Pocket Fighter is a crossover fighting game that takes characters from the Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Red Earth fighting series, and presents them in a cute shrunken chibi form with ridiculous moves and costumes. The games fights take place in various Capcom locations.
The gameplay revolves around your character's health bar at the top of the screen, alongside a meter showing how many gems you've collected. Filling up your gem gauge will increase your special attack meters on the bottom of the screen. Your goal is to fill it up as much as possible while using gems in battles.
The main difference between the WonderSwan version and other versions lies in its unique card battle mode. In this mode, you'll choose a set of cards to form an attack, then view the combat and get new cards to pick from until one player is defeated.
The cards have different values for attack power and defense. By combining them, you'll determine your overall power value. The player with the higher value will attack that turn, unless your foe has picked a guard or evasion card. Other cards include recovery and special move cards.
"Collectible Cards" featuring various graphics of the game's characters can be obtained by playing different modes, such as "Arcade", and traded via the Communication Cable.
The game also featured an online high score board through the WonderGate.