Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave Incident has the player continuing in the role of a master detective. This time you are contacted by Winston Malgrave who claims to be the last of the wealthy Malgrave line. He needs your help on a rather remote tropical island that his family acquired long ago. The island was known as a type of Shangri-La with legendary water sources that could restore youth and vigor. Some sort of incident has occurred and driven many of the island's inhabitants away. Malgrave needs you to return to the island and avoid its many dangers. He has promised to help guide you through by way of remote communication. He mentions some lofty medical discovery on the island that the world could greatly benefit from. It comes in the form of a mysterious powder with amazing healing properties. Currently the world will have to wait for this miracle substance, but Winston Malgrave desperately needs the player to collect it quickly from around the island in order to revive his beloved wife Sara before it’s too late.

The game style is graphic adventure with hidden object scenes. At the bottom of the screen are words indicating the objects that need to be found. The objects will require you to use the Wii remote to pan back and forth to find objects in the scene. The panning function also has a 3D perspective view that when fully left or right in the scene can obscure or reveal other objects from view. Items collected into your inventory are used in solving other puzzle elements of the plot/story. These objects are scattered throughout the game and sometimes are used in combination with other items to solve puzzles and advance overall gameplay. The Wii remote is also used for general movement through the game environment. The game also has 3 additional modes of play for up to 4 players. These allow others to assist in finding objects with additional Wii remotes at anytime. You can also play challenge modes of who can find objects the quickest or by countdown timer.