Heide Park is Northern Germany's largest theme park with more than 40 attractions and shows, and this year the impressive wooden roller coaster Colossos has re-opened with a Kampf der Giganten (Battle of the Giants) makeover.

We went along to witness the fight between wood and fire on one of Europe's tallest and fastest wooden coasters, then check out the other highlights including Ghostbusters 5D, Flug der Dämonen and KRAKE.

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A charming entrance area features a variety of Lower-Saxony style buildings containing shops and places to eat and drink, plus a traditional carousel and a classic car ride. Once you reach the edge of a beautiful lake that acts as the centrepiece of the park, Colossos is immediately obvious, looming in the distance.

The ride closed in July 2016, with inspections revealing that the condition of the track was unacceptable for the ride to operate. Heide Park has invested 12 million Euros in a full refurbishment and it has made various improvements to the overall experience.

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The new logo is emblazoned above the entrance to the ride, and the queue line is peppered with extra themed elements and re-uses the old sign for the ride. There is a dramatic soundtrack created by IMAscore that really builds up excitement and we particularly liked the pre-ride video in the station providing a backstory to the attraction.

Colossos is packed with airtime and it's incredibly smooth for a wooden coaster. The 48.5 m (159 ft) first drop at a 61° angle is a fantastic start to this brilliant ride. The sheer number and scale of the airtime hills, followed by a great downward helix, make it an absolute joy!

There is a colossal new creature that riders pass through as a finale to the ride, it's 25 m high and appears to rise straight from the broken ground with glowing eyes and blazing flame effects that are timed perfectly with the train. The complete track length of 1344 m (4409 ft) has been replaced, so it looks as good as new.

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There are obvious comparisons with Wicker Man at Alton Towers in the UK, which combined the elements of wood and fire when it opened last year, however Colossos is a completely different ride. They share almost nothing in common except for the concept of using a themed structure with fire effects on a wooden roller coaster.

The huge shop has a great selection of ride merchandise including clothes and accessories, mugs and keyrings, and prints and figurines.

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Despite the poor weather on our visit, we experienced as much of the theme park as possible, and on the positive side we benefited from little to no queues for any of the attractions all day. As we were unable to do much of our own photography, we have included images provided by Heide Park for the remainder of our review.

Colossos is the headline attraction of the park's Land der Vergessenen (Land of the Forgotten) area, which also includes a desert themed area with 2 rides, the underwhelming launch coaster Desert Race and driving school Wüstenflitzer, as well as the Mayan Village that once contained 7 flat rides, but has now been reduced to 3.

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Exploria is the largest area of the park and is made up of several mini themed zones:

The interactive Ghostbusters 5D dark ride is another genuine highlight of the park, themed extensively outside and inside. There is a simple but effective pre-show, before you jump into an Ecto-1 patrol car equipped with proton guns and a ghost trap to complete your mission. The ride combines moving vehicles, real sets, huge 3D screens and special effects to create an exciting and extremely fun experience.

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Peppa Pig Land has 4 attractions based on the hit children's TV series. Families can explore Peppa's house and then enjoy George's dinosaur adventure, Grandpa Pig's train ride and Peppa's boat trip. Lucky Land is a small 'Wild West' themed area with 3 children's rides, including the Indy-Blitz roller coaster.

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Drachenzähmen - Die Insel (How to Train Your Dragon - The Island) features 4 family attractions, the highlight being a boat ride into a mysterious dragon cave.

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There is also a nice alpine area with the Grottenbliz family coaster, Mountain-Rafting river rapids and a Monorail offering wonderful views of a large part of the theme park.

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Bucht der Piraten (Bay of Pirates) is another sizeable area, with the main attraction being KRAKE, a floorless dive coaster. It looks spectacular from every angle, with the drop passing through the wreck of a pirate ship that is being dragged down by menacing tentacles. It's a short ride with an effective splash effect followed by a sweeping immelmann. The other notable attractions in this area include 'splash battle' ride ToPiLauLa and swinging pirate ship Bounty.

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Transsilvanien (Transylvania) occupies an elevated position in the park and includes 3 of the most thrilling attractions. The fantastic wing coaster Flug der Dämonen completes 5 inversions during a tightly packed circuit on a hillside, Bobbahn is our favourite ever bobsled ride due to being the largest in the world, and riders fall from 71 m (233 ft) at a speed of almost 100 km/h (62 mph) on the Gyro Drop Tower, Scream.

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A pair of classic Vekoma roller coasters are situated at the back of the park's lake and don't fit into any of the themed areas. Big Loop opened in 1983 and occupies a waterside setting, featuring 2 loops and a double corkscrew, it's fairly rough as you might expect. Limit is a much smoother ride, an inverted coaster that made its debut in 1999, and it's a standard model that includes a roll over, sidewinder and double in-line twist.

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We would recommend visiting Heide Park for Colossos alone, but this brilliant theme park has so much more to offer for all ages. Plan your visit today!