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A not-quite-original way of saving time or storage space, bringing some originality into the standard Videogame Settings: Take two stock settings and combine them into one. Bonus points if the two are diametric opposites. Triple word score if the two are actually Lethal Lava Land and Slippy Slidey Ice World; the pervasiveness of this combination probably stems from the fact that these are the two level themes that can be definitely called "opposites" and the fact that Color Contrast between the two makes the level more visually interesting. (It's also one of the few cases where such a thing is remotely plausible; see the Real Life section of the examples.)
The simplest way is to divide the area in half. Half of it is one stage, the other is the second kind. This can also be done chronologically, where the stage is the first way in the first half of the game, but gets changed in the second. A really clever designer will combine them into a coherent whole (even if that doesn't make sense).
In some cases, a game's entire setting may be focused on one trope, which may combine with the others by necessity.
See also Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot. See Patchwork Map for when this occurs in the overworld.
Examples:
Video Games
- Named for the stage of the same name in Banjo-Tooie, which was one half Lethal Lava Land, the other half Slippy Slidey Ice World. It's pretty reasonable given that fire (volcanoes) and ice (snow cover) are both associated with mountain terrain. (For added difficulty, you get turned into a snowball in the Ice side, and then must return to the Fire side while in this form to accomplish an objective. Have fun with that.)
- When you go to Cloud Cuckoo Land, you can look down and see the ice mountain and the lava mountain. There is no explanation for the two zones being right next to each other.
- Banjo's no stranger to this trope: the first game featured two Eternal Engine levels that were also Down the Drain.note Clanker's Cavern and Rusty Bucket Bay Yes, they're just as they sound. It also has a Lost Woods that was occasionally a Slippy Slidey Ice World.
- Witchyworld, like many modern theme parks, is also a sort of miniature Hub, with Space Zone, Lethal Lava Land-slash-Big Boo's Haunt and Wild West areas.
- Tooie's first level, Mayahem Temple, combines Jungle Japes with Temple of Doom.
- The last regular level of Tooie, Cloud Cuckooland (which happens to come right after Hailfire Peaks), combines Bubbly Clouds, Level Ate, the inside of a Death Mountain, and several other things.
- The handheld game, Grunty's Revenge, also ended on Freezing Furnace — basically Hailfire Peaks, BUT TINY!
- Freezing Furnace was originally two levels: Freezing Fjord and Fiery Furnace (not to be confused with the level with the same name in DKC2 or the one in DKL2). See this person's videos
 . Both levels were about twice as large as they were in the final product, but they ended up being merged into a Hailfire Peaks clone, apparently due to cartridge space.
- Banjoland in Nuts and Bolts, being a Best Of for the last two games' many varied stock levels.
- By necessity, the Slippy Slidey Ice World, Prehistoria, and Eternal Engine stages, among others, of the Ecco The Dolphin series are all Under the Sea.
- The Sonic the Hedgehog series seems fond of this trope. Let's run through a few examples:
- The Marble Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog is a Temple of Doom combined with Lethal Lava Land elements.
- Half the time in Hill Top Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is spent in breezy outdoors up in the hills, half the time you're running away from earthquakes and lava underground, inside the hills.
- A desert level called Dust Hill Zone was dropped from the game early in the development cycles. Its art was meant to be reusable for a separate winter level. Some fan mods restore this level and implement the art reuse as a mid-level transition from desert into snow.
- Aquatic Ruin Zone from the same game is a combination of Green Hill Zone and Underwater Ruins.
- Mid-way through Lava Reef Zone of Sonic and Knuckles, the lava cools and the stage becomes much more crystalline. If you're playing as Sonic, a small cutscene causes the volcano to start again.
- Sonic Chaos had the Mecha Green Hill Zone, simultaneously subverting both of the Sonic series's most distinctive settings by combining them.
- Red Mountain from Sonic Adventure is Death Mountain for the first part, Lethal Lava Land for the second, with some Fire and Brimstone Hell overtones. (But only as Sonic do you get to go through both halves. For Knuckles it's all Death Mountain, and for Gamma it's all Lethal Lava Land.)
