This, I think is a very important ride. This ride represents a change in emphasis in coaster design, where a smaller ride compared to the likes of Colossus and Stealth has been built, but a lot more thought has been put in to the rides theming. It's the sort of thing that the Merlin group have done at Legoland, and I think we will be seeing more smaller scale, but more intricately themed rides at all their parks, in the short term at least.

The theming of this ride has caused quite a bit of controversy. Some people have said it's wrong for a film meant to be for over eighteens to be the basis for a ride, especially as younger children might ride it.

As a big fan of horror films, whose own DVD collection includes over 30 horror films, including the Saw films, I'm not the one to turn for an unbiased view. I personally don't think there is anything on the ride unsuitably unsettling for anyone under the recommended minimum age of 12. Whether or not you think it's right for Thorpe Park to endorse and promote the Saw films is a personal political view.

If like me, you are a fan of the Saw films I think you'll find a lot to like about the rides theming. The station, and first part of the ride is themed around the warehouse of the Saw films killer; Jigsaw. If you look around the queue and station there are quite a few references to the films, including a mock up of some of the traps, Jigsaws workbench and sketches based on the sketches from the films.

The first part of the roller coaster is like an extreme dark ride, themed around a trip around Jigsaw's warehouse, where he has set up various traps you have to avoid. This section was slightly different, depending if your in the first or second train to leave the station after being loaded. In the first you go almost strait through, in the second you stop at various points with models and dialog playing. I preferred the first train as it feels more wild and out of control, which I found more exciting.

I'm not going to give away too many details about the warehouse away, as there are a lot of good surprises I wouldn't want to spoil. It is an excellent piece of creative design that you've got to try. My only complaint is this section isn't longer, I would have loved it if they had designed a full length ride like this.

The second section is a more traditional afair. It starts with the vertical hill lift and beyond vertical big drop which is a signature feature on Eurofighter coasters such as this, Rage at Adventure Island and Speed at Oakwood. The track design after this is also great, with a good range of ride elements in a compact space. Sadly it's not quite as exciting as Rage or Speed (but it's better than the two Eurofighters I've tried in Europe) as it doesn't really flow around the track quite as well. It still has a good pace and level of excitement, but it's at a level that sets it as one of the best of the rest, rather than up there with the best.

Personally I don't see this as a bad thing. After the initial excitement has died off I see this fitting in to Thorpe Parks line up as a strong mid tier ride, a good support ride to the signature coasters. On previous visits I've found Thorpe Parks weak mid tier, that over relies on thrill rides, to be a problem. With this ride I think the park now has a more comprehensive day out. This isn't quite a must do attraction, but Thorpe Park already has several of those. This ride fits into Thorpe Park's ride line up very nicely, and should be one of the hi-lights of a day there.