Burning Fight uses a horizontally scrolling side-view perspective. Players move through urban stages, defeat groups of enemies, collect temporary weapons, and fight end-of-stage bosses. Attacks are based on punches, kicks, jumps, throws, and weapon use.

The arcade version supports single-player and cooperative play, with selectable protagonists and a limited number of stages. Progression is linear: clearing each section advances the player toward the next encounter, while health and lives determine how long the run can continue. No verified Sega Genesis-specific ruleset or control layout is available.

For the supplied Sega Genesis platform, no verified strategy details, stage differences, or version-specific mechanics are available. In the known arcade game, conserving weapons for dense enemy groups and learning boss attack patterns are generally useful, but these observations should not be treated as Genesis-specific.