The game is a stage based shooter where the player automatically moves through the level and has to defeat enemies to the music.

The hub for Pistol Whip features movie posters which each correspond to a song, selecting one allows the player to set modifiers like dual-wielding and limit the amount of bullets a magazine has.

If the player runs out of ammo they need to aim their gun directly down or pistol whip an enemy to reload.

Speaking on what they wanted from the game, Cloudhead's CEO stated, "We had a really short [financial] runway at that time and we had to look at what was working on market.

Ars Technica praised the auto aim system, writing that it "does just enough legwork to let players focus on speed without completely dumbing the game down".