Virtua Fighter Animation

In the story mode, the player follows the anime's plot, with anime style cutscenes before and after each fight. The story is divided into acts, each corresponding to a fight. The player controls Akira Yuki as he beats his opponents, each joining his party, making them available for future fights. Other characters that become available are Pai Chan, Jacky Bryant, Wolf Hawkfield, Kage-Maru, Sarah Bryant, and Lau Chan. In the final act, the player must face Dural.

The versus mode allows players to choose from seven available characters to fight against the CPU. In the two-player versus game, Kage-Maru is removed from the character selection.

The Game Gear version has three viewing modes: Normal, Large, and Real-Time. The Normal mode displays fighters from a distance with smaller sprites compared to the Large mode (larger sprites). The Real-Time mode simulates the camera effects from other Virtua Fighter games, alternating between Normal and Large modes, along with an extended intro sequence featuring anime-style cutscenes.

In terms of gameplay, the game is similar to other 2D fighting games, with options for punches (button 1), kicks (button 2), jumps (up), and special maneuvers. The Game Gear version also includes a block function using the START button, which is absent in the Master System version. Fights are regular best-of-three-round matches, where players lose a round if their energy is depleted, they fall out of the ring, or run out of time.