Based on the likes of Spiderman and Captain America, it would come as a shock to hear that it closed only a few years later. But 2003 was a different time, a time before the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, join me now as we look at an attraction that was truly ahead of its time.

Centered around an Arcade apparently owned by Captain America, Adventure City contained the X-Men Combat bumper cars, a Daredevil themed obstacle course, a children’s play area, a Spiderman themed interactive dark ride, and a Hulk themed walkthrough. The Spiderman dark ride was truly unique, being on par with dark rides from Disney or Universal.

The ride was developed by Halloween Productions, the same team behind Kennywood’s Garfield’s Nightmare and Ghostwood Estate. In fact, the ride could be described as Garfield meets Ghostwood. The ride, which closed in 2009, was designed to look like a living comic book, combining 2D and 3D props.

Aside from shooting targets, the ride featured stopping cars, TV monitors and projections to tell a story as you helped Spiderman take down the bad guys. One scene involved riders shooting coolant pipes to freeze the villain Lizard. The animated figure in this area was quite impressive.

A video promo for the ride still exists on Blacklight Attraction’s youtube channel.