Like the other adaptations of the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book, the SNES version is a side-scrolling platformer starring Mowgli, the young boy raised by wolves in the jungle. Running, jumping, climbing, and swinging on vines, he must make his way through 11 levels. These include the jungle by day and by night, a village high in the trees, a waterfall, ape King Louie's realm and the wasteland charred by a fire.

The jungle is full of dangerous animals, like bugs, snakes, anteaters and monkeys, which Mowgli can defeat by jumping on their heads or throwing bananas (from an unlimited supply) at them. Some jungle fruits like mangoes and coconuts can also be collected and used as weapons. Other power-ups include hearts (some of them hidden in fruits) that refill Mowgli's health bar, extra lives, masks that trigger invincibility and two kinds of gems: red gems count toward extra continues at the end of a level, while green gems count toward a special ending to the game.

Straying from the standard platforming levels are two automatically scrolling levels: one where Mowgli rides a parrot and one where he escapes from the collapsing ruins of Louie's castle. Several levels end in boss fights, featuring Kaa the snake, King Louie the orangutan and Shere Khan the tiger.