The year is 2027 and an Earth starship has discovered the planet Tobal which has large deposits of a rare and powerful energy source called Molmoran. A tournament is set up to see who should get the rights to it.

Tobal No.1 is a fighting game with a stand-out feature: grappling system. Every character has the ability to grapple the opponent, which in its turn allows access to new moves. Grapple reversal and grapple escape are also available. In addition, there is a large amount of combo attacks to perform (by rapidly pressing corresponding buttons), most of which are unique to each character. There is also a quest mode.