Now that we’ve had several months of Epic exposure, it got me thinking how Epic compares to the last major theme park to open in Orlando. Obviously Epic has the edge from a purely thematic standpoint, and has the better food and (one could argue) IP lineup. On paper, Epic is the bigger deal.
But if I put myself in 1999, I actually think that IOA may have been the more envelope-pushing, cutting-edge park.
For starters, it had things we had never seen before. Spider-Man did something truly innovative in terms of marrying disparate ride systems into one cohesive package. The Hulk was the first coaster of its kind to start with a launch while Dueling Dragons was the first coaster of its kind to race (and did so with extremely unique layouts on each side to boot). Poseidon’s Fury’s disappearing room effect is something that continues to be aped by imitators to this day, and the Triceratops Encounter was arguably the first instance of marketing a fully life-like animatronic as an attraction in and of itself (something we see now with the likes of Kong or Navi River Journey, but not something done in the age of limited Pirates-esque figures).
Conceptually as a whole, it also introduced the immersive single-IP land that we all credit Potter with today. You can’t give credit to Potter for changing the theme park landscape without first crediting Jurassic Park, Marvel Superhero Island, or Seuss Landing, which laid the template for the manner in which Potter would ultimately have to be developed.
The park also did some cool stuff from a construction standpoint. Seuss Landing having no straight lines and having to use hurricane-damaged trees and styrofoam structures to achieve that is still something that sort of blows my mind. Meanwhile, Jurassic Park had a whole jungle imported over, creating literal walls of tropical foliage that are still there to this day. In the Lost Continent, you could eat a turkey leg and drink a Bud Light in a freaking tree.
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Epic does a lot of things better than other parks…but it doesn’t do anything new to the extent IOA did. Ministry is an evolution of the SCOOP…Monsters combines existing tech already seen at IOA/USF. Stardust iterates on what Dueling Dragons started (with a more conventional dynamic). In fairness, Mario Kart and Donkey Kong do implement new tech, but to far lesser results than what IOA was capable of doing. Even the in-park hotel is something that was done 25 years earlier at California Adventure (and DisneySea, and Disneyland Paris…). And while the park introduces new levels of theming, they’re again built on the standard set by IOA 25 years earlier.
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Regardless of your thoughts on which park is better right now, I think when I see “game-changing,” “cutting edge,” “innovative,” etc. thrown around in relation to Epic, I think it shortchanges that IOA was (in my opinion) unquestionably the more impactful park upon its opening. It may not have had the attendance/hype or the benefit of the internet, but it still is the leader by a wide margin when it comes to which new park was the more impressive achievement.