The CD-ROM challenges children to help Busytown characters such as Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm to write new stories to fill the Storymobile. Each task involves reading activities, such as letter recognition, phonics, rhyming, and sorting. Completed tasks earn storybooks for the Storymobile. Children can read each storybook on their own or listen to a narrator. They can click on highlighted words to hear pronunciations and view animations for each story.
Children can also use a mini word processor to write stories on their own.
The Busy World of Richard Scarry includes a progress-report feature that lists the activity, skills practiced, and suggestions for offline activities to reinforce what a child has learned. Ever helps teach reading skills to young children in a familiar environment. However, one reviewer strongly criticizes the disc's lack of interactivity, among other things. One parent reported that her child wouldn't let her participate with him, but delighted in providing regular accounts of his learning progress. On the other hand, MacHome Journal 's Carrie Shepherd strongly criticizes the CD-ROM's drawings.