IceCap Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 3)

"Things will get pretty chilly as Sonic and Tails slide their way through this arctic wasteland. Be sure to smash open blocks of ice to reveal power-ups and hidden passageways."

- Despriction of the Zone from instruction manual

IceCap Zone (アイスキャップ) is the fifth Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its add-on version of the game, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. It is located on mountains of the Floating Island. Act 1 takes place inside labyrinthine ice caverns, while the Act 2 takes place in a more brighter overworld where lower pathways stay under icy caverns.

During the game's storyline, Sonic and Tails use a regular cannon in Carnival Night Zone to launch themselves to the mountains of IceCap Zone. In locked-on version, Knuckles uses a teleporter to travel from Carnival Night Zone to IceCap Zone. At the beginning of the IceCap Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic starts out with snowboarding sequence, while Tails skips that section and gets smashed into an icy wall and falls into the caverns.

Overview
The backgrounds of IceCap Zone frequently varies. At the beginning is a snowboarding sequence which features snowy mountains at the background with snow topped trees on the steep hills. After that, the majority of IceCap Zone Act 1 takes place inside some icy caverns, where the background has cold blue and black colored lairs with huge pillars. On the ground, there are many blue and green decorations with spinning ice cubes on top of them. Some of them are transparent pillars while there are also ice cubes and familiar colorful diamonds on the cold hard ground. There are also steep and slippery ravines, which can loop endlessly.

IceCap Zone Act 2 largely takes place on the surface, which has a river in the background with ice mountains and sheets of ice floes moving via parallax scrolling. The surface sections are more fast paced with different Shuttle Loops and ramps that can send the player to higher pathways depending how much speed he/she has gained. There are also twisting underground tunnels, which lead to lower pathways with ice caverns with deep water sections. Both the surface and cavern sections have bridges where several pathways fuses together into the main path.

Gameplay
There are many things from the game, that have affect the Zone's climate. Many main items of the game, such as monitors, springs and switches are frozen inside of ice blocks, that the player has to break first before utilizing the item. Some of ice blocks can be completely empty. Switches are used to break blankets of snow, revealing columns and pathways.

If the player comes across four ice blocks, the player can Spin Dash through the lower block and use the rest of blocks as platform to reach higher parts. The player can surf on platforms down the slippery ravines, while breaking ice walls. Some platforms also float on the cold water in Act 2. There are platforms connected with green chains to walls, that move in the direction of the upper arch, if the player has gain enough of speed. Act 2 features purple trampoline gimmicks on columns, that can send the player higher by pushing down and then up on the D-pad.

Spikes are more cold icicles as part of the Zone's structure instead of regular white obstacles. Some sets of spikes on ceilings are loose and fall off to the ground if the player runs past above them. There are also sets of spiked icicles on walls and bigger, sharp icicles that can function as platforms after they fall down to field of spikes, but the sharp part of icicle can still damage the player. There are many ice pillars that function as crushers, that are usually set on hall sections. If the player goes above or touches them, they start moving and crash into the ground or ceiling and move back to their position. There are freezing machines set on ceilings that can turn the playable character into ice block and damage him. IceCap Zone Act 2 features snowbanks, that can slow down the player, when he walks around. By using Spin Dash or having enough of speed, the snow evaporates on the way.

Act 1
IceCap Zone Act 1 starts with over fifteen seconds long snowboarding sequence, if the player has Sonic. The sequence is automatic, as the player is only able to jump on long, steep hills with many lines of Rings. There are parts where the player gets temporarily separated from the main path to gain Rings. After the sequence, the player crashes to the wall and falls to the cavern with avalanche involved. After entering the ice cavern, there are three major slippery ravines, which are endless. In the first one, the player has to pick up the platform on the left wall and use it to get through the ice wall. At one point, the player has spin quickly in-between two moving ice pillars to progress. In second ravine, the player has to push sliding platform near of Star Post on left side of the pathway to slide through another ice wall. On the third ravine, the player has to use swinging platforms to reach higher pathway, while he/she has to gain speed and jump carefully through the ravine to the another swinging platform. After progressing enough, the player gets out of ice cavern to the overworld, where he/she faces sub-boss.

In locked-on version of the game, Knuckles can take alternate pathway after the first endless ravine, that features large room of floating icicle spheres. The player has to glide through holes between icicle spheres without touching them to the lower part of the room. After third ravine, Knuckles takes lower pathway to progress deeper room, where he encounters the sub-boss.

