Eple is a young girl donning a penguin costume, who lives in a secluded village in a snowy region of Northern Japan with other humans and birds. One day, following a monster attack on the village, Eple and her penguin friend fell into the water and drifted to faraway lands. The duo must face fearsome enemies and dangers to find a way back home.

Travel Eple is a top-down action game similar in concept to Bomberman. The game is divided into stages, each consisting of one screen. Every stage has an opponent who tries to kill Eple either by attacking directly (most regular enemies only have close-range attacks, but bosses may not follow this rule), or by throwing objects at her. Eple, on the other hand, has no attacks on her own and must rely on these objects (mostly explosives such as bombs and grenades) to hurt the enemy. Objects keep appearing randomly in various parts of the screen as long as the battle continues.

Stages may contain hazardous areas that damage Eple, or other spots that prevent her from walking around normally. Health-restoring pots also pop up from time to time. A few stages require Eple to access a magic staff, which grants her various protective abilities (e.g. an ice force field that absorbs fire damage).

A versus mode is available, in which players compete against each other by controlling Eple and her friend Pal. Their magical abilities can be customized before the battle begins.