In the 8-bit versions, Tanglewood is a peaceful glade under threat from a property developer and wizard named Sharck.

The player controls five different animal characters who have ten days to defeat Sharck before the bulldozers move in.

[1] In the 16-bit version, the premise is that Tanglewood contains valuable minerals that have only been discovered after the protagonist's uncle Arthur acquired mining rights from an unscrupulous company.

[2] The game had originally been planned to be based on the children's TV series Willo the Wisp but this was dropped.

[1] A review of the Atari ST version in ST-Log also emphasised the difficulty of the game but gave particular praise to the graphics and sound effects.