Negative-G - Six Flags Great America 2022

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The X-Flight roller coaster at Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois

What is great is the variety of options a designer or park has now. If a looping coaster is what a park is looking for they have the options of having a traditional sit down, stand up, a floorless, inverted, flying, wing, spinning,or dive coaster for the style. For propulsion you can have a lift or a launch system or both. Then looking at all of the choices for inversions that can be thrown together such as vertical, corkscrew, dive loop, Immelman, cobra roll, boomerang, heart-line roll, dive loop, sidewinder, barrel roll, in line twist, zero g roll and so on.

Mixing all of those things together and then working in terrain or theming and the coaster designer of 2022 has an almost unlimited combination before them to put together.

The American Eagle roller coaster at Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois

We did taker a quick spin on the American Eagle. This is a really underrated ride but most of that is Six Flags fault. It has been decades since they used to actually race both sides. Heck, It has probably been five years since I saw both sides running. On top of all of that the Eagle desperately needs a massive rebuild like Worlds of Fun did with Timber Wolf where they completely replaced/rebuilt the ride over several seasons until their once rough ride is now one of the best rides in the park.

I'd love to think that the Eagle will get a rebuild but if you have been following anything about the current Six Flags CEO and his policies towards the parks there isn't going to be any money to give the Eagle the rehab it needs as his goal is to squeeze every cent out of the parks without reinvesting any of it.

The Great America Railway at Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois

After the Eagle it was time to take a load off and take a loop of the park on the Great America Scenic Railway.

The Great American Railway at Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois

The view from the Great American Scenic Railway gives great views of the park from the County Fair Station to Hometown Square as several coasters are built over the track like The Demon and Maxx Force. From Hometown Square to the County Fair Station all you see is shrubbery on both sides of the track making for a boring half of the ride.