The game allows the player to control a F-14 Tomcat jet, which must destroy a series of enemy jets throughout 18 stages. At the start of the game, the player takes off from an aircraft carrier called the SEGA Enterprise, which shares a similar name to the one used in the 1986 film Top Gun.

In the arcade version, the jet itself employs a machine gun and a limited set of heat-seeking missiles, in the Mastersystem version there is an unlimted amount of missiles. These weapons are replenished by another aircraft after beating a few stages. The aircraft, cannon and missile buttons are all controlled from an integrated flight stick.

The game itself was released in two variations: a standard upright cabinet and a rotating cockpit version. In the cockpit version, the seat rotated horizontally, and the cockpit rotated vertically. The rotating cockpit version also featured two speakers inside the cockpit at head-level, which produced excellent stereo sound that significantly added to the gameplay experience. Both cabinets contained a grey monitor frame with flashing lights at the top that indicated an enemy's "lock" on your craft.