Harlequin is set in a world named Chimerica which has several themed locations. Some locations have to be visited more than once to complete the game: •
The Bomb Run - a land of explosives suspended over a lake. •
The Clock Tower - the outside of Chimerica's central clock tower. Populated by violent
alarm clocks and
grandfather clocks (complete with beards). •
The Clockworks - the inner workings of the clock tower, with many cogs and
girders to leap from. Enemies include orange worms and jumping bolts. •
The Wacky Jugglers - a difficult vertical level that involves jumping from jugglers balls to gain height. One mistake here often means repeating the whole level. •
Cutesy Land - a
tongue in cheek spoof of the
Mario Bros. series of games - everything in this level tends to have a face, including the water. This world can only be accessed through the Virtual Television in TVee Wonderland. A piece of Chimerica's broken heart is located here. •
The Dream Mile - a bizarre Mayan/Egyptian world complete with
pyramids,
tombs,
scorpions, sand and high winds. •
Fathom This Out! - a swimming pool level containing the dreaded
Davey Jones' locker, including Davy Jones' towel and building contract. •
A Flight of Fancy - a flying level where Harlequin is suspended from the bottom of a
kite. This level has several guises, one of which is randomly selected when the player enters it. •
The House of Cards - a world based on
playing cards, gambling and
casinos. Fauna includes
card sharks (literally). This world can only be accessed through the Virtual Television in TVee Wonderland. •
Heavens Above! - a twisted version of heaven, taken over by
imps and demons. •
Hellzapoppin' - Hell's incarnation is one of the darker, creepier levels. Everything appears in shades of deep purple and grey, with fiery walls and all kinds of dangerous monsters running wild. A piece of Chimerica's broken heart is located here. •
What a Fall? - another sinister world, this time based on Alice in Wonderland. The player must make his way to the bottom of the level from a precarious platform positioned at the very top. The level can only be safely navigated by floating downwards using the umbrella, due to the whole place being full of giant vats of poison (gruesomely labelled "Drink Me") that result in instant death if the player lands in them. Other hazards include deadly dodos and walking watering cans. •
The Jig-saw Puzzle - the
jigsaw puzzle requires the player to restructure it by finding the right levers. A lot of the monsters here are eyeball-based. •
The Learning Curve - a world based on children's TV programmes, much like
Play School on the BBC, full of giant colouring pencils, Lego blocks and monstrous toys. This world can only be accessed through the Virtual Television in TVee Wonderland. •
A Dark and Gloomy Place - A world of
ghosts, zombies and dark, damp, dripping
crypts. This level can only be accessed when a gigantic chimney has been built on "A Walk Across the Rooftops" (achieved by flicking a switch in "Fathom This Out" which makes Davy Jones sign his building contract, granting permission for construction work to proceed), allowing the player to drop down into the mortuary building. •
The Organ Chamber - in this world Harlequin is shrunk and the world is a giant
pipe organ. If playing the game with sound effects instead of music, the player will find that the keys of the organ actually produce the correct notes when ran across. •
A Walk Across the Rooftops - a world above a city, including violent
satellite dishes and deadly
chimneys. A piece of Chimerica's broken heart is located here. •
Sewercide - a maze of
piranha-infested sewer pipes. Careful use of the Angel Fish power-up is needed here. •
A Little Sheet Muzak - the final level of the game, which can only be accessed after the player flicks an all-important switch in Hellzapoppin'. The entrance to this level is located in The Organ Chamber world - when the necessary switch has been activated, the music book in the middle of the level will open, allowing the player to jump inside. "A Little Sheet Muzak" is like a giant page of the book, and the player is required to use the musical notes as platforms, hopping towards the exit while avoiding gigantic bookworms. The final piece of Chimerica's broken heart is located here, but this level is impossible to leave except by jumping into the giant heart symbol at the top, which automatically ends the game. It is vital, therefore, to ensure that the other three pieces of Chimerica's heart have been collected before the player character enters the level. •
Suck It and See? - a maze of drinking straws, filled with goodies and continue bonuses. There is a 60-second time limit in effect here, and, if the player fails to leave the level before it expires, all the bonuses vanish forever. If the player manages to leave in time, the level can be revisited with all the bonuses replenished. •
Throat of the Machine - a strange vertical level that includes weird pink
maggots and giant fly-aliens in bubbles. The entrance to this level is found in the Clockworks, but it only appears after the player flicks certain switches in other worlds. •
TVee Wonderland - a creepy television superstore where every single TV is broken, and hopping lightbulbs, deadly sparks and other mis-firing electronics threaten the player character's life. Deep within the bowels of this level is the Virtual TV (VTV), which is vital for accessing three other levels. The programme being broadcast can be changed on the VTV by flicking switches in other worlds, and by jumping into the VTV screen the players can enter the new environments. •
Beating the Drum - a very difficult level, filled with dangerous percussive instruments. Some of the drums act as trampolines to higher places. This level is accessible from "Suck it and See?" and even then only late into the game. Although it provides one entrance to The Organ Chamber, Beating the Drum is the only extraneous stage in the game. It is a difficult place to traverse and there is no real reason to enter it, as there are no switches. ==Reception==