• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Icon or Hyperia; which UK Mack thrill coaster do you prefer?

Icon or Hyperia; which UK Mack thrill coaster do you prefer?

  • Total voters
    37
Matt N

Matt N

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Mako (SeaWorld Orlando)
Hi guys. This year, Hyperia, the UK’s tallest, fastest and “most weightless” roller coaster, opened its doors at Thorpe Park. Manufactured by Mack Rides, the ride has taken the UK industry by storm and garnered rave reviews. But in all of the hype, it’s easy to forget that Hyperia is not the UK’s first Mack thrill coaster; we also have Icon up at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, a multi-launch coaster that opened 6 years ago. That ride divides opinion somewhat, but it does have its fans (myself among them!). With this in mind, I’d be interested to know; which of the UK’s Mack thrill coasters do you prefer? Is Hyperia your winner, or is Icon more your speed?

I’m sensing that many might vote Hyperia, but I have heard a few say that they prefer Icon, so I’m interested to see what the outcome is!

As for my own opinion; as much as I love Icon and think it’s a very under-appreciated ride, I’d simply have to vote Hyperia.

Hyperia is a simply sublime coaster that’s definitely cemented itself as my UK favourite; I love a good hyper coaster, and Hyperia is a phenomenal one, in my view! The amount of weightlessness is just insane, and Hyperia delivers sensations that you simply can’t get on any other coaster in the UK in this regard! Every single element on Hyperia delivers; the first drop is absolutely demented and administers sublime sustained ejector along with some interesting laterals, the Immelmann has a great sense of speed up into it and provides impeccable sustained ejector coming out of it, the outerbank into the inversion provides phenomenal sustained sideways ejector, the zero-g stall provides some very nice hangtime, and even the two smaller elements after the trim provide some very nice ejector! You spend half the ride pinned out of the seat, and when you combine that with the wonderful sense of speed of a hyper coaster, the very comfortable trains and restraints, the generally smooth tracking, and all of the other wonderful aspects of the ride, it does come together to create something very special, in my view!

As for Icon; I must admit that I do love it! While it is not an absurdly intense g-machine, I do find it a lot of fun! It has lots of nice little pockets of airtime, it has some really fun twists and turns, it keeps a nice pace throughout and always remains exciting, I like the way the ride flows and meshes together, and I just generally find it a very smooth, fun, thrilling and rerideable coaster that always puts a smile on my face! The thing that puts it definitely below Hyperia for me, though, is that if I’m being pedantic, it lacks standout “WOW” moments, or a certain je ne sais quoi to really take the fun factor to the next level (e.g. Hagrid’s, and to a lesser extent Wicker Man). Icon has lots of very fun moments, and it stays fun throughout, but as I’ve ridden more coasters, I’ve grown to realise that it lacks impactful standout elements, or standout moments of thrill that really wow you, compared to the other coasters in my 10/10 tier; it is now my lowest ranked 10/10 coaster for that exact reason. Where a ride like Hyperia is packed full of standout moments of thrill, none of Icon’s elements really have quite that same level of impact on an individual level, and that does mark it down compared to some of the other coasters in my 10/10 tier. I admittedly haven’t ridden Icon for 5 years, however, so that could be recency bias talking to some extent.

But I’d be keen to know; do you prefer Icon or Hyperia out of the UK’s Mack thrill coasters?
 
So your question is which is the best between the tallest rollercoaster in the UK and the bore fest that is Icon.

I can’t strictly speaking answer this question as I haven’t ridden hyperia but I have ridden Slinky Dog at Disney studios and that is not far off the thrill level of Icon.
 
Hyperia all the way, it just is layed out very well with nice breather points and is paced well.

whilst the launches are quite nice, there is a few nice points and the terrain aspect is nice there are also many boring points.

Over all icon struggles with pacing (it's intense elements are spread out between too much meandering, probably could have been 1 launch and skipped the boring parts)

Pacing is something that merlin/tussles do very well and is helped by their shorter coaster design.

E.g nemesis 1,2,3 corkscrew helix 0-g roll followed by the helix and loop then a break in that turn arround and the corkscrew and last tun jnto the breaks paced nicely with some breathers inbetween the really intense parts.
 
Hyperia and it’s not even close. I like Icon and I think that Hyperia’s length a problem but what there is on Hyperia blows Icon away.
 
Last edited:
I think that between Hyperia and Icon it’s going to be pretty clear that the majority here will prefer Hyperia. But for me the more interesting question is where does Hyperia sit in terms of Mack headline coasters across Europe?

Mack have built some fantastic rides that are the key attractions at their parks. Obviously Voltron is regarded as one of the finest coasters in Europe (if not the world) but there are coasters such as Helix, Ride To Happiness, and Hyper Coaster at Land Of Legends, Star Trek Operation Enterprise, etc.

I haven’t done Voltron yet but of the newer generation Mack’s I have done I’d rank them like this in terms of favourite in Europe.

1) Ride To Happiness
2) Helix
3) Hyperia
4) Icon
5) Lost Gravity
 
Last edited:
I would say Hyperia, since it has an excellent first drop, whereas Icon is fun but does not have much substance.
 
Being a member of the Icon hate club is quite popular around these parts these days. But I really enjoy it and always have, and it provides a full layout unlike Brake Run. The crappy fenced exit and tacky AstroTurf underneath it are hardly classy, but as styled asthethics go, it does a far better job than Brake Run does. And Blackpool didn't degrade themselves by trying to name the queue line and a gift shop as some sort of park "area". As an overall package, it ticks more boxes. But it just can't really compete let's face it.

I need to ride BR:TR more and in many different rows to form a final opinion on it. But time will come, I think, where I'll have to accept that it probably is one of the best, if not the best coaster in the country. But it pains me to say it because it's flaws are so damn detracting. The elements on it are just absolutely superb and I love them dearly. I was smiling all the way to the trims. But cheapening out on half a layout. Those awful trims that they laughably tried to disguise as a "splashdown", which is mostly hidden from public view, doesn't ever work, and is already covered in rust. The terrible cattlepen queue line. Virtually no landscaping. Inappropriately low throughput for a park like Thorpe.

Just annoys me so much. That ridiculous trim just as the ride is getting going, followed by that swift retreat back to the station half way through the ride just leaves such a bitter taste. It's like watching this excellent and thrilling 5 star movie, but after 50 mins rather than finding out "who dunnit", a subtitle claims "and they all lived happily ever, The End" and the credits roll before you've even finished your popcorn. On Betamax
 
Maybe I’m just strange, but the length didn’t bother me at all on Hyperia.

Sure, I would never have said no to another element or two, but in the moment and on the actual ride, I didn’t think Hyperia’s length was jarring or detracted from the ride. I enjoyed the ride that was there plenty, and didn’t feel that it felt too short.

Then again, I’ve always felt the same about Swarm, and plenty of others disagree with me and call that “half a coaster”, so maybe I’m just wrong…
 
Amen! Icon is a great addition to a theme park that doesn’t have modern rides, but if it was in Alton Towers or somewhere like that it would be considered in the Rita category I am sure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Icon is a fun coaster. Having ridden some more Mack beauties, it's not in the same league, but it's still a lot of fun and isn't deserving of the hate it receives. Is it better than Hyperia though? In my opinion, no.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top