The Atari 2600 version of Jawbreaker is an action & adventure game where you have to eat all the candies on nine horizontal levels. The goal is to get a teeth brushing and advance to the next, harder level. However, there are happy faces on each level that will knock your teeth out if you touch them, losing you a life.
The gameplay involves eating candies, avoiding happy faces, and using vitamin pills to turn the faces red, allowing you to eat them for a short time. There are also moving openings on the levels or you can move to the far left or far right of the screen to advance to the next level.