Barkley Shut Up and Jam! is a two-on-two street basketball game where players take control of either former NBA MVP Charles Barkley or one of fifteen fictitious basketball players in a progressive series of matches on outdoor courts across different cities of the United States, with the exception of Phoenix, which takes place in an indoor court.[5][6] Though very similar to NBA Jam in terms of gameplay and controls,[7] the game provides a faster and more aggressive pace by containing less basketball play regulations and never penalizing a player, which emulates the looser and rougher nature of casual, urban basketball.[5][6][7][8] The court locations has no effect on gameplay, while each of the playable characters has a unique set of status skills, encouraging players to figure out which character fits their play style the best.[5][6] Despite that, Barkley has the best stats overall.[7]
Like NBA Jam, players has access to a turbo function that allows the characters to move faster and steal easier.[5][6] The player starts with the ability to use turbo six times but must earn each use back by performing well.[7] Unlike NBA Jam, the player can not control their teammate, who is instead controlled by the computer. A stable mechanic in Barkley is that your opponents have a very high chance of performing a difficult shot in the final seconds of the match, scoring their team three of four points, if they have the ball at the time, requiring the player to plan around this as the match is coming to an end.[7] Aside from the main single-player game mode, there is also a series mode as well as a tournament mode that allows up to 16 players.[5][6][7] The game has no save feature and utilizes a password system to keep progress through tournament mode. There are no major differences between the Genesis and Super NES versions besides graphics and sound, while each version of the game features support for up to four players with the Sega Team Player and Super Multitap adapters respectively.