Buzz
Whether you're slowly climbing a towering 300-foot chain lift or rocketing out of the station at the speed of a high-performance sports car, roller coasters are designed to pull in thrill-seekers and adrenaline junkies eager for that exhilarating rush. For most amusement parks, the tallest or fastest coaster tends to be the major draw. Other times, the appeal may lie in the number of inversions or the intense G-forces riders experience during the ride.
However, some roller coasters stand out by being unapologetically bizarre, leaving you to wonder whether you're facing a legitimate ride or just a viral marketing stunt made in Photoshop. Here’s a list of ten roller coasters from around the world that make a bold statement—though a strange, puzzling, and almost nonsensical one.
10. Cobra
The Shuttle-Loop design has become a popular choice for amusement parks looking to add a looping coaster on a budget. Typically constructed by companies like Schwarzkopf or Arrow, these rides launch passengers through a loop and a drop or sometimes pull the train up a backward hill to build the momentum needed. They are the epitome of “quick yet thrilling.”
Cobra, located in Switzerland's Conny-Land, is an unconventional take on the Shuttle-Loop coaster. Instead of the typical 60-degree angled slope to shed momentum, this ride flips riders upside-down at a diagonal before they dive through the loop once more. This unique feature is dubbed the Scorpion Tail, which, while creative, doesn't exactly resemble a snake. Manufactured by Russian company Pax, Cobra opened in 2010. In 2020, a new car design was introduced with a twist: all riders, except those in the front and back rows, now face each other, with two sitting forwards and two sitting backwards.
9. Der Schwur des Kärnan
At first glance, Der Schwur des Kärnan might seem like just another towering coaster, but it's far from ordinary. With a height of 239 feet and a top speed of 78 mph, Kärnan, located in Germany's Hansa Park, was built in 2015 by the German company Gerstlauer.
What makes Kärnan truly bizarre lies in the structure around its lift hill. Riders are lifted up that 200-foot-plus chain lift at a 90-degree angle, only to be dropped backward once they reach the summit, before starting to climb up again—this time for real. To add an extra surprise, the ride features a secret barrel roll immediately after the second-to-last brake run, just as the coaster re-enters the fortress. It's a thrilling twist for anyone who thinks the ride is over!
8. Time Traveler
We head to the United States for this next ride, specifically to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Time Traveler stands out for several reasons, the most notable being its spinning cars. Add to that a Linear Synchronous Motor launch, a 90-degree drop straight out of the station, and three inversions, and you have one dizzying experience. Time Traveler lives up to its name because, by the time you finish, you’ll be so disoriented, you might not even be sure what year it is.
Time Traveler, which opened in 2018, was built by Mack Rides and was the world’s only Extreme Spinning Coaster until 2021, when Belgium's Ride to Happiness was built. Despite this, Time Traveler continues to earn rave reviews from American fans for its unique spinning sensation and the intense forces that it subjects its riders to.
7. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain
Staying in the U.S., our next coaster is at Indiana Beach amusement park. This wooden roller coaster, built by Custom Coasters International, easily makes its way onto this list. Unlike typical roller coasters, Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain uses fully enclosed mine cart trains. Riders are confined to these carts, facing each other as they twist and turn through an artificial mountain built over Lake Schafer.
The Lost Coaster’s history adds another layer of intrigue. In 2002, the park manager decided to replace the old Superstition Mountain dark ride with a roller coaster. While most would have gone for a more conventional kiddie coaster, visionary Tom Spackman Jr. had bigger ideas. He imagined a compact, enclosed wooden coaster, and thus the Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain was born, continuing its wild ride as the only wooden coaster of its kind.
6. Orphan Rocker
This roller coaster holds the unfortunate distinction of being the first on this list to have never opened to the public. Orphan Rocker, built in 1988, stands out for its strange features, including its location on the edge of a 700-foot cliff in southeastern Australia's mountains, near Sydney. Another oddity is the swinging seats, despite being positioned at the top of the ride. And let's not forget the peculiar name—Orphan Rocker, which was named after the nearby mountain, Orphan Rock.
