated in the cockpit of a fighter plane in a hangar, ready to go kill aliens. The calibration in seat is handled by essentially a barcode on the seatback in front of you that tells the headset which seat you’re in. This is critical, because the VR program is perfectly timed for the motion of the ride and track, so knowing where you are in the train changes the experience. You can actually tell this right away. If you’re in a seat near the front of the train, your fighter plane is near the front of the hangar, but if you’re seated in the back then your plane is towards the back of the hangar. Makes sense, right?

A close up look of the new trains (and restraints). You can see the little "Six Flags" square in front of each seat that the VR headset uses to calibrate itself.

A close up look of the new trains (and restraints). You can see the little “Six Flags” square in front of each seat that the VR headset uses to calibrate itself.

As the train begins to pull out your fighter plane moves forward into an elevator that lifts you up, timed with the lift hill. Interestingly although the visuals are are a basically vertical lift vs the angled lift hill, there was no feeling that the motion was off. This is the brief period of the ride where the experience is interactive. You can tap the right side of the headset to fire a pair of guns on the plane, and targets show up in the lift “elevator” to practice on. Sadly, in order to discourage people from waving their arms around during the ride, the guns you control are immediately blown off at the top of the lift hill.

Folks climbing the lift, shooting the guns.

Folks climbing the lift, shooting the guns.

Now’s where the real fun begins. You know how one of the greatest things about a ride like Space Mountain is that you have a limited idea of what is going to happen next? Well, this is that feeling taken to the next level. There is no track on your screen, and enough action that you can’t really tell which way you’re going next. The onscreen action is timed perfectly with the motion of the ride, and head tracking on the headset is good enough that any bouncing translates to the animation. Nice touches in visuals help keep you in the experience, like when a brake run times up perfectly with crashing through a building and skidding on the floor. There was no feeling of nauseau, and no disorientation, just a sense that you were actually in the scene. The physical effect of riding while seeing the on-screen action, like the rumble of the coaster and the wind against my face, did a far better of keeping me engaged in the experience than any motion simulator or 4/5/6D ride ever has.

There's basically no way to tell when the loop and helixes are coming. It's awesome.

There’s basically no way to tell when the loop and helixes are coming. It’s awesome.

On my second ride through I took advantage of the fact that with the VR headset, I can look around me at other things happening in the scene. I can look back to see the damaged mothership as the train flies away, or look left and right to check out the various buildings in the city and vehicles moving along the ground. Of course, sometimes this caused me to notice things like a building that was only a facade, or the battleships shooting into the sky at nothing, but still, it was fun to be able to look at the whole scene. Similarly, while sitting in the station at the start, I could see everything from my copilot to the leather fighter jet seat behind me to other planes in the hanger. It was fun to just look around.

While for the most part I loved it, the experience wasn’t perfect. The visuals were pretty rough resolution wise, and there were lots of static objects that would have been more fun if they were animated, although I imagine these are things that would improve as the technology is refined. It would have been fun to have sound effects, as it was a little weird seeing all this action but not hearing any other jets or gunfire or crashing glass. I luckily got to sit next to Thomas Wagner, a co-founder of VR Coaster, and he said one reason they didn’t want to add something like headphones was to keep the headsets from feeling to restrictive for people not used to VR hardware, which makes sense. You could certainly imagine future coasters using in seat speakers or something to add sound effects, though. And on one of my rides the timing got a little off at the start, but it wasn’t enough to cause any discomfort or hurt the experience, and as the day went on software updates were already being added onto the phones. The only other downside is that only riders 13 years old and older are allowed to use the headsets. Hopefully that will change over time, but I could imagine a lot of disappointed younger siblings.

Diving into battle, I was sold. I'm really interested in seeing how the action differs from ride to ride, with each "New Revolution" experience tailored to the specific track it's on.

Diving into battle, I was sold. I’m really interested in seeing how the action differs from ride to ride, with each “New Revolution” experience tailored to the specific track it’s on.

But really, these are all minor nits for an experience that is a first of it’s kind, and was something that really was the ultimate dark ride. I also made sure to ride the New Revolution once without the headset, which is totally an option for everyone. Honestly, unless the VR gave you extra motion sickness (which again, it didn’t for me at all), I wouldn’t ever ride it without the headset. The other exciting aspect is how much this could open up for the ride. You could imagine different experience for Halloween or Christmas easily being developed for it, and over time the visuals could easily improve as the hardware and software improves. Heck, as I wrote the other day about the potential for video game based rides, you could imagine someday getting a custom tailored story, or getting to choose which experience you wanted.

The potential is almost limitless, and I now fully expect VR headsets to start popping up on more and more rides, especially older or gentler ones needing a refresh, and I want to try them all. I’m sold.

The New Revolution opens for pass holder previews on March 26, and for the general public at a later date (Update: The public opening date is April 21, not too far off). Sign-up to ride at the Six Flags Magic Mountain website if you want to preview it, and if you get a chance to ride it let us know in the comments whether you agree or disagree with my take.

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