Coaster Competition: Mean Streak vs. The Rattler
Coaster Competitions are pretty much the same as the Coaster Critic’s Coaster Showdowns (I get a lot of ideas from his site). I will compare and contrast two coasters that are alike in one way or another. Mean Streak and The Rattler are two woodies who both live up to their names.
Since neither ride has much theming, I’ll replace that section with smoothness.
Smoothness:
Mean Streak is pretty rough. As I dropped down the first hill I was slammed in all directions, this didn’t stop until the ride finally ended. The Rattler however, was even worse. The ride was bumpy even while leaving the station and traveling to the lift hill. Going around the first turn after the drop is one of the roughest places of any coaster that I’ve ridden. The winner here is Mean Streak, although they are both very rough.
Setting:
The Rattler is perched on the side of the old quarry that Six Flags Fiesta Texas is situated in. It dives off the cliff multiple times during its ride. The infamous triple helix is up on top but the station is down on the bottom. Mean Streak is at the end of Cedar Point’s peninsula. Some of the drops are right next to Lake Erie. Although they both have great settings the clear winner here is The Rattler.
Layout:
Mean Streak is 161 feet tall. Its layout is basically a very large triangle that is traversed three times. For some reason it seems like there are no large drops except for the first two. Rattler is 179 feet tall. Its layout is a bit strange, it has a triple helix on the top of the quarry and a tunnel through the cliff. The winner here is The Rattler.
So the winner is The Rattler! This is my first ever competition where the ride that I like less has won, The Rattler’s roughness completely ruins the ride for me.
You can read my review of The Rattler here.
You can read my Mean Streak review here.
What do you think? Should Mean Streak have won? Please comment. Thanks for reading! 
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The rattler looks very fun. It has a long layout, is tall, is fast, and has some tunnels. However roughness ruins any ride, youre right. I hope they rehab it because it looks like it has a good layout, but the roughness would override the layout. Rocky Mountain Construction? Make another New Texas Giant type ride but this time with a better layout to work with. That would be the key. As for mean streak, like I said, I must have got a lucky seat or something because it was not rough when I rode it, and it was fun. Wooden coasters produce various riding experiences due to seats. I had the same experience with the cyclone at SFNE. Coaster Critic said it was very rough, and gave it a 1/10. I rode it and it was not rough, it was fun and I would give it a 6 or 7. Almost all coasters are variables with seats. That’s why it is good to ride even a really bad coaster again in a different seat (okay, maybe not arrow or vekoma loopers).
Not saying that I always reride bad rides, I hardly even reride good rides because of lines. I only rode Maverick at CP once, I wanted to go on it more, but the line was I think 3 or 4 hours!!!
I re-rode Ninja at Six flags over Georgia and The Rattler but not Mean Streak. Ninja was just as bad the second time and The Rattler was even worse.
Mean Streak had an hour long wait time which I’d do for a good coaster but not for a bad ride that I’d already ridden that day. I rode with some family and they all said it was very rough too, except for my dad who said it wasn’t (maybe he got the same seat you did?). Thanks for commenting
It just doesn’t feel right for me that Mean Streak wins in the category smoothness. Nice Competition!
Thanks, At first I had made that category roughness but it would have been too complicated to explain that winning in that category was a bad thing. That also would have made The Rattler win in all three of the categories even though it is my 2nd to least favorite coaster. Thanks for commenting!