Wicker Man vs Megafobia

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Here in the UK, we have somewhat of a shortage of modern thrill wooden coasters. In fact, we only really have 2 (unless you count Antelope, but I’d argue that that’s more of a family/kids woodie, personally); Wicker Man at Alton Towers and Megafobia at Oakwood. Even though they are two quite different rides, they’re the only thrill wooden coasters in Britain that I’d really call “modern”, so I’d be intrigued to know; which one do you personally prefer, if you’ve done both?


I know it might be a controversial take, but I personally prefer Wicker Man, and that’s not because of Wicker Man’s theming. I mostly judge my coasters based on track and train as opposed to theming anyway, so even if you take Wicker Man’s amazing theming out of the equation, I’d personally say that Wicker Man comes out streets ahead of Megafobia within my rankings, personally. Even though Megafobia is bigger and longer, I just prefer the general feel of Wicker Man; it generally feels a lot more dynamic and thrilling, and I also think it maintains its pace throughout the ride, whereas I feel like Megafobia does peter out somewhat towards the end of the ride, and does have a couple of dead spots. One area where Megafobia does admittedly better Wicker Man, in my opinion, is airtime; there’s generally more of it, and in the back row, the drop is absolutely phenomenal, and easily outweighs any individual airtime moment on Wicker Man for me. However, the airtime in the front of Megafobia isn’t as strong, and if I were to compare the airtime on the front of Megafobia to the airtime on the front of Wicker Man, I’d oddly say that Wicker Man’s airtime feels quite a bit stronger in terms of strength, even though Megafobia has more moments. Even though the back of Megafobia has stronger airtime, I find the very back a bit too rough to fully enjoy, while the front and middle are perfectly fine, whereas Wicker Man doesn’t really vary row to row smoothness wise and is a bit smoother and more comfortable in general.


Don’t get me wrong, I like Megafobia, but I don’t rate it anywhere near as highly as I rate Wicker Man, personally, simply because I think Wicker Man feels a lot faster and more dynamic, and is also more comfortable with the articulated trains and smoother transitions. While Megafobia in the front and middle was enjoyable, I found the back a bit too rough for my liking, and while I admittedly haven’t done Wicker Man on the very back, it doesn’t seem to vary as much from row to row as Megafobia does. In general, while I’ve had some fun rides on Megafobia, I don’t think I rate it as highly as the status quo, and I possibly rate Wicker Man a bit more highly than the status quo.


But which do you prefer?

 

[Enter Valhalla]

Megafobia.... obviously.

 

[Benjsh]

Megafobia is hands down the better coaster. Wickerman is hands down the best package. Depends what you want.

 

[Matt.GC]

That's actually a hard question.

Whilst I'm fully supportive of what they did with Wickerman as an overall experience and think it's the best addition to the park in decades, I'd be thinking of the overall package. It's just great.

But then the layout isn't exactly mind blowing. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but not great on its own. I always thought that but it really shone a light on it last season when I rode it. With the screens removed from the structure, no fire (on the day anyway), hardly any smoke around, graffiti in the queue line, broken wicker coming out of the walls by the baggage hold, no pre show, no smoke in the pre lift hill inside bit and no effects in the tunnel at the end - it stripped back a lot of the gloss. That put the focus on the track layout itself which is anything but mind blowing.

Megaphobia on the other hand has a great layout. It's just brilliant. Still not my favourite woodie in the UK but I could happily ride it all day and still be thrilled every time. I really want to say Wickerman because I enjoy the product but let's face it with Tower's track record you just know that WM will be a shadow of its former self in 10 years time. So I'd have to choose the one I'd have more fun with and that would be Megaphobia.

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[Burbs]

Wicker Man for me. It's a great package all round and a fun ride throughout - even "boring corner" isn't particularly deserving of the name any more. Meanwhile, I was somewhat underwhelmed by Megafobia.

 

[AstroDan]

Wicker Man. Megafobia might beat you about more and be more 'agressive', but I would rather ride Wicker Man any day of the week - especially at 8.30pm on a late ride close and at the rear of the train.

The notion that WM will be a shadow of its former self in 10 years, well we're now over 3 years in and they have just replaced all the smoke machines, lighting package and done some retracking... so maybe not in this case!

 

[Matt.GC]

The notion that WM will be a shadow of its former self in 10 years, well we're now over 3 years in and they have just replaced all the smoke machines, lighting package and done some retracking... so maybe not in this case!

Because it's 3 years old. AT/Merlin have a very poor track record of maintaining theming and on WM there's loads to maintain. I hope to be proved wrong of course but I have these visions of the structure being caked in green sludge, the projector malfunctioning, the pre lift bit going all Nemesis Inferno on us and we'll be reminiscing about the fire effects the same way we do over Nemesis' red water and the rapids waterfalls.

