Nerf N-Strike is a rail shooter game where the player moves through a shooting gallery with different challenges aiming at both stationary and moving targets with a nerf gun. N-Strike refers to a line of toys of Hasbro for nerf guns. The game is set in a secret training facility with different levels and there are over 25 different nerf weapons to unlock. The selection of guns includes real and fictional ones. Each guns has a different handling and ammo includes balls, darts and bullets. As with a real nerf gun, bullets do not travel into a straight line and the player has to compensate the floating by aiming a little higher for enemies in the distance.

The opponents are generally robots and the player only needs to shoot, the camera and general movement is done automatically. In most of the sequences the gun is visible but at specific moments a scope-like zoomed in view appears. In the main mission mode the goal is to beat the score of a challenger. There are also mini-games and smaller challenges that involve painting rolling spheres to make them explode and nailing a target cube through a stack of blocks. It is possible to team up with up to three other players to defeat the N-Strike Elite rivals and B.O.B. the cybernetic training bot.

The game is bundled with the Nerf Switch Shot EXE-3 gun. The game is also compatible with regular N-Strike guns as the pneumatic pod can be removed to introduce the Wii Remote and to turn it into a light gun. The bundled gun can also be used to shoot regular darts.