Black Mamba Review

We're here at Phantasialand. Today, we'll be reviewing Black Mamba, the park's B&M Inverted Coaster. This is certainly one of the more interesting coasters that B&M has ever built. It's among one of the best themed coasters that B&M has ever built, but while the layout looks like it'll be amazing and pack a punch, it sadly isn't nearly as insane as the other high prize B&M Inverts. That doesn't make it a bad ride by any means, ESPECIALLY with all the incredible theming that really makes the ride quite interesting and unique. Enough chatting. Let's get riding. After getting in the typical B&M seats, the floor drops and we're off. We go around a turn, take a nice look at the surrounding theming, and begin to climb the lifthill. Now, you can't really look around on this lifthill as you first have trees covering us up from the outside world, and that just leads us directly into a building. Eventually, we reach the top of the lifthill. And even at the top, there's no real sense of height since we're embedded in the theming. It seriously looks like we're looking out the window down below some random African Village. We then drop, plunging towards the streets of this little town when WOOSH!!! We dip into a trench, blazing right by the grass. It's a really nice first drop and the theming really adds to the fun. We then soar into a vertical loop, getting both some nice positive Gs, as well as a nice view of the African Village theming we just dropped down into earlier. We then rise up into a Zero G Roll. While this is far from the strongest one of its kind, it still has a little bit of whip to it, even if its more like Silver Bullet and less like Montu. We then dip down towards the ground and TAKE THE TUNNEL!!! We quickly enter out of the tunnel and head into a miniature immelman loop, as we rise up right next to a waterfall, giving us some seriously wicked special effects. Now, there's a little bit of a debate as to whether this should count as an inversion or not. Eh...honestly, I don't care enough to think about it at this point. Maybe it's an inversion, maybe it's not. I tend to flip-flop. The point is that it's both incredible thanks to the near miss with the theming, and mildly dissapointing for not being as forceful as it looks. We then dip back down and go through another rock tunnel. YAY!!! TAKE THE TUNNEL!!! We then go through a corkscrew and we actually get some nice whip here. It really snaps here, and we get a nice look at all the theming around us. We then go around another turn, getting a nice view of the African Village before dipping down into another rock tunnel. TAKE THE TUNNEL!!! We then go through another corkscrew. And again, it's one of the highlights of the ride as we get some nice whip, as well as a good blurry look at our surrounding theming. We then head around a dip, right above the grass. But then we dip back down into the ground, foot choppers galore, before heading up into an upward helix. And again, this has the Silver Bullet Helix Effect, where a weak B&M suddenly picks up and has a really powerful helix. We then dip down and TAKE ANOTHER DAMN TUNNEL!!!! We then go through another downward helix, grazing the grass below us and also keeping our eye on the wall right below us, so yeah. We're pretty surrounded on this ride. We then head into a sharp turn, head into the darkness, and hit the brake run. And that was Black Mamba. My honest thoughts about the ride are pretty mixed. On the one hand, as a coaster itself, it's layout is one of the weaker B&M Inverts. I know it's constantly praised for being so good. But force-wise, it's closer to Silver Bullet than Montu. However, I never include Black Mamba with all the "Less Forceful" B&M Inverts such as Silver Bullet, Talon, Patriot, and OzIris. And that is simply because the theming on this ride is just INCREDIBLE!!!! The theming MAKES this ride. It's on par with all the amazing work that is done at Disney Parks. Seriously, the theming on this ride is just one of many reasons that proves that Phantasialand does an incredible and amazing job with theming. So while Black Mamba may not be the best B&M Invert, it certainly is one of the memeorable ones and definetly one of the more fun ones, for theming alone. All those near misses and the interaction with all the theming just make this ride an absolute blast to ride. You definetly have to give it a ride when visiting Phantasialand.

8/10

Location: Phantasialand

Opened: 2006

Built by: B&M

Last Ridden: June 29, 2012

Black Mamba Photos

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