Chicken Run is a stealth-based 3D platformer based on the movie Chicken Run. The game is a loose parody of the famous The Great Escape movie, which is based on World War II. The Game Boy Color version is a 2D isometric puzzle solving game. The Nintendo 64 version was planned, but later was cancelled for unknown reasons and scrapped.

Gameplay generally consists of the player taking control of either Ginger, Rocky or Nick and Fetcher, and seraching the Tweedys farm for objects to be used in an escape attempt by the chickens. This section of the game features stealth gameplay not too different from Metal Gear Solid, as the player will have to avoid guard dogs and the Tweedys themselves, in addition to searchlights, sources of light in general and noisy surfaces, since these will alert the security to the player's presence. Should the player be caught, they will be sent back to the entry point of the current area, and will lose their most recently obtained item. In addition, the player will occasionally have to push objects about, or use the environment in order to get to a hard to reach item.

The second half of the gameplay consists of minigames representing an escape attempt, that can range from controlling a mannequin of Mrs Tweedy, launching chickens over a fence with a seesaw to assembling a part of the "Crate" from the film. Success is generally measured by how many chickens the player can save, and the player can be awarded with medals by Fowler for good performance.