WARNING: Serious coaster-nerd moment featuring conversational critique/debate about recent coaster design, as well as the direction of Bolliger & Mabillard. This is not specific criticism for Diamondback.
While I am pretty excited about this ride, I can't help but wonder if Walter and Claude are simply losing their motivation. It's been no secret that many people feel that B&M are losing their touch, and I'm one of them. They just seem to make no effort to create a truly unique ride anymore. More and more, their creations seem to have a strikingly familiar flow, particularly in the hyper department. It's almost as if they have their own short set of pre-designed elements like in NoLimits and they just change the size percentage to fit the specified height and layout. For example, the entire flow and order of Diamondback bears a striking resemblance to Nitro. Furthermore, the first drop and following camel back is essentially a tweaked version of the same elements on Behemoth and Goliath (SFOG). The second camel back is essentially a tweaked version of the same element on Goliath (SFOG), Nitro, or any other B&M camel back. The turn-around is essentially the same as that of Behemoth, Nitro, and moderately Silver Star and Hollywood Dream. After which, there is the generic camel back, followed by an uphill turn onto the mid-course. The mid-course is followed by the exact same over-sized bunny hills that is seen following a mid-course on every single B&M hyper. The end of Diamondback features the exact same turn found on Behemoth in the far right of
this picture, followed by a splashdown.
Again, I'm not saying that Diamondback is going to suck. This is not a criticism of Diamondback. It just seems that B&M is losing their drive or imagination. They rarely branch out to try and create a truly unique design. There have been a few spots of uniqueness in recent years, such as Tatsu, Hydra, and Hollywood Dream, but the majority of their coasters seem to follow a similar format within their respective ride style. So, have they lost their drive, is this just what parks are asking for, or have they simply discovered that they don't have to put much effort into their layout designs in order to get a park to purchase from them?
Who knows. Sorry, I had to dork out. Again, I'm not trying to pick a fight about Diamondback, but simply questioning B&M's business progression.