I'm not making any silly mistake. What else would you do?
Recolor of course. :p
Isn't that what Christmas mode is all about?
I wasn't nitpicking, I genuinely don't understand what you meant by "raging quicksand-ish snow drifts".
Well, this is just another misunderstanding between us, but let's ignore it. Anyways, what I meant by snowdrifts was sort of like the ones in Diamond Dust Zone. Except with quicksand properties which would make sense. But that's just a random idea I came up with.
It needs coding, but that may work. However, there needs to be a way to make the icy water look threatening yet be solid on top.
Again, all just ideas.
After having an
interesting conversation with Kyasarin earlier, I think I'll clarify my intentions here a little more.
I am not pro-christmas mode at all. Though it may be interesting to speculate on, it is ultimately a waste of time on something which is
relatively uninteresting. I haven't for a moment wanted the devs or anyone else to spend time actually re-making Christmas mode. There is so much better things to spend time on. Things that are more original, and make more people happier. What I was against was the notion that making a decent attempt at a Winter/Christmas/Ice themed Vanilla level set would be impossible.
Greenflower Zone would most certainly be possible. That's easy as cupcakes!
Techno Hill Zone could be half done. Act 1 could easily be winterized, with some possible interesting results. Act 2, on the other hand, would be completely untouchable. There's no sensible way one could handle that as far as I can imagine.
Deep Sea Zone. Imagine it as an arctic ice palace of sorts. Frozen water surfaces, icebergs, all that. The whole place would benefit from a new texture set anyways. :p
Castle Eggman Zone could have some very nice makeovers indeed. There's no rule that it has to make sense with the "story", is there? In that case, I can see a more cheery, yuletide castle. Snow gently falling on the exteriors, while the insides are bright, decorated, and altogether less vicious.
Arid Canyon Zone would likely be a snap. Instead of a dry canyon, it is now a tundra ravine.
Red Volcano Zone is a toughie. I'm honestly gonna say it'd be best left as is, even in Christmas mode, because I can't think of any good ways to do it that wouldn't be somewhat awkward. An attempt could certainly be made, but how well would ice hazards work in a level setup like that?
And then you've just got Egg Rock Zone, which you'd leave be. As if Eggman would ever celebrate Christmas anyways.
But remember, this is all just curiosity and speculation. Though it might be a cute little thing, there's no good reason to do it.