Featuring three different game play modes, Tank Beat is a touch based action battle game that drives the player through each battle in a variety of tanks against armored, airborne, and sea opponents. Tank Beat is entirely stylus-based. As you draw tracks and fire on the DS's bottom screen game map, your tank appears and responds on the top screen. Players engage in a variety of missions and commandeer a full range of tanks: from tiny scrappers, to missile carriers, to giant Panzers.

The game features with three modes: Story, Skirmish, and Battle. In single player Story Mode, players progress through 27 levels of play and unlock various tanks as they achieve objectives. Skirmish Mode allows players to practice on any of the maps and tanks that were unlocked in Story Mode plus additional exclusive levels. Free-for-all Battle Mode pitches up to 4 players against each other in either wireless head to head action or via the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.