Players take the roles of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, solving puzzles, fighting villains and finding objects.

Along the way, Violet invents things: Klaus's weapon (the Brilliant Bopper); her own weapons (the Fruit Flinger, the Reptile Retriever and the Peppermint Popper); the Baby Booster, which helps Sunny jump; the Steady Stilts, which help Violet reach high places; the Uplifting Umbrella, which helps Violet glide across gaps; the Horrifying Hook, which Klaus uses as a grapple gun; and the Levitating Loafers, which can make Klaus levitate for a brief period of time.

Completing the game will also unlock the World Map, a sandbox mode allowing players to roam around the various levels and collect more puzzle pieces and packages.

Secondly, there are two new environments, Briny Beach and a horseradish factory (presumably the one that is discussed in The Reptile Room, The Grim Grotto, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography and The End).

Finally, players have different inventions to make; the Smasher, the Lobber (which uses rotten eggs, bubble gum, horseradish, water balloons, and bananas as ammo), the Lockpick, the Sprayer (which uses eau du toilette, onions, pillow feathers, bees, and limes as ammo), the Lever Yanker, the Reptile Retriever, stilts, and a Grappling Hook.

Rather than stages, it is broken up into six consecutive hub areas where the player follows a linear set of objectives to progress in the game.

The gameplay finds the player solving environmental puzzles, scouring locations for invention parts, platforming, as well as defeating numerous enemies and bosses.

[28] Detroit Free Press gave it two stars out of four and wrote that they played the entire game, without any cheats, in about four hours, alluding to its short length.