

The SNES version included cheat codes that are accessed by pausing the game with the start button, and then followed by a sequence of button presses to acquire a particular power up, or skip to the next level. Even though he is the final boss of the game, the player has to fight Simon Phoenix in short-lived "teaser" battles before defeating him for good at the cryo-prison. Weapons include the basic police-issue handgun, a more powerful magnum, a shotgun which fires in a wide spread, and various types of hand grenades.

In the two overhead view stages the player must find and rescue hostages in order to unlock doors elsewhere in the level.

The first stage is set in 1996 and all stages after in 2032, following a simplified plot of the movie. The game gives the player limited continues and very few lives. Power ups can be found around the stages that increase the characters health or ammunition. Enemy characters and the player character can take a number of hits before dying. Stages are filled with many enemies, mostly gunmen. The 16-bit game is primarily a platform game, with two overhead top-down shooter segments in either gameplay type the player character can fire in eight directions. John Spartan enters the stage by jumping with a cable from a helicopter, a scene taken from the movie The first level is displayed in side view platform type, the health bar is displayed in the bottom left.
