The game continues the series' theme of comical sports as the player takes the role of a boxer who makes his way from his debut to become a world champion.

Ring King, though perhaps unintentionally, is standard of the boxing creations of its era, via providing quirky monikers for opponents the player encounters; in its arcade release, these number eight (8): Violence Jo (this entry level fighter is the champion, in the NES version), Brown Pants, White Wolf, Bomba Vern, Beat Brown, Blue Warker (reigning champion, in the arcade version), Green Hante and Onetta Yank.

Assuming the player wins the championship, arcade play continues cycling through only the last of the afore-listed three (Blue Warker, Green Hante, Onetta Yank).

The game was later converted into an i-mode mobile phone application and released exclusively in January 2004 by Namco.

Ring King's sales had surpassed 250,000 copies in the United States by 1988, for which it received a Platinum Award from the Software Publishers Association (SPA) in August 1988.