In the game you control Beetlejuice through various side-scrolling and overhead view levels in an effort to scare the yuppie Deetz family and friends that have taken over the house. You stomp on cockroaches in order to gain points that you used to buy various scare tactics that you use to defeat various enemies and bosses. Although the initial levels of the game are based upon the film, with Beetlejuice venturing through the Maitland House to find and scare away Otho, the later levels are original and involve Beetlejuice fighting mythical creatures in such locations as a sewer system and the afterlife.