Super Robot Spirits is a 3D fighting game that pits players in one-on-one battles against mecha from select Japanese anime series. The plot involves an ongoing war throughout the universe between humans and a fleet of robots named the "Aerogater". To stop the Aerogater from destroying Earth, robots from other dimensions are transported to Earth to destroy them once and for all. Spirits includes seven playable characters from the start: Shining Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Daitarn from Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3, Dunbine from Aura Battler Dunbine, Voltes V from Chōdenji Machine Voltes V, Walker Xabungle from Combat Mecha Xabungle, Dancouga from Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God, and R-1, a robot created by Banpresto specifically for this game. There are three unlockable characters as well that are playable once certain conditions are met.
The game is presented from a 2.5D perspective; while the characters and environments are rendered in 3D, the gameplay takes place on a 2D plane. Each character is able to kick, punch, block incoming attacks, and use weapons such as turret guns and energy swords. In each battle, which are made to represent anime episodes, the player must defeat their opponent by depleting their health. Hitting opponents provides the player with "spirit skills", which fill up an orange gauge underneath their health bar. Spirit skills are used to unleash a powerful super attack, which can't be deflected by opponents. Super attacks differ for each character, and are stronger depending on how many spirit skills the player possesses, and are different for each character. The player can also combine their weapons with an attack to cause a different super attack to unfold, which varies depending on the character selected.