- Ice Mountain from Sonic Advance combines Slippy Slidey Ice World with Under the Sea.
- Twinkle Snow from the third game does the same.
- Coral Cave in Sonic Rush Adventure mixes Under the Sea with Underground Level. It's a pretty-looking place, too.
- Eggmanland from Sonic Unleashed combines the standard Eternal Engine level akin to the ones from other Sonic games with Lethal Lava Land and Circus of Fear features.
- The ill-fated Sonic X-Treme was going to feature an area known as Red Sands.
- Ocean Palace from Sonic Heroes combines Palmtree Panic with Temple of Doom. Somewhat justified because the game always features a level that is a standard theme, then a level that is a variation on that theme, and then a boss, and the level before that (Seaside Hill) was simply a Palmtree Panic.
- Angel Island Zone, the first level in Sonic 3 (a game which was technically the first half of Sonic And Knuckles) is Palmtree Panic with Under the Sea sections, and a small cutscene in the middle of Act 1 shows a good chunk of the island being set on fire.
- Planet Wisp from Sonic Colors is a Green Hill Zone level, which features large Eternal Engine structures. Also, Aquarium Park is a combination of Wutai and Under the Sea.
- Rayman 2 featured The Tomb of the Ancients, which was a Temple of Doom that doubled as a Big Boo's Haunt. There was also The Land of the Livid Dead from Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc which was also a Big Boo's Haunt (although not in a way you'd expect) but had a few Down the Drain sections. And one of the later levels was a Death Mountain, Slippy Slidey Ice World, Eternal Engine, Lethal Lava Land, and Temple of Doom all in one.
- Rayman Origins goes for broke in this department. Although the first area is straightforward, the Desert of Didgeridoos is a combination of Band Land, Shifting Sand Land, and Gusty Glade, Sea of Serendipity is part Under the Sea, part Palm Tree Panic, part Gang Plank Galleon, Mystical Pique is a Temple of Doom slash Death Mountain, Moody Clouds is an Eternal Engine Bubbly Clouds, and Gourmand Land? That takes the cake, by combing the classic Hailfire Peaks themes of Lethal Lava Land and Slippy Slidey Ice World with Level Ate, along with Palm Tree Panic and Eternal Engine as cocktail umbrellas.
- Snowhead Temple from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask would be a fire-themed dungeon in the traditional Zelda vein, if not for the fact that half of it is frozen over.
- Oracle of Seasons contributed the Sword & Shield Maze to this trope. It consists of two floors, one full of lava (shaped like a sword), the other full of ice (shaped like a shield). To progress at some point, you have to drop magical ice cubes into the lava to cool it down.
- In The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess, the Arbiter's Grounds is a mix between the desert and haunted crypt themes that had previously been separate in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when last present in the same game.
- In The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the resident Temple of Doom dungeons are dual: the Earth Temple mixes Underground Level with Big Boo's Haunt, while the Wind Temple fuses Gusty Glade with The Lost Woods, which the Forest Temple in the aforementioned Twilight Princess also does.
- The Forest Temple in Ocarina Of Time combines Big Boo's Haunt with The Lost Woods.
- Most dungeons in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword love doing this, as it's part of the changes and mix-ups (alongside the introduction of a dungeon-like overworld) made to the series. The Ancient Cistern combines Temple of Doom, Down the Drain, and Big Boo's Haunt. The two Shifting Sand Land dungeons also introduce Eternal Engine elements (thanks in no small part to the concept of time travel by the Timeshift Stones) and, in particular, Lanayru Mining Facility goes further and adds Tomorrowland into the mix, as does the Sandship with the Gangplank Galleon. Skyview Temple takes The Lost Woods and combines it with Temple of Doom and a little of Down the Drain for flavor.
- Prey largely takes place in a biomechanical spaceship that combines aspects of an Eternal Engine and a Womb Level.
