This Six Flags coaster is wicked wild

Rode it! Loved it! Exclusive ride review for paid subscribers

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(Six Flags)

Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England: 4 out of 5

For this month’s “Rode it! Loved it!,” in which I share attractions I’ve experienced through the years exclusively for paid subscribers, let’s head to one of my home parks, Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts.

For over 30 years, Cyclone, a classic, major-league wooden coaster, thrilled visitors at Six Flags New England (which was known as Riverside from 1912 to 1999 until the park chain bought it). Before Six Flags introduced Superman the Ride in 2000, the woodie was the park’s headlining attraction. In its later years, Cyclone became excessively rough–a common problem for aging wooden coasters. In 2014, Six Flags announced that it would be putting the grizzled coaster out of its misery and closing it before the end of the season.

A few weeks later, the park pulled a switcheroo and announced that instead of bulldozing the behemoth, it would be transforming it into a hybrid wooden-steel coaster to be known as Wicked Cyclone. So how does the reborn ride stack up?