Cave Fighter is a platform game where you have to move from left to right with the screen scrolling when you move to escape various caves before a timer runs out. You can walk left or right but to jump you have to hold the fire button down, a gauge increases and the longer you hold it the higher and further you will jump. Careful use of this is needed as you can only land on the ground or the top of a platform, if you touch the sides of a platform, wall or touch an obstacle like water or spikes then you lose a life. As you get deeper into a cave you will encounter various creatures but you have a gun that fires in multiple directions and will kill any creature with some taking various amounts of shots to remove. If you touch a creature then you lose a life as well. Ropes can be used to climb and to get across gaps between platforms. Before you start the game you can select the level number (1-31) and how many lives (1-99).