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Six Flags Magic Mountain

Samurai Summit

The top of the mountain: Tatsu, Ninja, Superman's tower and the best view of the whole park.

  • Attractions4
  • Places to eat0
  • HeadlinerTatsu

The summit is why Magic Mountain is called a mountain and not a hill. The walk up from the plaza is long, switchbacked and, in July, cruel — but it holds Tatsu, a flying coaster that glides off the summit with the whole Santa Clarita valley underneath you, plus Ninja's suspended swings through the trees and the Superman escape tower.

This is the one part of the park where ride order really matters. Tatsu's queue is the most popular on the mountain and builds by ten. Everyone's first morning instinct should be the climb straight to the summit, Tatsu first, then work the summit rides, then descend and never come back up.

Do not miss

  • Tatsu's pretzel loop off the summit edge
  • Ninja through the trees
  • Superman: Escape from Krypton's 415-foot spike
  • The valley view from the top

Samurai Summit tips

  • Climb once, ride everything up here, and descend for good — the return trip up in the afternoon is the day-killer.
  • Ninja is the summit's 42-inch ride and the one younger-sibling ride worth the climb.

Attractions in Samurai Summit

X2

48"122cm

Roller coaster · 2 min · Line-skip

The 4th-dimension coaster whose seats rotate you independently of the track — face-down off the first drop, on your back into the raven turn, screaming the whole way.

X2 opened in 2002 as X and became X2 in a 2007 rebuild, and nothing else at Magic Mountain — or almost anywhere — rides like it. The trains are gondolas on an extra axis: the seats flip forwards and backwards on a schedule set by the track's profile, so you drop the 215-foot first hill face-first whether you want to or not.

Tips for X2
  • Use the test seat before queueing — the restraint is the tightest fit at the park.
  • Ride midday: X2's queue peaks at open and close and dips during the lunch hours.
  • Empty your pockets completely; the loose-article policy is strictly enforced at this ride and the lockers are at the entrance.
  • Sit in the middle rows your first time — the rotation feels slightly more predictable there than in the lead gondola.

Full guide to X2 →

Tatsu

54"137cm

Roller coaster · 2½ min · Line-skip

The flying coaster that launches off the summit of the mountain — you ride face-down over the whole Santa Clarita valley before the pretzel loop folds the sky in half.

Tatsu is a B&M flying coaster and the best thing on the mountain by most enthusiasts' reckoning. The station sits at the top of Samurai Summit, and after the lift the trains rotate to prone and the terrain falls away — the layout drops off the hillside, threads under a bridge and around the summit rides, using the mountain's own elevation as part of the ride.

Tips for Tatsu
  • Rope-drop it — this is the park's best ride and the queue proves it by 10:00.
  • Look ahead, not down, through the flight sections; the track-line perspective is the whole point of flying coasters.
  • The restraint clamps your calves and shoulders — glasses wearers should use a strap.
  • Ride before Ninja if you are doing the summit loop, not after; Tatsu's line only grows while you queue for its neighbor.

Full guide to Tatsu →

Superman: Escape from Krypton

48"122cm

Roller coaster · 1 min · Line-skip

The 415-foot L-shaped shuttle tower that launches you backwards at 100 mph — the summit's speed record and the tallest structure at the park.

Superman opened in 1997 as one of the first linear-motor launch coasters in the world and held a speed record for a decade. The 2011 rebuild flipped the cars to face backwards: you accelerate away from the tower at 100 miles per hour, up the 415-foot spike, and hang weightless at the top with the entire valley behind your head.

Tips for Superman: Escape from Krypton
  • Do it on the summit pass in the morning — nobody wants to climb back up for it at five.
  • The backwards launch disorients; commit to looking at the sky at the top rather than trying to orient.
  • Ride after Tatsu, before Ninja: the order minimizes backtracking at the summit.

Ninja

42"107cm

Roller coaster · 2 min · Line-skip

The 1988 suspended coaster that swings through the summit's trees — the mountain's family coaster and its most beautiful ride.

Ninja is an Arrow suspended coaster, one of the last running: trains hang from the track and swing outward on every curve, and the layout threads through actual trees on the mountainside below the summit. Opened in 1988, it is the gentlest way to see why this park's terrain matters.

Tips for Ninja
  • The queue is one of the shadiest at the park — a good midday escape.
  • Ride after Tatsu and Superman on the summit loop; no backtracking.
  • Sit mid-train: the swing amplitude is pleasant there and aggressive at the ends.

Nearby

Six Flags Magic Mountain map See where this land sits All attractions Every ride in Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Plaza The entrance plaza, where Full Throttle's giant loop hangs over the front of the park like a gate. DC Universe The superhero strip, where Batman and The Riddler's Revenge run adjacent inverter-and-standup formation.