Cel Damage is a vehicle shooter in which players compete against one another using weapons to either gain smack points or stop other opponents from achieving their goal, depending on the game mode. Weapons include black holes, boxing gloves, grenades, chainsaws,[1] baseball bats, chain guns, axes, and freeze rays.[2] The three game modes are Smack Attack, in which players attack other players and/or computer players to gain a certain number of points first; Gate Relay, in which players race to checkpoints; and Flag Rally, in which players race to collect flags. Smack Attack is the only mode not initially locked (except in the PlayStation 2 version). Additional characters and areas are also unlockable in the game.[1] The HD re-release in 2014 contained small differences from the original such as including life-bars and altering the method to unlock certain items, but otherwise contains the same content with a few new weapons and a new stage.

Cel Damage features ten characters, six automatically given at the beginning of the game and four unlockable "guest star" characters