Tormenta Review: Grabbing the Bull by the Horns at Six Flags Over Texas
I was more than six miles from Six Flags Over Texas when my experience with Tormenta: Rampaging Run first started.
Leaving Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and turning onto Texas State Highway 360, there are multiple landmarks in the distance that can only be described as “Texas-sized”—AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field, and longtime Six Flags icons Superman: Power Tower and Titan among them. But there’s a new addition dominating the Arlington skyline: the 309-foot-tall Tormenta: Rampaging Run, the world’s first giga dive coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard.
The roller coaster’s location in the park – in a recently refreshed Spain/Mexico section just inside the park’s entrance – only enhances the suspense as you approach the front gate. Driving through the park’s toll plaza and into general parking, you literally cannot miss Tormenta’s imposing structure, because you have to drive past it to park, and walk past it in the other direction to enter Six Flags Over Texas. In fact, every time a coaster train was sent up that 309′ lift hill, people stopped outside the park gates. They watched. It didn’t matter if they were coming or going. They pulled their phones out and aimed them skyward as Tormenta’s trains briefly “pause” at the top of the structure, awaiting the 285′ descent at speeds approaching 90 miles per hour.
I feel like the term to best describe Tormenta is a Walt Disney Imagineering term known as a “weenie,” – an architectural concept named such by Imagineers in describing “visual magnets” that draw guests from one area to another. There are coasters at Six Flags parks like Fury 325 at Carowinds and Gatekeeper at Cedar Point that welcome guests to their respective parks by interacting with the front gate. While Tormenta doesn’t interact with this area in the traditional sense, it is certain to be the first thing that Six Flags Over Texas guests see when they walk towards the park entrance, preparing them for the thrills ahead, or the last thing they’ll remember heading to their car at the end of the night.
While Tormenta might be a visual “weenie,” it certainly isn’t a coaster for weenies – this time referring to the slang for a playful insult directed at someone considered weak or cowardly. The ride’s statistics speak for itself in this regard. At 309 feet tall and reaching 87 mph, Tormenta is among the world’s tallest and fastest roller coasters. Add in five inversions – including the world’s tallest vertical loop and a record-setting Immelmann, itself taller than 99.49% of roller coasters operating around the world today – and it’s clear both Six Flags Over Texas and Bolliger & Mabillard set out to redefine what a dive coaster could be.
Guests enter the “Spain” section of the park, themed to the fictional Rancho del Tormenta, and are greeted by a giant bull sculpture, with a plaque explaining the lore of Tormenta. The area around the coaster’s entrance is beautiful – themed to a multi-tiered Spanish plaza, complete with water features and a performance venue. The ride’s entrance plaza is designed after classic Spanish architecture, and with the lighting in the area, the entrance marquee is completely different depending on time of day, but stunning to look at in both the light and darkness. We didn’t get the full queue experience, but there are themed signs on the fences around the attraction. Before entering the station, Six Flags Over Texas has installed a bank of double-sided lockers for loose items, similar to those at Aquaman: Power Wave. The best part? These lockers are free, and just require use of a barcode (on your ticket or pass) to access. I would love to see these integrated at other attractions and parks around the country!
As for the ride experience itself, I rode Tormenta: Rampaging Run twice during the media day, once in the back row, and once in the front row, and I can honestly say that despite having just one row separating them, the experiences were definitely different. Tormenta’s trains are divided into three rows of eight seats, each equipped with Bolliger & Mabillard’s newer “vest”-style over-the-shoulder restraints. (Author’s Note: A lot of people seem to dislike the vest restraints for some reason, but I actually prefer them to the hard plastic OTSRs.) As someone with larger body dimensions, my seating options were limited to just a few seats on Tormenta’s three-row trains, but it’s worth noting that there’s at least one seat in each row designed with larger rides in mind – there’s one in the first and third rows, and two in the second row. Look for the seats with red seat belts to find these seats, and there’s also a test seat at the entrance to Tormenta if you’re unsure if you’ll fit or not.
If you’ve ever ridden a B&M dive coaster, the experience begins about the same as most other coasters in the model – a gate in front of you opens, you have a quick dip and turn out of the station, and you make your way to the lift hill. This is where Tormenta starts to set itself apart from other dive coasters, because you’re climbing higher in the air – by more than 80′ – than any other dive coaster in existence. As you ascend, you can see the landmarks in the distance. There’s the Rangers’ Globe Life Field again off to the right – looking a lot larger than it was from six miles away, but you’re climbing higher than its 278′ from the playing field to tip of its retractable roof. You reach the top of the 309′ tall lift hill, and are greeted with a panoramic view of the Dallas metroplex, located more than 15 miles away. You slowly – and I mean slowly – crawl to the edge of Tormenta’s 285′ beyond-vertical (95-degree) drop, and are dangled over the precipice for a few seconds, contemplating everything in your life that led you to this very moment.
And then, you drop, and we mean DROP.
In the front row, you’re feeling the speed and the wind howling at your face. In the back, it’s like you’ve been pulled over Niagara Falls in a barrel – but Tormenta is still 100′ taller. Reaching that top speed of 87 miles per hour, riders are immediately thrust into the coaster’s first element – that record breaking 218′ tall Immelmann where you feel a sense of weightlessness and admiration of just how high you are off the ground – as you look up – well, down – at the ground below you. Immediately, you bear to the right, and take on the 179′ vertical loop just to the left of the ride’s main entrance. After another inversion that takes you to the mid-course brake run, you’re faced with another vertical drop into another, smaller immelmann, which leads you into a cutback wrapped around the coaster’s iconic first drop before hitting the final brakes and slowly easing your way – at a downward sloping angle – back into the station. From the release of first drop to the final brake run, it takes about 60 seconds, but that minute is forceful, fast, and each element blends seamlessly into the next.
One of the questions I received most after riding was whether Tormenta had the now-infamous (at least according to a handful of coaster enthusiasts on the internet) B&M “rattle.” My answer? Yes—but not in the same way those enthusiasts have come to criticize. This is a massive coaster pushing trains through enormous elements at nearly 90 mph. What I felt was more a product of the ride’s forces than roughness, and for a coaster of this scale, I thought it was remarkably smooth. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the reverse POV video below, and you can watch what I felt happen in real time.
If you’ve skipped all the photos and walls of text and found yourself at the bottom of the article looking for a simple review – here’s your tl;dr summary. In a state that prides itself on its size – everything is bigger in Texas, after all – Tormenta: Rampaging Run absolutely lives up to the billing and hype that was created when this coaster was first announced and constructed throughout the fall and spring. It’s a coaster for people looking for thrills – and while my experience at Six Flags Over Texas is not super in-depth (I’ve been to the park twice – once 12+ years ago, and returned this week.) I would very easily place Tormenta near the top of Six Flags Over Texas’ coaster line-up. It’s a six-time record breaker for a reason, and even if you’re not riding – looking at you, people with your phones out watching Tormenta rip through its course just outside of the park gates – it’s a coaster that’s certain to attract attention and bring guests through the turnstiles, eager to experience Tormenta: Rampaging Run and the rest of the park’s attraction lineup. To steal a reference from the nearby Texas Rangers – it’s a true “home run” of an addition.
(And if the opening day footage was anything like the future of what Tormenta’s daily demand will be – Six Flags Over Texas might need to rename “rope drop” to “Running of to the Bull.”)
Tormenta: Rampaging Run is now open at Six Flags Over Texas. For more information, be sure to visit the park’s website, and follow Six Flags Over Texas on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.
