Bust-A-Move 4 is a puzzle game that continues the series' tradition of releasing colored bubbles to make them disappear. The player chooses from new characters and has a Story mode where winning Tarot cards rewards completion of stages. In this mode, the story unfolds as the player defeats each CPU-controlled character.
The gameplay involves competing in Win Contest mode, trying to win games against the computer in a row. Completing Challenge mode quickly and accurately earns access to Edit mode, where players can create their own puzzles and compete with others.