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[pluk]

The notion that WM will be a shadow of its former self in 10 years, well we're now over 3 years in and they have just replaced all the smoke machines, lighting package and done some retracking... so maybe not in this case!

That they've had to do so much after just three years probably doesn't bode well for the longer term tbh, not the greatest sign of the ride and effects having been built to last.

I wonder if WMs presentation would be being quite so well maintained if it wasn't still the new attraction, which it wouldn't be if it wasn't for covid scuppered other plans, and if it will be when it no longer is. History doesn't give much expectation.

 

[D4n]

Megafobia is a much, much better ride. It's my favourite in the UK.

I'd assume that there is a bias towards Wicker Man on here as more people have ridden it, and even those who have ridden both are able to ride Wicker Man more often. Although I do acknowledge that Megafobia is a bit wilder (not to everybody's liking) and is less of an all-round experience.

If Alton Towers had built a coaster as good as Megafobia and given it Wicker Man's theming then that would have been a truly quality ride.

 

[Plastic Person]

Has Megafobia still got that massive jolt at the bottom of the first drop? Haven't ridden it in years now, but that probably counts as the roughest moment ever on an otherwise perfectly fine wooden coaster.

 

[Matt N]

Has Megafobia still got that massive jolt at the bottom of the first drop? Haven't ridden it in years now, but that probably counts as the roughest moment ever on an otherwise perfectly fine wooden coaster.

I don’t know if the park have sorted it, but it certainly still did in 2019, and it was most noticeable on the back row!

Also, I’d be intrigued to know; for those of you who voted for Wicker Man, did you vote for it on the basis of the overall package, or are you basing it exclusively on track and train? I seem to be one of the few people banging Wicker Man’s drum on a track and train basis; most people’s praise for Wicker Man seems to be exclusively due to the theming.

I’ll admit that I was a bit scared to make this thread, as I wasn’t sure if people would be happy with the fact my preference lies with Wicker Man. Part of the reason I made this thread (not the entire reason, though; I was just intrigued in general!) was because of Coaster Crazy’s recent Oakwood vlog, where Andy comes off Megafobia and says that “all the real enthusiasts know that Megafobia is better [than Wicker Man]”, and I was starting to doubt whether I was a “real enthusiast”, so I wondered whether I was the only person to prefer Wicker Man on a track and train basis. It would appear that my opinion might be just as uncommon as I’d thought.

The thing about Megafobia for me is that as much as I want to really love it, and I did still enjoy it on my last rides in 2019, I don’t think I really dig that more “raw” (for lack of a better word) style of wooden coaster like a lot of enthusiasts do, and I personally felt that while Megafobia certainly had its moments, it also had a few notable dead spots and also didn’t track quite as smoothly as Wicker Man, while Wicker Man is a lot more comfortable, rerideable and consistent in terms of pacing (it seems to maintain its speed all the way through to the end, even on the front!), while still providing some of Megafobia’s notable pros in the form of intensity and great airtime (although I’ll admit that Megafobia’s back row first drop still beats any airtime moment on WM for me). I even went back on Megafobia in 2019 expecting to possibly like it more than Wicker Man (I did ride Megafobia for the first time in 2016, and at the time, it was actually my first ever wooden coaster, but that was 3 years ago by the time 2019 rolled around, and I partly assumed that WM was just higher due to recency bias), but if anything, I’d say the gap between the two grew, as I’ll admit that the ride didn’t seem quite as remarkable to me as it did in 2016, and it’s probably grown even more since then, as WM seems to be getting more fun with age for me!

 

[Matt N]

I just found a really interesting blog post from Lift Hills and Thrills about this topic: https://www.lifthillsandthrills.com/megafobia-the-uks-best-wooden-coaster-i-think-not/


Do you guys have any thoughts? I don’t personally agree with the notion that Megafobia is completely boring after the first drop, as I do think there’s some other sections of Megafobia that are really good fun, but I do agree that Megafobia does have some notable dead spots in its layout, and I agree with the reviewer in ranking Wicker Man substantially higher than Megafobia. As much as Megafobia is bigger and longer, and arguably has a stronger base layout than Wicker Man to a certain degree, I personally felt like Wicker Man felt faster and more consistently paced, had stronger pops of airtime (first drop on the back row aside; that beats any individual air moment on Wicker Man for me) and I just generally had far more fun on Wicker Man on my last ride.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

This article has two different spellings of Megafobia so I wouldn’t take it that seriously

All jokes aside, I can understand the difference in preferences between Megafobia and Wicker, but one thing I must stress is that both rides have dead spots.