The player guides Hayate through the "Castle of Evil" avoiding dubious traps and fighting various enemies such as "the fire breathing Marco Killmore, the Wolves of Seidenfeld," and "the Immortal Skeleton Warriors of the Undead."
The gameplay is in the format of an interactive movie where the player has a limited amount of time to hit the right commands from the prompts on screen. The success or failure of completing these quick-time events will determine the set of animation you will receive, which will either depict Hayate delving further into the castle or humorously being squished between a wall of spikes. The player earns a score for how well they can run through each level and time the button presses.
If players were able to master the game and complete the game on hard mode, the publisher Renovation Products, Inc. would supply the player with a "Master of Ninja Arts" degree.