- Wario Land 4 featured a level called "Fiery Cavern," which was a lava world until you hit the end-of-level switch (which acts as a Load-Bearing Boss), at which point it freezes over. We're just as confused as you are.
- The Darkice Mines in Star Fox Adventures. In fact, the game loves to mix up the local Temples O' Doom with others: Volcano Force Point with Lethal Lava Land, Ocean Force Point with Down the Drain, and the Krazoa Palace with Gusty Glade.
- Donkey Kong:
- Icefire Mountain from Wizards & Warriors II.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Despite its name, Sky Land in Super Mario Bros 3 is only sky-themed in the second half, after Mario climbs the spiral tower skyward. Until then, the levels he explores are Green Hill Zone-themed.
- The Freezeflame Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy. Though because each level is broken up into "missions", it was actually quite rare to encounter both the fiery and icy parts of the stage at one time. Shiverburn Galaxy from the sequel plays the trope much more straight, though.
- Super Mario Galaxy seems fond of this, such as Buoy Base Galaxy having features of Eternal Engine and Under the Sea, and Deep Dark Galaxy being a Gangplank Galleon overlapping with elements of Big Boo's Haunt. And then comes the part where you have to create ice platforms that float on top of Lava so you can slide on top of them. Ice Mario is too cool to care about Convection Schmonvection. And then there's using Ice Mario to walljump up parallel waterfalls in a tropical paradise galaxy. Which is populated with penguins.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 has Cosmic Cove, which goes from Under the Sea to Slippy Slidey Ice World at the flip of a switch. In addition, there's Freezy Flake, which has a planet that allows you to roll snowballs across pools of lava. There's also Chompworks Galaxy, which combines Eternal Engine with Lethal Lava Land.
- Dry Dry Desert from the first Paper Mario is a Shifting Sand Land with its own Temple of Doom. As was Shifting Sand Land's Trope Namer from Super Mario 64, with its central pyramid.
- The sequel Thousand Year Door has a combination Underground Level and Gangplank Galleon.
- The first level of Super Paper Mario, Lineland, combined Green Hill Zone, Shifting Sand Land, and Temple of Doom.
- Super Paper Mario, being made up of chapter-based levels, does this with nearly every world. World 2 is Bubblegloop Swamp, Big Fancy Mansion, and Down the Drain. World 3 is Nostalgia Level (Of the original Super Mario Bros.), Under the Sea, The Lost Woods / World Tree, and Big Fancy Castle, World 4 is Space Zone / Wacky Land with Gravity Screw and makes a pitstop on a moon, World 5 is Prehistoria, Underground Level, Minecart Madness, and Not-So Abandoned Laboratory with a smidgeon of Big Fancy Castle, World 6 takes a departure from that and is just Wutai until The Void eats it and it becomes part that for most of the game (it then becomes a Bonus Dungeon), and World 7 is Planet Heck / Bleak Level (An underworld inspired by the Greek Hades), It's All Upstairs From Here / Black Out Basement, and Bubbly Clouds / Fluffy Cloud Heaven. And even world 8, which is just one fixed location is The Very Definitely Final Dungeon / Big Fancy Castle / Ominous Floating Castle / The Void / Bleak Level. Super Paper Mario LOVES this trope.
- New Super Mario Bros Wii has some elements of this all throughout World 9, but 9-7 is probably the biggest example: using a jungle background and music, it's snowing in the foreground, and where the ground isn't made of warp pipe it's either ice or snow. And the only living things are enemies that shoot fire. And Goombas, but they're in eggs that are hatched by fireballs.
- World 9 of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
- In one "Super Mario World" romhack, you had to go into a version of this while holding a P-switch. It even uses a 16-bit version of the music from the trope namer.
- La-Mulana is another example of the "whole game" variety, its Temple of Doom containing a Lethal Lava Land, a Slippy Slidey Ice World, and, of course, A Bonus Level Of Hell, among many others.
