The Death Star becomes a roller coaster in this amazing Planet Coaster mod

[Release] Star Wars - Death Star Strike - Planet Coaster - Workshop link in description - YouTube

I always felt that virtual theme parks like the ones in Planet Coaster lacked the pizazz of their real-life counterparts. Then I saw Death Star Strike on the Steam Workshop. Created by Chuck Maurice on Steam, Death Star Strike is the roller coaster to end all roller coasters—an explosive, minutes-long ride through the final battle to destroy the Death Star at the end of A New Hope.

This is by and far the coolest thing I've seen in Planet Coaster. The ride features an expansive queuing area that beautifully recreates various locations within the Death Star. But the real joy is the ride itself. Chuck's creativity is immediately evident as the ride opens with a jump to lightspeed accompanied by two life-sized X-wings before zipping into battle. On Reddit, Chuck says various parts of the ride and queuing area were designed by eight people—with Chuck spending 100 hours just by himself putting it all together.

Looking at the complexity of what he's created, it's understandable that he's reaching Planet Coaster's limits for custom rides. Chuck explains that, at this point, he can't add any more triggers as all of them are taken up by sound effects and explosions. I can't really see this ride getting any better, though.

If you want to give it a spin for yourself, you can download the mod from the Steam Workshop. Because the ride is underground, be sure to use Planet Coaster's search function and type "Star Wars Death Star Strike" to find the ride.

Thanks, Kotaku.

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.