Holoska

"Covered in snow, this northern land is gripped by extreme cold and dotted with houses built out of ice."

- Description in World Map



Holoska (Cool Edge) (クール・エッジ) is an ice-based level in Sonic Unleashed, inspired by the Inuit villages of the Arctic and the landscape and wildlife of the Antarctic. Sonic visits this place to collect a Boss Gate Key, and later in the game, to fight Dark Moray.

History
After defeating Egg Devil Ray in Spagonia, Sonic and Chip head to Holoska to put its continental plate back into the mantle of the Earth after Eggman made his plans to awaken Dark Gaia. After going through the continent in both the daytime and nighttime, the Werehog finds Dark Moray. After defeating it, Sonic and Chip enter the Gaia Temple and force the continental plate back into the mantle of the planet.

Description
Holoska is a giant continent that is almost entirely covered in ice. It has similar features to Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica. Its name is inspired by Alaska, one of the United States of America. It is located at the North Pole.

Notable Locations
In the point-and-click HUB world of the Wii and PS2 versions, many of the featured parts of Holoska are shown. These spots include:
 * Storage Area
 * Food Storage Area
 * Central Bonfire
 * Family Home
 * Sacred Shrine (Sonic the Werehog)

Secret Clip
If Prehistoric Ice is purchased for 10 rings and fed to Chip, the player can watch a cutscene with him and Sonic (only in the 360/PS3 versions).

Citizens

 * Jari-Pekka: Head of the Holoska clan. He has an absolutely terrible memory: first he'll forget something; then he'll forget what he forgot and get upset; give him another minute, and he'll have already forgotten what was troubling him. Keep this to yourself, but the day he got chewed out by his wife Ursule for forgetting where they had their first date. Did she clip his whiskers good!
 * Ursule: Jari-Pekka's wife, an old lady who just loves to give. If you visit her shop, you might even find yourself walking out with stuff you didn't buy.
 * Jari-Thure: Sarianna's husband. He looks tough, unless his wife is around; then it's crystal clear who wears the pants. Keep this to yourself, but the other night Jari-Thure dreamed his wife was giving him the dickens, and sprung awake in terror, screaming, "I'm sorry, honey!" Tragically, this woke his wife, who was sleeping next to him, who then proceeded to give him the dickens.
 * Sarianna: Jari-Thure's wife. She was once famed for her beauty (the Holoska Rose, they called her). Sarianna may seem too hard on her husband, but really, she thinks of him all the time. Why, just the other day, she noticed him shivering, so she went and heated his bath water all the way up to 140 degrees.
 * Marketa: Jari-Thure and Sarianna's daughter. When she gets older, Marketa wants to marry a man just like her father: somebody who can take a lot of abuse.
 * Hot Dog Vendor: The manager of the "Don Fachio" hot dog mega-franchise's Holoska location. As the hands down king of hot-blooded dogmeisters, it's hard to tell if his sausages are frozen from the weather or whether it's done on purpose.

Town Products
In each town across the world, Sonic is able to buy souvenirs, food items and extras (music, videos) using his rings. The Holoska shop, run by Ursule, is called Ursule's Trading Post.

Souvenirs

 * Miniature Flag
 * Photo Frame
 * Nesting Dolls: "Dolls of decreasing sizes, placed one inside the last."
 * Model Sled: "A sled built to scale so it can be put on display."

Food

 * Smoked Mohn (30 rings): "A river fish caught in the spring and cured. Oddly spicy."
 * Canned Horror (100 rings): "Tiny but potent fermented fish whose odor carries for miles."
 * Perma-Meat (30 rings): "Meat frozen in the permafrost. Good luck defrosting this one."
 * Prehistoric Ice (10 Rings): "Just the thing if you want a cool drink. People here don't."
 * Chili Dog (50 rings): "Sonic's favorite, a jumbo frank slathered with spicy chili."
 * Sparkle Gelatin (30 rings): "Jiggly sparkly jelly that melts your jaded heart."
 * Cookie (20 rings): "Cream filling between two crunchy biscuits. Addictive!"
 * Candy (10 rings): "A bite-sized candy. Don't try to talk while you're chewing!"
 * Chilly Dog: Complete the Holoska Hot Dog Vendor's missions.

Trivia

 * The music played during the day stages at Holoska may be based on "The Inlet" from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). The BPM is almost the same.
 * Holoska could also be based on Finland (Holoska is in the north, they both have the same colors on their flag, and Jari-Pekka is a Finnish name).
 * One of the purchasable items in Holoska is the Canned Horror. When fed to Chip, it will cause him to utter random symbols, indicating that he's swearing.
 * A bonus cutscene from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions show Sonic and Chip running through Holoska. In the cutscene, Chip gets tired and takes out a chocolate bar, but when he tries to eat it, he hurts his teeth since the candy was frozen solid (after Sonic knocks his finger on it out of curiosity).
 * Originally, the small shrines in Holoska contained what looked like Swastikas on them. In Sega's recent patch update, these were fixed to look like window panes instead.
 * Oddly enough, in the Wii/PS2 version of Holoska's daytime level, except for the bobsled part in the beginning, all of Sonic's time spent running is inside a big, icy cave. In the 360/PS3 version of the level, almost all of Sonic's time running or bobsledding is spent outside.
 * In the 360/PS3 version, Holoska is the first level in Sonic Unleashed in which Sonic runs on water and the only level without any rails to grind on.
 * In the Wii/PS2 version, Sonic can boost while riding the bobsled, but in the 360/PS3 version he can't.
 * The Holoska Gaia Gate is the only Gaia Gate with ice in it. The door on the left side (which requires 99 total Sun Medals and 69 total Moon Medals) in the Wii/PS2 version in the gate has icicles on either side of it.
 * At night, Holoska is the darkest continent.