Operation Wolf is one of the most recognizable games in the on-rails shooter genre, and one of the earliest to be released. The player takes on the part of a Special Forces Operative sent on a mission to rescue valuable prisoners of war from concentration camps, proceeding from one area to the next.

As the screen scrolls slowly to the right, various enemies run onto the screen at different distances to the player. The player has a short window to quickly shoot them before he or she takes damage from the enemies gunfire. Some enemies require multiple shots to kill, while others are immune to bullets everywhere except at their weak points. The player also has a finite number of grenades which he or she can use as a last resort to kill, or at the very least injure, all the enemies currently on the screen.