By Charly SHELTON

There are plenty of roller coasters that are taller, faster and longer than MonteZOOMa at Knott’s Berry Farm. But few have the history.

When Montezooma’s Revenge opened in 1978, the Schwarzkopf-designed shuttle coaster was the first in the world to use a flywheel launch system. Rather than slowly climbing a lift hill to let gravity drop riders through the ride, riders were shot out of the station from zero to 55 mph, straight through a vertical loop and up a 148-foot spike. The train then fell backward, through the loop again and up another spike behind the station before finally coming to rest. It was short, simple and (for the time) a pretty intense thrill.

After closing in 2022 for what became a four-year refurbishment, the coaster has finally returned as MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress. I recently had the chance to climb aboard and see whether the old ride still has its bite. Spoiler alert – it does.

The original flywheel is gone – replaced by a modern electromagnetic launch system – but Knott’s has done an admirable job recreating the intensity of that first kick out of the station. The launch hits hard, the loop comes almost immediately and, before there’s much time to process what happened, riders are climbing the spike and preparing to do the whole thing again – backward.

What surprised me most was how smooth it felt. I rode the original Montezooma’s Revenge many years ago and remember it being as rough as its namesake – as unpleasant as eating a big Taylor Farms salad. So rough in fact that I wasn’t called to ride it again for several years before the closure – one spinal rearrangement was enough for me. The new version still has plenty of force but the refurbished track, new trains and modern launch make the whole thing feel considerably more enjoyable without completely sanitizing what made the original fun.

Knott’s has also finally given the coaster something it never really had before: a story.

The new Forbidden Fortress theme pits riders as explorers entering a temple filled with treasure – and evidence of what happened to the (smushed) conquistadors who tried getting there first. Throughout the redesigned queue are unfortunate explorers who have been crushed, trapped or otherwise stopped by the fortress boobytraps.

They’re simple sight gags but they’re exactly the kind of thing I love in a theme park queue. Waiting in line is unavoidable so you might as well have something interesting to look at while you’re doing it. The little scenes add humor and personality without trying to turn a 36-second roller coaster ride into an overly complicated cinematic universe.

Most importantly, Knott’s resisted the temptation to replace MonteZOOMa with something bigger simply because it could. Nearly 50 years after the original opened, the basic experience remains the same: launch, loop, spike, backward loop, spike, hard brakes. The technology has changed. The name has changed. The conquistadors have apparently had a very bad day.

But MonteZOOMa is back. And it still kicks.

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