Battle for Metropolis Review <spoilers>

Sorry I don't have pictures. I'm still in the stone age.

Yesterday (5/26), I went to SFoT for a quick ride on Battle for Metropolis before my noon meeting. I got to the park at 10:25 for a 10:30 opening but with the ridiculous line checking policies (fingerprint required) and metal detectors, it was about 10:40 before I actually entered the park. There was a slight drizzle as I headed for the former site of the action theater and when I got there, I was "wowed" by the new facade. It looks great! There's nothing that's completely mind blowing (no animatronics or big backdrops) but it looks just like you'd expect a building in metropolis to look.

There is a single rider line, which I opted for and had to wait about 15 minutes for the ride to come up. They didn't say anything about why the ride didn't come up with the park and quite a few people left the line in the meantime. Once inside the building, there's a nice big animatronic of Cyborg explaining that Lex Luthor and the Joker have captured multiple members of the Justice League and they're sending you in to back up Batman as he tries to rescue them. Your "EMP" gun will stun humans and destroy robots.

The 3D glasses fit nicely over my prescription glasses. The ride has continuous loading in cars of 6 (3 each in 2 rows). It seemed like capacity could be pretty good if the continuous loading stayed continuous, but it had to stop fairly regularly for handicapped guests, people who didn't get on in time, etc. etc. I also assume that many seats will go empty since 3 across is such an odd number. I don't know why anyone ever designs rides that are 3 across.

As for the ride, I thought it was quite good. The vehicles have a full range of motion and there were definitely times where I could have sworn we were flying down the streets of Metropolis. The loop-de-loop <sic>* part was completely convincing to the senses and I almost dropped my gun to grab onto the grab bar. There were also some really neat live effects like a blast of flame and a rack of oil drums "almost" falling on our car. At the end of the ride, all the scores were displayed and the highest score in the car gets told their decile (i.e. "Player 4 is in the top 40% of all time").

The only downside to the ride was (as with many rides of the type) my inability to follow the story and also shoot at the same time. I rode the thing twice and I still have no idea what happened in half the scenes. There was also a very "PG video game" feel to most of the shooting scenes in which enemies would appear and you'd knock them down with your gun and then they'd get back up and you'd knock them down again, etc. You'd just kind of repeat that cycle until the heroes did whatever they were trying to do and then you'd be whisked away to the next scene. I don't know what could have been different, but it really felt like you were completely tangential to the plot.

Overall, I was very pleased with the ride. I don't know how re-ridable it is, though anything that has a score will get my attention for a little while (see my signature). The effects were very good and interesting and the motion simulation and 3D were fantastic. If I hadn't taken a trip to Disney 2 months ago, I'd probably have been blown away. As is, I'd say it's a very good ride and a great addition to the park.

*Green lantern builds a vertical loop for the vehicle and says, "Time for a loop-de-loop."