The player controls Jack, who must climb the beanstalk to reach the castle, steal a series of treasures from the giant, and escape.

The game used hardware licensed from Hara Industries of Japan, with raster graphics instead of the vector displays Cinematronics was known for.

The player's objective is to retrieve these items on successive trips up the beanstalk, with the princess stage being the last in the four-stage level.

A brief animated intermission featuring that specific treasure will play after the player successfully reaches the ground to end each stage.

Cinematronics president Fred Fukumoto purchased 5,000 game boards from Hara Industries, for 2 million US dollars, to be used for Jack the Giantkiller.