Bakugan: Rise of the Resistance is a 2D game played from a bird's-eye perspective based on the Bakugan animated series. New Vestoria is being invaded by the Hurranian Dimensional Empire. They located the Sacred Orb containing all Bakugan DNA, and stolen some DNA from it and used it to create Bakugan Replicators. The player gets help from a Hurranian android named Eva-Q8 to counter this invasion.
In the game the player has to explore New Vestoria and rid it of the forces of the Hurranian Dimensional Empire. The player can walk freely around the map until they encounters an enemy. The game will then enter a tower-defense battle mode where the player controls his Bakugan. The Bakugan is used to place static Bakugan (towers) on the map as well as to collect DNA to build more towers. The Bakugan can also attack the enemies directly.