- Metroid:
- In Metroid Prime 3, there's the Planet Bryyo, which mostly consists of deserty plains, thorny jungles, and temples overflowing with exploding Fuel Gel. Then there's a teleport that takes you to a frozen cavern on the other side of the planet. It is justified in that the warmer side is apparently always facing its sun. In the same game, Skytown combined Floating Continent and Eternal Engine.
- Many zones in the Metroid Prime games feature this, but most are Eternal Engine + some environment (i.e. Sanctuary Fortress is an industrial Temple of Doom, Magmoor is an industrial Lethal Lava Land, etc.)
- Both Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Other M, being set in space stations, mix Eternal Engine with a setting that varies accordingly to the area. In particular, Other M does this with Jungle Japes (Sector 1/Biosphere), Slippy Slidey Ice World (Sector 2/Cryosphere), and Lethal Lava Land (Sector 3/Pyrosphere). Elements of Abandoned Laboratory can also be seen all throughout each sector, in the form of the various containment tanks and maintenance rooms between the environmental rooms.
- In Serious Sam The Second Encounter, the next-to-final level starts in a snowy Santa's Village, continues with a sojourn in the hellish bowels of a fiery cave network, and returns to an iced-up area for the final part.
- The final dungeon of Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Mars Lighthouse, is yet another fire-themed dungeon that has been frozen over. It sports both fire-breathing statues and slippery ice floors... often in the same room.
- Many of the levels in Team Fortress 2 feature a somewhat stark contrast between traditional Red construction and the industrial Blu buildings.
- Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 seamlessly combines Shifting Sand Land, Lethal Lava Land, Temple of Doom, and Eternal Engine in one level. Also, in the series in general, a lot of different level types have elements of Eternal Engine.
- Lost Planet: Extreme Condition has this as the basic premise of the entire game; the first half of it mostly takes place on the Slippy Slidey Ice World surface of E.D.N. III, while the second half takes place in searingly-hot volcanic regions.
- In Rocket: Robot On Wheels, the level "Pyramid Scheme" is a jungle level with a pyramid, a river, and isn't that hazardous... until you step on a special Sun/Moon pad, which switches the level to and from Lethal Lava Land mode.
- That is not enough about that game. Almost every level fits this trope in some way, with the most jarring being "Food Fright," a combination Big Boo's Haunt and Level Ate.
- As lampshaded by Lisa in The Simpsons Game: "How can a cold place be so close to a hot one?"
- The penultimate stage in Little Fighter 2 is an ice-covered landscape with raging volcanoes in the background. Appropriately, the Mini-Boss of the stage is Firzen, who uses fire and ice attacks.
- Frostfire, Warm Up Boss (no pun intended) of City of Heroes is this trope personified, using fire and ice Elemental Powers. His unique map is an office that's been alternately frozen and set on fire, and famously features an ice half-pipe.
- Okami features a haunted shipwreck, thus combining Gangplank Galleon with Big Boo's Haunt.
- Kirby examples:
- Guild Wars has two. Shing Jea Island is an Eastern-looking Green Hill Zone/Slippy Slidey Ice World, and the Maguuma Jungle is a wasteland filled with red rocks, Jungle Japes, and Bubblegloop Swamp.
- Happens in the Shoot 'em Up Tyrian. In Episode 4, you are required to go into a planet's core to stop the bad guys from turning it into a sun. Once you do so, the planet's core starts cooling down rapidly, and you have to get out of there via an ice passage or freeze to death.
- The Neverwinter Nights expansion Hordes of The Underdark has Cania, the eighth plane of hell, which is a frozen wasteland with rivers of lava. The characters even point out the physical impossibility of this, and that it must be supernatural. In fact, it goes a bit deeper than that; the rivers of lava flow through the ice because it's impossible. The arbitrary landscape is designed to torture the mind.
