The players must take control of two spaceships, which are positioned at the bottom of the screen; the Cosmo Gangers will fly into view from the left and right sides of the screen while firing hails of bullets down at them. The goal is to kill as many enemies as possible while avoiding their instant-death touches and shots. The enemies themselves can also learn new attacks and formations over the course of the game.

In the two-player mode, lives are shared between players, so if one player is killed, it will indirectly kill the other one as well - and if either player had won the Armour shot powerup by killing a Bakuto (one of the sunglasses-wearing, ship-flying Cosmo Gangers), it will fly up into the air and the other player will have the chance to catch it before it falls off the bottom of the screen.