Theatre of Pain is a one-on-one versus fighting game that features stylised characters from Graeco-Roman mythology and history. The large, pre-rendered sprites are drawn against pseudo-3D backgrounds, with zoom effects and perspective shifts contributing to an illusion of completely three-dimensional stages where fights take place. The game engine seems to be identical, or at least largely similar to, the one from Rise 2 Resurrection, a different fighting game by the same developer. Only two characters as available in the demo version.