Togo, Japan's primary supplier of thrill devices from the mid-fifties through the nineties, rolled out a revolutionary concept, literally, that took a new approach on shuttle coasters and inversions. The Ultra Twister model found its way into several amusement parks local to the Japanese coaster-maker as soon as Togo began offering it, ideal for any space-limited park looking for a marketable new draw. A pipeline coaster by definition, the UltraTwister threw away your traditional coaster track and instead shuttled single cars through a tube made up of steel rings and a tubular rail riding on either side of the car. The design put a twist on the normal in its inversions, too, by introducing the heart-line roll on the coaster for the first time - a horizontal rotation of the track keeping rider vehicles in a straight line as they spin head over heels.

Furthermore, the Ultra Twisters featured the steepest drops in the world at the time, at a near-vertical 85-degree angle. Togo's other innovation came with their shuttle layout featuring two levels of track with tilt tracks at each end making for an extremely compact layout, meaning that any park with a straight piece of land 700 feet long and wide enough for a single breadth of pipeline track could fit an UltraTwister. And the concept went global in 1986 when a growing Six Flags property in the U.S. saw a potential in an UltraTwister at their Jackson, New Jersey park. Although not lacking expansion room, Six Flags Great Adventure would have a unique claim to fame for being the only park in the Western Hemisphere to operate an UltraTwister.

The shuttle coaster spent two seasons at Great Adventure, but at the end of that time period, under Six Flags' ride rotation program of the late eighties and early nineties, Ultra Twister was disassembled and trucked southwest to Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas, a park that could truely appreciate a new space-saver thrill ride. Six Flags AstroWorld welcomed the new steel coaster with its 1,421 feet of track, 92-foot first drop, and three heart-line rolls as the park's seventh track. However, once AstroWorld permanently closed following the 2005 season, Ultra Twister was shipped northeast towards Six Flags America where it is currently being stored, awaiting a new home and future years of thrills.

Bright blue and green steel structure for the Ultra Twister at the border of Six Flags AstroWorld beckons park guests wanting to try something unique. Six thrillseekers per car sit down and pull down full over-the-shoulder restraints prior to moving to the lift hill. The chain transports riders just shy of 100 feet above the ground as the rails pass by on each side. At the top, the full rings encircling the track begin, just as the track begins to start sharply downwards. Ultra Twister veers steeply towards the ground until riders are facing it, racing nearly straight down through the tube. Even quicker than it began, the first plunge concludes by swiftly pulling out just above the bottom level of track. The green rails lead the way up a second climb over the top of an airtime-inducing hill then dipping into the first heartline roll element.

The world spins around in front of riders while the rails switch position as they rotate around inside of the rings, then pull up and level off while the car brakes to a stop at the dead end of the shuttle layout. Suddenly, the rear of the track section begins to sink, tilting backwards, and a carload of screaming riders is released on its way through the bottom half of the layout. The track pulls out and begins the second sequence of rotation, throwing two heartlines at riders this time as they speed backwards. Ultra Twister's double roll wraps things up and the car rolls back into the station and comes to a stop, after a minute and forty seconds of ride time.