The player control Pengo, a penguin character. Pressing the button while pushing the joystick against an ice cube will cause it to slide in that direction until it hits another ice cube or a wall if space directly ahead of it is unoccupied by an ice cube or wall. If that space is occupied, pressing the button will crush the ice cube instead.
The goal is to destroy every Sno-Bee on the board by one of three methods:
• Sliding ice cubes to crush them
• Crushing blocks that contain unhatched Sno-Bee eggs
• Running over them after stunning them at a wall
At the start of each round, a certain number of eggs hatch into Sno-Bees, while other ice cubes flash to indicate that they contain eggs. As the player destroys active Sno-Bees, new ones hatch from the eggs to replace them. Crushing multiple Sno-Bees with one ice cube awards extra points. The Sno-Bees can crush blocks in an attempt to reach Pengo. Pushing against a wall causes it to vibrate and temporarily stuns any Sno-Bees in contact with it; the player may then crush them with a ice cube or simply run over them to destroy them. Contact with a Sno-Bee costs the player one life.
Three diamond cubes in each round are marked with diamonds and cannot be crushed. Arranging these blocks in a continuous horizontal or vertical line awards 10000 bonus points and temporarily stuns every active Sno-Bee. If the player eliminates every Sno-Bee in less than 60 seconds, bonus points are awarded based on the time taken. The player will add one more life every 50000 points.
The game includes a total of 18 rounds. After every second round, one of seven intermission animations is displayed.