It twists and spins and hurdles its riders, but all those thrills come at a cost.

For riders, experiencing X can mean more than four hours in line. For Magic Mountain at Six Flags California, the ride's complexity has meant cost overruns, legal battles and engineering nightmares as wild as the head-over-heels roller coaster.

In a high-stakes competition over which of the world's parks has the most thrilling coasters, Magic Mountain's experience with X shows the pitfalls of relying on the latest in coaster technology.

"It was supposed to be the nuke bomb in the coaster war," said Robert Niles, the Pasadena-based editor of ThemeParkInsider.com. "The specs on the ride were just audacious. It switched the war from being who could build the tallest, fastest coaster to who can create the most intense experience."

But X, which was supposed to cost $6.6 million, ended up costing more than $17 million, according to court documents. And technical kinks are still being worked out, five years after it opened.