Die Hard Arcade is a beat 'em up for one or two players, who play as either John McClane or Kris Thompsen (Bruno Delinger and Cindy Holiday in the Japanese version). Players fight their way through waves of enemies, using their fists, feet, and a variety of weapons that can be collected from enemies or the environment, from household items such as brooms and pepper shakers to high-damage missile launchers, submachine guns and anti-tank rifles.Items can be combined to make more powerful weapons, such as combining a spray and a lighter to make a flamethrower.Most weapons are automatically lost at the end of each action scene, but hand guns can be retained so long as they have ammunition remaining. The typical level structure is a number of minions the player must defeat in many rooms, followed by a boss. Quick Time Events are interspersed between many of the scenes. Failing a Quick Time Event results in either a loss of health, as is usual for QTEs, or an additional action scene which the players otherwise would not have to complete. Cut scenes are interspersed into the action.

In two-player cooperative mode, both players can work together with combined special moves and combos. The Saturn version also includes a port of Sega's 1979 arcade game Deep Scan, which can be used to gain extra credits. Unlike most arcade ports, no additional credits are provided for Deep Scan; losing a single life results in a game over.