Candy Land is a logic-puzzle block game that features cheerful characters living in a land filled with sweets and treats. The landscape is made of cool, refreshing beverage pools, green gelatin blocks and tasty desserts. The player's primary goal across 28 levels is to transfer the beverage pools to different areas to replenish the drinks of blue characters and keep red characters who aren't thirsty physically dry.
The playfield features a two-tone tan checkerboard with elevated areas of landscape made from candy, icing and dessert ingredients. Atop these areas, the blue characters wait for drink refills, as indicated by thought bubbles above their heads. In some levels, the red characters are stranded inside of the beverage pools!
The game allows the player to keep the blocks they remove on each level. They can then use the blocks to create dams that separate the pools and allow blue characters to quench their thirst and red characters to become dry again. The number of available blocks appears near the top-right corner.
Candy Land offers a lot of mental challenges. In some areas, the player must press red buttons to release the liquid. They might also need to move one or more beverage pools to two separate areas where the liquid never combines to form a single pool.