Act 2
In IceCap Zone Act 2, the player can take many pathways from upper parts of the Zone to progress through. To do this, the player gain enough of speed and launch himself to the air from ramps. Act 2 is also more fast-paced than previous act, with many smooth downs and loops. Several loops lead to twisting tunnels by breaking ice blocks below (similar to loops in Hill Top Zone). There are lesser many pathways on the lower part of the Zone, which are located on icy caverns. Act 2 also has small water sections, which are mostly bottomless pits without any settings below the underwater. The player has to heavily use purple trampolines to get higher parts from icy cavern. In the end of the second act, there's hidden passage upper part of the Zone, that takes to the hidden room with full of Rings and another way to the boss arena.

Knuckles starts IceCap Zone Act 2 from the lower part, as he goes through his own, challenging pathways and in the end, he reaches to same pathways to the end of the Zone.

Sub-Boss
In the end of IceCap Zone Act 1, Big Icedus descends to the arena and starts summon seven ice blocks around him and starts fly U shape across the screen once or twice. The player has to hit him right after when the robot throws ice blocks to the air and make them fall down on certain pattern, while the player has to look out.

Boss
Dr. Robotnik appears in his new creation, the Freezer Mobile, which spews chilling ice flames in a few different directions, one in the front of his Eggmobile, the other on the underside of it above a small rising and descending platform with spikes on the bottom. Robotnik will hover across the arena, releasing ice flames from the dispensers. After he has attacked with the cannon located on the underside of his mobile, this is the chance to attack. After a few hits, the small platform will break and he is forced to descend, leaving it easy to attack from behind.

Hidden Monitors

 * After Sonic/Tails defeats the sub-boss and the signpost falls down, three Super Ring monitors are hidden and set on the right part of the arena, each having small gap between them.
 * In locked-on version of the game, after Knuckles defeats the sub-boss, two Super Ring monitors are hidden below on the center part and Lightning Shield is on the right side of the screen.

Hidden Giant Rings

 * The first, hidden Giant Ring in IceCap Zone Act 1 is located behind the right wall in hidden room near of first frozen switch.
 * The second, hidden Giant Ring is set near on the first sliding ravine. The player has to jump to the right wall before the section where the platform is set on left wall.
 * The first, hidden Giant Ring in IceCap Zone Act 2 is set on Knuckles' pathway and is located on the first water section. The player has to jump off the floating platform to the left side of the cold lake. On underwater, he finds the hidden room behind the left wall. After the Special Stage, the player gets out the cold water by using yellow spring on the down corner.
 * The second, hidden Giant Ring is on the second lake of cold water. The player has to traverse above the lake and jump off the last floating platform. The hidden room with Giant Ring can be found behind the right wall. After Special Stage, red spring below the down corner helps the player out of cold water.
 * The last hidden Giant Ring is located near end of the second act. At first the player hast to reach to the above, hidden passage with full of rings and then go right through the right wall and found Giant Ring and another way to the boss arena.

Other

 * In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 &amp; Knuckles, Flying Battery Zone was originally meant to be before this Zone and the hatch Sonic uses to escape the zone would have been used as a snowboard. Presumably, the cannon used to shoot Sonic to Ice Cap Zone at Carnival Night Zone would have shot Sonic onto the airship.
 * As concept art from Japanese manual show Tails using snowboard, this doesn't happen in the final game.
 * The music for the original Genesis version of this stage is most widely known in the gaming community alongside with various remixes.
 * The snowboarding section at the end of the Sonic Adventure version of this stage is likely a homage to the Mega Drive stage, in which Sonic starts out snowboarding. Also, it may be the basis for the beginning of City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2.
 * This is the first ever ice-themed zone in a console Sonic game.
 * The background music was thought to have been inspired by Michael Jackson's "Who Is It" from the album Dangerous with similar chord progressions to "Smooth Criminal" from Bad.
 * However, it has recently come about that the music to IceCap Zone on the Mega Drive/Genesis may not have been composed by Michael Jackson or even related to any of his songs. The song may be more connected to the previously unreleased song "Hard Times" by The Jetzons. Brad Buxer, who had worked on the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and for Michael Jackson, was the keyboardist for The Jetzons.

Extended Links

 * Zone 0 - Featuring detailed guide for the Zone.