A further oddity in Orphan Rocker’s brief history is that it was entirely designed and built by the staff at Scenic World, the park where it was located, instead of a well-known coaster manufacturer. The reason it never opened to the public likely lies in the fact that test runs revealed the ride to be too rough and inconsistent for public use. While work continued on it until 2004, the park eventually gave up and began dismantling it in 2017.
5. Tower of Terror
Located at Gold Reef City in South Africa, Tower of Terror, built in 2001, initially seems like a typical Dive Coaster, a roller coaster style known for holding riders at the top for a few seconds before plunging them down a 90-degree drop. What makes Tower of Terror unique is that this drop occurs in an authentic gold mine shaft. The structure itself was relocated from an old gold mine about five kilometers away, repurposed as the support for this terrifying ride.
In a departure from the typical chain lift hill, this ride features a mine shaft that holds a single piece of track which is lifted via an elevator. To top off its eccentricity, the ride doesn’t drop straight down; instead, it twists during its 90-degree drop, leveling out at a slight angle, and creating an experience of at least 6 Gs of force, according to the park. For comparison, Millennium Force at Cedar Point generates about 4.5 Gs.
4. Unknown Coaster at Kathmandu Funpark
This blue roller coaster stands out from a typical Shuttle-Loop. While it takes riders up a lift hill, drops them, loops them, and burns off extra speed on another slope, the ride lacks an automatic electric lift hill. Instead, the ride operator manually pulls the car up with a lever located next to the ride. Unfortunately, this mysterious coaster was shut down in the 2010s, though its twin in India, called the Loop Roller Coaster, still operates with its own automatic lift hill.
3. Sequoia Magic Loop
Jazz lovers will be thrilled with the number one roller coaster on this list, which features the unique 'Saxophone' inversion. What exactly is a Saxophone, you ask? Picture a roller coaster flipping upside down… then continuing to travel upside down for a significant distance before finally flipping back to an upright position.
The Sequoia Magic Loop does this three times during the ride. Located at Italy's Gardaland and built in 2005 by U.S. manufacturer S&S Sansei, it's undoubtedly one of the most visually striking attractions on this list, though some might argue it's also one of the most nausea-inducing. While it's difficult to pinpoint exact statistics, it’s certainly reasonable to claim that the Magic Loop suspends riders upside down more frequently than any other roller coaster in the world.
2. Roller Ball
Wiener Prater in Austria is a unique amusement park, as it's not managed by a single entity but instead operates through various showmen who bring their rides to the park. Roller Ball, operated by Kern and Waldmann, is one of the more unusual coasters in Austria.
The Roller Ball ride suspends its guests on the side of the coaster, swinging them back and forth as it winds down a serpentine track. It fits neatly into a compact, vertical plot of land. Roller Ball is one of three coasters of its kind, built by Ride Engineers Switzerland, with the others being Wilde Hilde at Schwaben Park and Nid de Marsupilamis at Parc Spirou Provence. Roller Ball is the newest, having been built in 2020.
1. Gravity Max / 搶救地心
Here it is, possibly the most overhyped roller coaster of all time, or at least the one that shows up the most on YouTube. Known as 搶救地心, Gravity Max is located at Taiwan’s Discovery World, and was built by Dutch manufacturer Vekoma in 2002. Without the lift hill, Gravity Max is essentially a standard corkscrew ride, with riders experiencing one inversion at speeds of 56 mph.
What makes Gravity Max truly bizarre is its 114-foot lift hill. This ride has a section of track that rises using an elevator, much like the Tower of Terror. Then, the track tilts down at a 90-degree angle, holding riders in place before finally dropping them through the rest of the ride. Gravity Max is probably the roller coaster most likely to make riders feel like they’re about to fly off the track, and Vekoma has only ever created one coaster with this unique lift hill.