- World of Warcraft has a few of these, as if its patchwork geography weren't already schizoid enough. The icy continent of Northrend is home to Sholazar Basin, a tropical forest preserved by Titanic magic. There's a spot in the east called the Avalanche where the Titans' defenses are broken and the snows of Icecrown are invading it. Un'goro Crater in southern Kalimdor is a similar example — a tropical jungle sandwiched between two deserts and preserved by the Titans. The world PvP area of Wintergrasp is even more of a mishmash, featuring a jungle plateau and a volcanic caldera amid ice, water, and snow. Similarly, Dragonblight has the dragonshrines, microcosms of life, nature, and fire in the snowy wasteland. In all of these cases, A Wizard Did It, explicitly.
- Mt. Here and There in Graffiti Kingdom, which is a big mountain, with a white line drawn down the middle. The two halves are nearly identical, and the only necessary rooms are the ones that have fire AND ice, meaning it actually functions as two versions of the same level.
- This could arguably apply to many Doom levels, which were built to look like techno-bases, but slowly turn into hellish architecture by the presence of the demons.
- Final Fantasy XII featured the Giza Plains. Initially a dry plains, full of deserty enemies much like the deserts that surround the other sides of Rabanastre, but when the rains come it turns into a lush swampy region with much tougher, more aquatic styled enemies. Although the "seasons" in Giza start out locked and change only by advancing the plot, midway through the game or so, they start cycling every hour (which is handy since there are certain tasks that can only be completed in one season or the other, and at least one which requires returning during the different seasons).
- Scribblenauts has a volcano-y and snowy peaks area in the first half of the game.
- This being Scribblenauts, you're also perfectly capable of conjuring a snowman in the volcanic area or a volcano in the tundra.
- Nethack: The Valkyrie Quest has both lava and ice in the same map. Explained as the result of Fire Giants invading the naturally frosty Valkyrie homeland.
- Loco Roco has Jaojab, which alternates between yellow Mayincatec areas and green Jungle Japes areas.
- The Katamari Damacy-esque Wii game The Munchables features one in its last stages. It's actually a frozen island and a volcano cut in half and sawed togheter like Dr. Frankenstein's resort.
- In Heretic, the Ice Grotto level is a cross between a Slippy Slidey Ice World and a Lethal Lava Land.
- Probably the most egregious example is Cel Damage Overdrive for the PlayStation 2. An unlockable level featured a mix between all settings in the game, in a pretty well made fashion. It combines the Wild West, Temple of Doom, Space Zone, and Big Boo's Haunt. Unfortunately, this extra level is absent in the Xbox and GameCube versions.
- SSX, known for its creative snowboarding courses, featured a level called Aloha Ice Jam. Word Of God says it is set on an iceberg towed to sunny Hawaii. The level features snow, ice, penguins, giant metal death-fans, torrential rivers, giant tiki heads, molten lava, ice platforms, and sand — more or less in that order.
- In LittleBigPlanet 2, you get Victoria's levels, which are a mixture of Level Ate and Eternal Engine.
- Most of Little Big Planet 2's levels were designed with this mindset, actually.
- The planet Effluvia in The Adventures Of Rad Gravity is one third Down In The Dumps, one third Lethal Lava Land, and one third Eternal Engine.
- Ilvern Ruins in Ys III is a Temple of Doom in Lethal Lava Land.
- The River of Souls in Turok 2 is a cross between a Temple of Doom and Big Boo's Haunt. The Lair of the Blind Ones is one third The Lost Woods, one third Underground Level, and one third Lethal Lava Land.
- Volcano Castle in Bonk's Revenge is a Lethal Lava Land in a ruined castle. Fireball Field is a combination of Lethal Lava Land and Green Hill Zone.
- Limewater Cave in Ys VI is two thirds Underground Level, one third Under the Sea.
- The Colombia Temple Ruins level in Soldier of Fortune II is a jungle level with a Mayincatec Temple of Doom.
- In Dragon Quest VI, the cave before Murdaw's keep starts as a Lethal Lava Land, then you climb up stairs and you find yourself in a watery cave.
- The Starcraft II map editor allows easy combination of any type of terrain, allowing a few unusual maps like testbug to come out.
