Holoska (ホロスカ,Horosuka?) is a Town Stage/Village that appears in Sonic Unleashed. Covered in snow, it is a small icehouse village located on the center of the Earth's northern ice cap and the coldest place on the planet. Sonic the Hedgehog and Chip visited Holoska during their quest to restore a powerless Chaos Emerald and the village's broken continent following Dark Gaia's awakening.
Holoska is a giant ice-covered continent which is inspired by the Inuit villages of the Arctic, along with the landscape and wildlife of the Antarctic due to the penguins and giant whales found there. It also has similar features to Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica. Its name is inspired by Alaska, one of the 50 states that make up the United States of America.
History
Sonic Unleashed
During the beginning of Sonic Unleashed, Holoska's continent was torn away from the earth's mantle when Dr. Eggman awoke Dark Gaia, resulting in the planet shattering into pieces. After that, Dark Gaia's Minions slowly began to invade the area outside Holoska.
After they had restored Mazuri's continent, Sonic the Hedgehog and Chip traveled to Holoska when Professor Pickle revealed that he had pinpointed a Gaia Temple there. After getting to Holoska, Sonic and Chip managed to recover
keyfragments to the Gaia Temples in Cool Edge. However, because Holoska's Gaia Temple still remained hidden to them, Sonic and Chip left Holoska to investigate elsewhere.
Later, after restoring Spagonia's continent, Sonic and Chip returned to Holoska to search for more key fragments. In the dusk of night, the two of them entered Cool Edge again and successfully located the object of their search. Now having all the key fragments they needed, the duo was able to open the portal to Holoska's Gaia Temple, where they returned Holoska and its continent to their proper place with the Temple and the Chaos Emeralds after dealing with the Dark Moray that guarded the Temple entrance.
A while later, as Dark Gaia began casting the world into darkness while maturing into Perfect Dark Gaia, the inhabitants of Holoska watched in horror as the sky above the village turned dark, but soon after celebrated as the world returned to normal after Super Sonic and the Gaia Colossus defeated Perfect Dark Gaia.
Close to the entrance/exit, the first Sun Medal is seen next to a blue lamp structure.
At the igloo closest to the slope, the second Sun Medal is hidden inside a breakable snowman behind this igloo.
Entrance Stage
There are only 2 Sun Medals and 2 Moon Medals.
At the other side of the water bed (where the player would get the Stomping Shoes), the first Sun Medal is located at the rightmost end of the path.
Inside the same room where the Gaia Gate for the daytime version of Cool Edge Act 1 is at, the second Sun Medal is located on the surrounding raised ledge behind this Gaia Gate next to a cold rock. Only accessible with Sonic the Hedgehog.
On the western side of the Entrance Stage (which can only be accessed with Sonic the Werehog), the player must first climb up to the second/middle raised platform, then cross back to the first via a narrow walkway. The first Moon Medal is placed in a raised position above and away from the edge of the first raised platform (which can be reached with a Double Jump.
Just before accessing the room that requires Sonic the Werehog to pull down three Levers to open the room where the Gaia Gates for the nighttime version of Cool Edge Act 1 and Dark Moray are at, the second Moon Medal can be seen to the left, between a wall and a small blue lamp structure.
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 is swearing.
This item is a reference to the Swedish delicacy Surströmming.
A bonus cutscene from the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version 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. These were later changed to look like window panes instead. [4]
Holoska's name may be derived from the Russian for "is cold," holodna, and "Alaska."
In the internal data of the game, it was found that the original name of Holoska was simply "Snow."
Although it is located in an equivalent to the arctic, penguins live in Holoska, which are an animal that only lives in Antarctica.
The penguins of Holoska, however, could serve as equivalents to the Great Auks, an extinct species of flightless birds, nearly identical in appearance to penguins, that resided in the waters of the Northern Atlantic.
