Coaster Kingdom
http://www.ukrollercoasters.co.uk
Tomb Blaster (Chessington World of Adventures)
The following review will go into explicit detail regarding the attraction and the surprises it may conceal. If you choose to read on, be warned that it may detract from your first ride on the attraction.
Since
the curtain fell on the Fifth Dimension in late 1993, Forbidden Tomb has been a
replacement with unfulfilled potential, wreaking of originality but stinking of
budget cuts. Ride it you do, hate it you don’t and love it you don’t – you
come off feeling very unswayed by it and it has never been re-ridable due to the
B-Movie style clichés that abound your poorly animated trek through some
admittedly impressive scenes.
When
Tomb Blaster was announced late in 2001, I expected it to be a revamp lacking
the investment it should, sans originality.
It
is. But, in addition it is now a thoroughly entertaining adventure, filling the
gap left by its predecessor and hitting the mark that the former missed by
immeasurable distances.
Where
as Forbidden Tomb was no more or less than an average ride, Tomb Blaster is
fantastic, emotive, fun and pretty much all you could ask for in a ride of its
genre.
Forbidden
Kingdom: rich and eclectic theming prospers, with a winding Egyptian bazaar with
shops and games, continuing past Rameses Revenge before your attention is
grabbed by the commanding and epic adventure music at the entrance to Tomb
Blaster.
The
entrance, two sandstone turrets guarded by feline guards, crouched in wait, take
visitors up a steep flight of stairs to the left before crossing the entrance
and making its way over to the right across a wooden rope bridge.
The
pathway winds around a courtyard below onto which the Casbah Café backs onto
under a canvas canopy along the length of the tomb wall. Bright frescos crumble
away revealing the wall behind before the queue turns back and heads down some
stairs into the tomb itself.
In
a dark, murky room, you walk around a long table, cluttered with storage crates.
Monitors sporadically ‘establish connection’ so that you can be effectively
briefed as to what your mission will involve.
It
is highly clichéd, but holds your attention well, getting across the safety
advisory (no eating, drinking, smoking…), a small sales pitch (‘photographic
data is available…’), and how to ‘play’ Tomb Blaster.
Shielding
your head from crumbling masonry, scaffold support grubby planks of wood as the
queue passes over a bottomless pit, a clever trick - of course - using mirrors
and glass giving you the impression the pit goes down into the centre of the
earth.
The
station is dull, dingy but hints at the former glory of the tomb before it fell
into the hands of the wicked curses you are there to expel. The cars each seat
five people – two in front, three in the back.
Decorated
in various forms of artillery, a so-called Bug Blaster is tucked away in its
holster between each rider and a red display in front that will show your score
as you fire away at the star-field of targets.
Lap-bars
lower before the train slowly moves into the tomb. As it does, the muttering
idiot Adab is gone and incandescent beetles infest a pile of crates as you round
a corner and climb a hill.
Flashing
like a christmas tree, hundreds of red lights beg to be fired at. Red lines
scathe through the inky blackness from tens of guns as people ferociously fire
at these beetles clocking up 100 points for each bull’s-eye.
You
climb a hill with crumbling archways surrounding the train. The deep thunder of
a boulder rolling over the dilapidated masonry fails to draw your attention away
from the red lights turning green as the rounded ball of rock bounces from gap
to gap above your fragile head.
A
vapour filled hollow is alive with squirming and slithering snakes. The train of
cars turn to the right essentially forming a small, tiered theatre of riders to
perfect their aim.
Pouring
from the back, the snakes’ ominous company present further targets for you to
fiercely fire at. You are too indulged as cobras jump from behind a crumbing
wall, distracting you and losing you valuable points as you try and recover your
aim.
The
hazy catacomb continues past an ivy-covered wall, riddled with cracks and holes
from which concealed constrictors jump, wriggling, writhing as you frantically
become overwhelmed by yet more lights to fire at.
A
large web of beetles just begs you to shoot at them, clocking up a hundred
liquid-crystal display points per each successful hit.
As
you enter the next vault, a semi-circle of rope-strung spikes are slowly pulled
back in anticipation of our arrival. As you do, trigger happy riders are
surprised as a section of wall swiftly turns to reveal a rotting figure of a
mummy clutching a laser gun before firing relentlessly at us with a deep green
laser.
To
the left, your attention is vaguely drawn to a crypt opening up revealing lost
treasure, and of course yet more targets.
Unperturbed,
the train continues. The floor drops away to a lava filled pit below, steaming
with searing heat as the 40ft statue of Anibus scans the train with ruby-red
eyes. Half giant, half feline, the head slowly turns as the train scurries
around the surrounding precipice of this bubbling crater as the ground crumbles
away into the molten lava below.
A
brief respite follows. The train passes through a revolving tunnel, devoid of
targets whilst your startled expression is captured on camera. Like the northern
lights, more targets twinkle with an alluring presence as the train explodes
into another frenzy of laser beams as red dots are drawn on the walls like
hundreds of fireflies as people aim to fire.
You
stop in the shadow of a huge statue of a cobra. As you fire away at it and the
scenery surrounding this black-lit creature, lasers from it’s piercing eyes
scan up and down the length of the train accompanied by the gorgeous Tomb
Blaster theme, before after a while, the train moves off past a line of decaying
mummies. As you’re indulging in the last offering of crucial targets, the
mummies jump towards you, startling you as the adventure ends, the train stops
and the bars rise.
The
change from Forbidden Tomb to Tomb Blaster is moderate, with the only notable
changes being hundreds-of-thousands of targets, a re-hashed finale, and the
disgruntled un-dead character firing at riders.
Where Terror Tomb had a plot more predictable than Danger Mouse, Tomb Blaster has absolutely no plot what so ever and is basically a gratuitous excuse for riders to fire with a passion at anything lit in red or green. The lack of story line benefits Tomb Blaster – riders have no need to be distracted by following a coherent storyline when the idea of the ride is to be an indulgent shooting gallery.
Where
the ride is not far off being perfect for what it sets out to achieve, a few
things fall short of the experience offered elsewhere on the ride.
Music
in the attraction is patchy and without a story line, should be relied upon for
the sake of consistency. Music is not as intrusive as a rich storyline, but is
often more emotive than any glitzy effect.
It
is nice to see the back of the mummified Alice Cooper tribute at the end of the
ride. Whilst a good finale in the scale of things, in essence it was
infuriatingly irritating after the first go and annoyed me like someone
scratching a blackboard.
Whilst
the new context of Tomb Blaster doesn’t need a finale to lift the roof from
its rafters, the current one is dull compared to the rest of the ride, and a
cobra peering up and down the length of the train several times really isn’t
enough to carry the scene through once your finger begins to ache.
This
could be improved by not stopping the train for quite so long – the ride is
long enough for people not to worry that they have queued for an hour for a
short ride, and such a subdued finish seems to leave the ride on a somewhat sour
note, and as such you forget what went before it.
And
a problem, if you let it become a problem, is that the thorough sets and theming
may be missed as you intently focus on the targets each time to better your
score. It is sometimes nice to hold back and enjoy the ride. Watch everyone else
do the work so you don’t have to – rider reactions are like they have never
been before on the ride, and it is almost as much fun watching this than
partaking in the fun yourself.
Tomb
Blaster lifts the benchmark of enjoyment on European dark rides. The grins of
riders is living testament to this, and it is great to see that such changes can
essentially transform the ailing Terror Tomb into a fresh, attention grabbing
adventure that can be enjoyed by all the family for years to come giving it a
re-ride value no other makeover could have done.
5/5 Marcus Sheen