Nerdy Amusement Park News Bifecta: Sonic, Harry Potter
Yeah, there’s only two news items here. Frankly, I’m shocked there’s even two at the same time.
 |
?? The Alton Towers Hotel in England has signed a deal with Sega to make a Sonic-themed roller coaster. It will be called Sonic Spinball and based after the pinball-esque game in some fashion, which I assume means riders will be crushed into balls and then beaten severely with large flippers. Joke #2: Reports say the first three rides on the Sonic coaster will be awesome, and all rides after that will be increasingly stupid and lame. (Via Nerd Bastards)
? If there can possibly something that needs a spoiler warning regarding a theme park, I suppose this it — consider yourself warned. Remember that Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park coming to Universal Resorts Orlando? Well, a number of hardcore Potterphiles have discovered that the park’s “villian” will be Salazar Slytherin, ancient evil founder of the Slytherin house and character who did not show up in the books. This news doesn’t rock my world, but I can understand why Potter fans would be excited. And the idea of an entire theme park section having a bad guy is pretty cool, too. Thanks to Jon for the tip.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.