- Super Monday Night Combat features Moco Loco Arena, which is situated on a remote island featuring an active volcano on one side and a snowy alp on the other. This is all just window dressing, since actual gameplay doesn't involve either, though it's thematically significant — the two sides of the island represent the two sides of the conflict, the Hotshots and the Icemen.
- Snailiad has two:
- In The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion expansion pack Shivering Isles, the titular Isles are the realm of the Madgod Sheogorath, and are split down the middle to represent the dual nature of madness. The northern half of the Isles, Mania, represents the positive aspects of madness, and is full of exotic plantlife and brightly coloured monsters. The southern half, Dementia, embodies the negative aspects of madness, and consists mostly of dreary swampland.
- The Junkyard in Shadows of the Empire is a Locomotive Level Down In The Dumps.
- In Ys II, the Moat of Burnedbless immediately follows the Ice Ridge of Noltia.
- in Dark Souls, the Ash Lake is a mix of Palmtree Panic and Lost Woods. The Painted World of Ariamas is a mix of Slippy Slidey Ice World and Big Fancy Castle. New Londo Ruins is a mix of Big Fancy Castle and Big Boo's Haunt.
- Super Mario Fusion Revival has World 4-F2: Wretched Winterland. The elements of fire and ice intertwine in this wintry landscape trapped in the limbo that is Di Yu. You have to fight off both elementals at the same time in order to proceed to Hellfire Citadel.
- The stages in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale run on this by having a Playstation locale being overtaken by another 'till you have things like a San Francisco harbor being pulled into space or a futuristic city getting flooded and attacked by a mythological sea monster.
Anime and Manga
- The first New World island the Straw Hats visit in One Piece, Punk Hazard, is half-fire, half-ice. On one side, you have a sea of boiling red water, dragons, and volcanoes. On the other half, a mountain of ice and snow storms, separated from the fire half only by a large lake. This formerly normal island was redecorated when Aokiji and Akainu fought there for ten days straight two years ago. Over the course of the arc, that lake in the center became poisonous.
Film
- In Hook, the Lost Boys' home is in an enormous tree and its surroundings, which are separated into four distinct sections including all four seasons.
Literature
- The high score is currently held by the Keep of the Four Worlds in Roger Zelazny's Amber series: Lava, an ocean, mountains, and a dusty plain with never-ending tornadoes, with the castle at the place where all four intersect.
Tabletop RPG
- The Elemental Chaos of the Dungeons & Dragons is a place where the laws of physics can be a bit screwy (you can have oceans made out of lightning), so places like those described in the trope are not unheard of. Furthermore, there are actual creatures that embody this trope, being lava-ice creatures.
Webcomics
Real Life
- Mount Erebus in Antarctica is a lava lake surrounded by snow and ice.
- Iceland - most recently, the volcanic eruptions in Spring 2010 in a glacial area, providing some stunning pictures.
- Yellowstone, particularly in the winter.
- Desserts that are usually served hot (like Apple Pie or Chocolate Lava Cake) then topped with ice cream rely on this dynamic and are best eaten IMMEDIATELY to get the full effect.
- In winter, most active volcanoes whose crater is above the snowline are like this.
- Hawaii's Big Island is home to just about every clime in the book. From a desert made of miles and miles of black rock, to mountaintops with occasional snow, to a rainforest (where Kona Coffee's coffee plantation is found), to more temperate zones, and of course an active volcano. The Big Island has been described as having every climate in the book, except for arctic tundra.
- Jupiter's moon Io. A highly volcanic world that is located far enough from Sun for the temperatures to drop to -150 degrees Celsius when it's not erupting.
- The "snowball Earth" period early in our planet's history is thought to have ended because of the accumulating atmospheric greenhouse gases released through volcanism.
- The exoplanet Corot-7B is tidally locked and extremely close to its parent star. Half of the planet is a literal Lethal Lava Land at 3300 to 4700 degrees Fahrenheit; the opposite side, which never sees the star, is hundreds of degrees below freezing.
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