When your coaster credit list starts to get long, having a new coaster in your top ten becomes a pretty big deal. I mean, if you’ve been on 20 coasters, then it’s no big deal to shake up your top ten with each new ride. But if you’ve been on 500 coasters, it’s a significant event to get a new top ten ride.

When I got to Parque Warner Madrid, my ride list was just over 900. There are seven coasters there - three family-friendly coasters, a big woodie, two B&Ms, a giant inverted boomerang, and the brand-new (in 2023) Intamin launch coaster called Batman Gotham City Escape.

Ugh. Hate the name. I’m so incredibly tired of the plethora of super hero-themed crap I can barely stand it. But whatever, it’s a new coaster and it actually looked pretty good in the photos and videos I’d seen. Seeing it in real life was just as good.

Other than that one “top hat” section, most of the layout stays low to the ground, so this isn’t going to be a record-breaking coaster by any stretch. Still, height / speed isn’t everything. Approaching the coaster, the entrance sign reminds you of the stupid name they gave the thing.

The queue is frustrating, as the ride has pre-show theming inside “Wayne Manor” - the attendants herd a group of people into Wayne Manor, then close the doors. Guests still in the outdoor queue sit for around 10 minutes with no movement forward whatsoever. Then another group goes in and the queue moves up quite a bit, then sits still again. I’m not sure if this start/stop method is better or worse than a traditional queue where you slowly creep forward continuously.

Once you make it into Wayne Manor, you’re herded into the library where you see a welcome from a computer-animated Bruce Wayne, which is then taken over by the Joker. He produces “poison gas” via the large fireplace in the room. Bruce gets control again and tells everyone that he made a special passage for us through the Batcave and into the safe room. The Bat Cave was well done.

Then it was time to get on the train, which is supposed to be a subway car or something. Whatevs. All I know is that those trains are super-comfy and don’t offer any head banging at all. I loved them;

The seats are comfy, the restraints are easy to deal with, and other than the big pad that sits on your lap, there is nothing hindering you or smacking your body during the ride at all. Even though the ride is manufactured by Intamin, the trains felt a lot like the Mack rolling stock on their Blue Fire Megacoaster in Germany. I loved them a lot.

The ride begins with a rising door and the train moves forward into a holding area where the Joker taunts you from some kind of tank. Whatever. The park obviously spent a huge amount of money on theming and honestly, I don’t think it added anything at all to the ride. In a few seconds, you’re done with this last bit of storytelling and electromagnets kick in and launch the coaster out of the room. It’s not a fast launch, but it has a solid kick that really gets your attention. A quick bunnyhop (airtime!) leads to a very slow twisting rollover similar to a corkscrew but entering and exiting perpendicular. The hang time is really good here, as the train isn’t going fast enough to pin you to your seat with forces. You’re left hanging upside-down in the (very comfy) restraints as you make this maneuver.

Then, even though you literally just had a launch track, there’s a long straightaway with more LSM boosters (Linear Synchronous Motors) which really kicks the thing into high gear, which it needs to do in order to get the train up and over the top hat. You enter quickly, then twist around a full 180 degrees so you’re facing the opposite direction. Over the top of the top hat, the whole train gets a pop of airtime.

Now, I love me a good top hat and this one did not disappoint - even though it’s one of the smaller ones at just 45m (148ft). That twisting entry followed by the pop of airtime is just delicious - but it’s the next bit that sets it apart from the others. There’s a line of magnetic brakes from the peak down several feet into the drop. These keep the train from just racing over the top and down the other side. Instead, they grab hold of the train and keep it perched precariously hanging over the edge of the drop, taunting you, teasing you, making you wonder how long you’ll be up there.

When you do finally drop down the other side, the track curves into vertical, then goes beyond that - it’s steeper than straight down. No matter what part of the train you’re sitting in, you’re going to rise up out of your seat here as the train curves along the track and yanks itself out from under your butt as you continue your freefall straight down, facing the ground. It’s very effective, even though at 15 storeys, the drop itself isn’t that tall.

A quick right turn leads to a bunnyhop that provides some incredibly strong negative-Gs that rival anything that Skyrush has to offer.

Next up is an element that is new to me and Intamin refers to it as a “reverse sidewinder.” OK.. It’s a turn banked at 90 degrees, so you’re completely sideways. The turn is shaped more like an angle bracket than an arc, so there are weird forces happening here. Then it rolls over and comes out in a different direction. On the one hand, it’s not a major moment in the ride. On the other hand, bravo Intamin for at least doing something new with a turnaround.

Diving down just below grade into a trench, there’s an ejector airtime laden bunnyhop with a head chopper visual, as you really don’t think you’ll make it under that bridge. Then a fairly standard corkscrew element.

After that comes the thing that I don’t think has a name, so I’m going to call it the horizontal ejector seat. It’s a little like a wave turn on RMC coasters (which you can read more about in the article on Outlaw Run) but way more intense. It goes like this:

The train rises up into a hill, then leans over on its side so your body is parallel to the ground. Once it’s done this, there’s a bend in the track like a bunnyhop laying on its side. You’re catapulted out of your seat, horizontal to the ground, about 4 storeys in the air. It’s surprising, it’s smooth as glass, and it’s the last thing you expect to happen right there. It never fails to get some extra comments from unsuspecting riders.

A quick banked turn leads to yet another set of LSM boosters and you’re blasted into a very speedy turn followed by an uphill zig-zag track, and then the thing just rolls over on its back and rides upside-down for awhile over a walkway. It’s weird.

You dive out of the upside-down stall into a building, then partially up a spike track before being let back down slowly into a room.

There the train stops and a turntable rotates the whole thing onto another track that leads back into the loading station.

I’ll be honest - I’d seen videos and photos of this ride before I got to the park. It looked fun, but I expected it to be not much more than a fun addition to my list of credits. Top 50? Probably. Top ten? Probably not. The pics and video absolutely do not do this ride justice. It’s fun, it’s surprising, it has varied pacing, the variety of G-forces is amazing, and it does some things I’ve never seen a coaster do before. And the things it does that looked like they’d be old standards are done in a new, tweaked way that elevates the experience. I was blown away on my first ride, but I contained my excitement a bit. I usually like a ride best on that first ride, then when the element of surprise is gone, the subsequent rides aren’t as good. Not so with this one. The second ride was even better than the first. That’s when I knew that this was something truly outstanding.

I got most of the ride layout from a vantage point on a walkway, which you can see in the video below. Enjoy.