Digimon Rumble Arena is a family-friendly fighting game offering single- and two-player modes. You can battle as or against your favorite digital monsters, both past and present. Power-ups give Digimon characters defining special abilities that can make a difference in close contests and platform traps like conveyor belts and falling icicles are part of the mix.

In single-player mode, you compete against the computer by clearing stages and advancing through all 20 characters. Six environments include Sanctuary (lightening bolts), Wilderness (boulders), Garbage Recycling Center (compactor), Revolution (rotating screen), Glacier (icicles), and Volcano, with a few mini-games thrown in for fun. Two-player action lets you compete against another human, while the Versus Computer mode offers single matches against the computer where you pick the level and character to fight.

Each Digimon has special moves, such as Wormon's sticky net, Stingmon's moon shooter, and MegaGargomon's bum rush, and gaining enough energy allows them to "digivolve" into more powerful versions for a limited amount of time. Special items featuring positive and negative effects appear sporadically during the fighting and affect gameplay: digi plus, digi minus, max and forced digivolve, power down, queen device, evil ring and spiral bomb, and fire, water, and wind attacks.