The purpose of writing this review on floating drug delivery systems (FDDS) is to pile up the recent literatures with special focus on formulation, characterization and the prime mechanism of floatation to achieve gastric retention, including kinetic consideration for FDDS. Drugs showing absorption window at a particular region has limited surface area for absorption after oral administration. To overcome the limitations different dosage forms are formulated and it was observed that FDDS has the ability to be retained in the gastric environment for longer period of time, favoring the absorption of drugs showing absorption window at gastric region. This paper summarizes current approaches in the research and development, evaluation, along with formulation benefits and limitations, and drug candidates suitable to be formulated into ideal floating drug delivery systems. For predictability and reproducibility in designing an efficient floating dosage form, some kinetic studies and plots are mentioned, and the drug release mechanism from floating drug delivery systems is discussed.