Harlequin (computer game)

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Harlequin is a computer game for the Amiga and Atari ST. It was written by Andy Finlay, with graphics by Ed Campbell. It was produced by Pete Cook and published in the early 1990s by Gremlin Graphics. The sound is credited to Imagitec.

Harlequin is a platform game taking place over multiple interconnected screens. Your character, a harlequin, has returned to his homeworld Chimera to mend its broken heart. To do this, he must find the four pieces the heart has broken into and take them to the Clock tower.

Finding the pieces of the heart involves a fair deal of strategy as flicking switches can open new areas of the various levels, open up new levels to explore, or close access points to other levels. Completing the game is difficult due to the way the game world evolves as it it interacted with. Not only must the player complete the levels, but the player must do them in an order that allows them to complete the game. It is easy to come to a dead end in Harlequin and have to restart the game from scratch, simply by picking up a bonus at the wrong time or completing the worlds in the wrong order.

Similar to Jet Set Willy, the playing area in Harlequin is made up of several screens that can be traversed in a free order, provided you find (or in some cases unlock) the links between the screens. Whereas the screens in Jet Set Willy were stationary, only filling up one computer screen, the screens in Harlequin are much larger and scroll as the harlequin moves through them.

Each screen has a different setting and graphics style. Most of them are quite weird, happening for example inside a giant clock tower, across the rooftops of a city, or in Egyptian or Mayan mythology (called "The Dream Mile"). There is a level where you are sucked through a maze of drinking straws (called "Suck It and See"), like a bonus level in that it is packed with health power ups. Each screen also has a background music tune, but some tunes are shared between several screens.

Power ups include a burger (for health), a space hopper (grants invulnerability and higher jumping), fire-works (a sort of partial shield that orbits Harlequin) and an umbrella that can be used as a parachute. There is also a fish power-up that allows Harlequin to turn into an angel fish when in contact with water.

Harlequin is mostly noted for its good-quality graphics and music and the sheer size of the worlds it takes place in, as well as some of it's twisted humor and 1990's pop-culture references (e.g. The "Matey" bubble bath bottles in the swimming pool level). The worlds are:

• Bomb Run - A land of explosives suspended over a lake.

• Clock Tower - The outsides of Chimera's central clock tower. Populated by violent alarm clocks and grandfather clocks (complete with beards).

• Clock Works - The inner workings of the clock tower, with many cogs and girders to leap from. Enemies include the orange worm and jumping bolts.

• Crazy Jugglers - A rather 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 Mario Bros. computer games. Everything in this level tends to have a face, including the water.

• 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. And Davy Jones' towel and building contract.

• Flights 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.

• Gambler - A world based on playing cards, gambling and casinos. Fauna includes card sharks (literally).

• Heavens Above - A twisted version of heaven, taken over by imps and demons.

• Hellzapoppin' - Hell's incarnation is one of the duller of levels. It is dark and grey with fiery walls.

• How Far Down? - A rather obscure level featuring flying blad do-do's, three storey high vats of poison, and teaspoons to bounce on.

• Jigsaw Puzzle - The jigsaw puzzle requires the player to restructure it by finding the right levers. A lot of it's guards tend to be eye-ball based.

• Learning Curve - A world based on children's TV, much like Playschool of the early BBC.

• Mortuary - A world of ghosts, walking dead and dark, damp, dripping crypts.

• Pipe Organ - In this world Harlequin is shrunk and the world is a giant pipe organ.

• Rooftops - A world above a city, including violent satellite dishes and deadly chimneys.

• Sewercide - A maze of piranha infested sewers.

• Sheet Music - The note on the sheet music make up the platforms, and bookworms make up the enemies.

• Suck It and See? - A maze of drinking straws, filled with goodies and continue bonuses.

• Throat of the Machine - A strange vertical level that includes weird pink maggots and giant fly-aliens in bubbles.

• TV Show Room - A TV show room gone mad, taken over by crazy light bulbs and mis-firing electronics.