The player's reward is the party itself with a special activity dictated by the question that was solved. As each set of three clues is collected, Steve retires to his thinking chair to ponder the clues, and the player must select the most likely combination from a group of three pictures. PC Magazine rated the game as 6th place of the Top-Selling Retail Software.As in the Blue's Clues television show that the characters are based on and in, each question can be solved by discovering 'clues' indicated by blue paw prints. For instance, at the lowest difficulty level a clue may be solved by picking the correct drawing shown on the screen, on the higher difficulty level the same task may require player to piece segments of the picture together in order to produce a complete picture. The game is split into three difficulty levels these affect the task which the player must complete when they discover a clue. Once all the clues have been located and the tasks presented have been completed, the player helps Steve perform a song, such as the Blue's Clues theme tune. Each clue found results in a task for the player.

In order to locate clues players must interact with characters in the game and provide them with the items they require. Each problem is solved by finding clues which are marked by blue paw prints within the game. Once the scenario is selected the player must help Steve complete it by solving three problems, guiding him through the house in order to locate clues.

These include Steve being a live-action character appearing in a two-dimensional house designed to look like a paper cut out and Blue communicating by leaving blue paw prints in pertinent locations. The game shares many similarities with the television series.

Players control Steve during play, who breaks the fourth wall by directly speaking to players. Before play commences the player must first enter their name, date of birth and their favorite color. These are all themed around Steve, Blue's owner, preparing for Blue the dog's birthday party. Blue's Birthday Adventure is packaged on two CD-ROMs, each CD-ROM contains two scenarios in the form of questions.

Blue39s clues birthday adventure game