Hana no Star Kaidou Nintendo

Two musicians, Moeta and Goro, travel across Japan trying to gain musical stardom. Their journey in Japan takes them to places such as Harajuku and the Roppongi district, with their ultimate goal of performing in the United States of America in New York.

Hana no Star Kaidō is a side-scrolling platformer containing six stages. The stages however aren't straightforward as the player has to find the right path to take in order to reach the ending of a stage, The first part of the stage involves navigating streets until the correct music studio building is found. The game then switches to navigating the inside of the building until finding the end of stage teleporter. The game has a heart countdown timer that will cause the boys to lose their lives if it runs out. The timer gets refilled when the boys enter the studio or start a new stage.

A unique feature of the gameplay is that the player has to control both characters at the same time. Both characters move in tandem and the player can control the distance they stand by each other. Each one has their own life count, and the game is over as soon as one of them loses all of their lives. They can earn back a life by completing a stage.

Moeta and Goro can defend themselves by firing out musical notes at enemies to stun them or with enough shots kill them. Some stunned enemies can be induced to give up the gold records they are carrying. Gold records can also be found lying around the stage or uncovered by destroying objects. Each stage requires a certain number of gold records to collect in order for the stage to be completed. Also a special item exists on each stage, like a cassette tape, that must be collected and in the boys possession at the end of the stage in order to complete it. Getting hit by projectiles fired by some enemies or the projectiles randomly dropping from above can cause the boys to lose the special item or reduce the count of gold records so the boys must do their best to avoid them or else they will have to spend time recollecting the lost items. Other items are scattered about the stages, like an electric guitar that provides temporary invincibility.