IceCap Zone

IceCap Zone (アイスキャップ) is a frozen region of the Floating Island, known to be extremely cold and somewhat dangerous. It is a large piece of land covered in ice and icy mountains.

To date, the IceCap has appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Adventure DX.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
IceCap Zone first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. After being shot out of a cannon from Carnival Night Zone, Sonic and Tails land on a mountain. Sonic rides down it on a snowboard and then enters the interior. At the end of Act 1, a snow machine that spins snow at Sonic or Tails tries to crush them. Robotnik attacks in Act 2 in a machine that that has a spiked platform drop down and fires the freezing bursts in a pattern at Sonic. There is a shortcut in Act 1 that will let the player skip to Act 2's boss.

Boss

 * Main Article: Freezer Mobile

Dr. Robotnik appears in his new creation, 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's attacked with the one located on the underside of his mobile, this is the chance to attack. After a few hits, the small platform will break and he's forced to descend, leaving it easy to attack from behind.

Sonic Adventure
In Sonic Adventure, Angel Island once again falls into the ocean. Sonic and Tails get onto the island and climb up an icy passage to the IceCap. After fighting Eggman's badniks on the outside of the mountain, Sonic and Tails enter inside to where they must get up to the top to escape. To do this they must climb ice spikes coming out from below the "floors" of the mountain. Once out of the mountain, an avalanche occurs, forcing Sonic and Tails to snowboard down the mountain to escape. Once on the other side of the mountain, Sonic and Tails find the Chaos Emerald they were seeking. Big also comes across the mountain after his friend Froggy runs inside of it, and fishes for Froggy in a pool inside. If Big throws the boulder or jumps on the ice, he can get an upgrade.

Sonic Drift 2


Previous track — White Grand Prix 3rd track — Next track

IceCap also appears as a racecourse in Sonic Drift 2 for the Sega Game Gear. This stage is the third track of the White Grand Prix (White being the intermediate of the three available tournaments), coming after Rainy Savanna and before Hill Top. Although the rest of the White GP appears to take place on Westside Island, IceCap obviously sees the racers divert (somehow) upwards, to Knuckles' floating home.

The course is fairly straightforward, with only tinted ice to slow Sonic down if he strays off the track (as opposed to the bottomless pits which grace some of the courses). Giant snowflakes scattered on the road are as evanescent as one would expect, and don't even slow the player down if the player plows into them. IceCap also features massive snow banks on the outside of some corners, which Sonic and company can drive up. As with most other races in the 2nd Chaos Grand Prix, the player has to complete three laps of the track to proceed, and the fastest racer gets a Chaos Emerald.

Trivia

 * In Sonic 3, 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 would have shot Sonic onto the airship.
 * In Sonic Adventure, Sonic can be seen strutting along the peculiar bridge; even an enemy is there. In the final game, the bridge was replaced by a rocket to get to the second area, and the same one crushed during the snowboard action.
 * The music for the Sonic 3 & Knuckles 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 could be the basis for the beginning of City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2.
 * This the first ever ice-themed zone in the console-Sonic games.