Meitantei Conan: Chika Yūenchi Satsujin Jiken is the first game based on the manga Detective Conan by Gōshō Aoyama, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday since 1994. It is an original story, although the amusement park theme is constantly revisited in the franchise, especially in anime and game form. The protagonist is Conan Edogawa, the alter ego of Shinichi Kudō, a high school detective who was transformed unwillingly into a kid. Chika Yūenchi Satsujin Jiken itself is an adventure game where the task is to solve murder cases. The player controls Conan from a top-down perspective and can move around freely in the park, seeking for clues or engaging other characters in conversation. Sometimes it's possible to choose what to ask a character, but that has no outcome on how the case proceeds. The investigation is moved forward by talking to the right people, finding the necessary clues, solving puzzles and by "thinking". The latter is an actual gameplay mechanic where Conan analyses certain events that he finds suspicious. It ends with the player selecting one out of two deductions. If the incorrect answer was chosen, the accusation will not hold and the murderer will get away. Furthermore, it's possible to officially accuse a suspect with insufficient proof and without finishing the entire scenario, even if this results in arresting the wrong person or ending the game prematurely.

The game has three different murder cases, each corresponding to one of the attractions in the amusement park: the roller coaster, the horror house and the huge maze. The first attraction Conan enters after being greeted by Nobuhara and the staff decides which scenario the player will play. In order to switch to another murder case, the game must be started over. The only way to resume a previous session is via passwords the game gives at specific points during the scenario.

A standard feature adopted by later installments is the presence of mini games. Two of them (a claw crane and a skateboarding game) can be played at any time in the Game Center, while others must be found or unlocked.