Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday is a side-scrolling platform game where the main character, Porky Pig, can move left and right and jump. Also, the main character can swing in chains, climb, enter doorways and ride bubbles under the water. Some platforms, if stepped on by Porky, makes Daffy The Count Duck appear and scare Porky so he propels up into the air to reach high places.
Enemies in a level can be defeated in two different ways; by jumping on them or by throwing fruit at them, but fruit can only be thrown by Porky when a fruit bowl power-up is collected. At the beginning of the game, Porky starts with five lives and the goal is to make it to the end of all levels. Porky loses a life if all of his hearts are lost, which happens if Porky is hit by an enemy.
Checkpoints that look like a red X mark are scattered throughout the levels. Going past a checkpoint makes Porky stick a flag into the ground and that’s where he’ll start from if a life is lost later in the level. If all lives are lost, there is an unlimited continue to feature that restarts the player in the same level.