Matches are fought from a side-view perspective across two parallel planes. Players can move, jump, block, attack, use special techniques, and shift between the foreground and background to evade or change position.

The single-player route consists of successive fights with branching encounters and a final confrontation. Winning matches and meeting route conditions leads toward the ending, while versus play supports competitive two-player battles. Each fighter has distinct normal attacks, command moves, special moves, and stronger desperation techniques.

Learn the distance and timing of plane shifting rather than using it randomly. A well-timed shift can avoid a projectile or punish an attack, but a predictable shift is easy to intercept.

Confirm safe normal attacks into special moves, preserve meter for desperation techniques, and study each opponent's jump-in and wake-up habits. In single-player mode, avoid unnecessary risks because later fights become substantially less forgiving.