Lunar Lander is a space exploration game based around three separate stages:

Lift-off: Fly your space shuttle into outer space by following the guidance arrows displayed on the screen. If you don't centre the shuttle according to the signs, your progress is slowed down and you will run out of fuel before leaving Earth's gravitation. You must also keep an eye on your compressor, since it must be constantly at a high level for the rockets to boost sufficiently. Feeding the compressor too much will deplete your fuel, though, so everything must be balanced for the lift-off to be successful.

Landing: This stage is very similar to the old Lunar Lander type of game that was popular in the early eighties. From a map of the moon, you select one of eight landing sites. On the landing screen, you must carefully guide your lander through the cave-like craters to the landing pads. Different landing pads are worth different amounts of points, according to level of difficulty. Preserving your lander's fuel will also give bonus points. Unlike most typical Lander games, your craft has no rockets for going left or right – instead you must rotate your lander and ignite the single landing rocket in order to adjust your angle. There are also meteorites to watch out for.

Exploration: Once you have landed, an astronaut steps out on the surface, armed with a metal detector. Your task here is to find five different kinds of metal ore and bring them to the lander before you run out of air or time. The metal detector beeps with different frequencies according to your vicinity to a piece of metal. If there is a constant beep, you drill for the metal. If you drill elsewhere, you may find flowers that replenish your air supply. To complicate things, the moon surface is filled with robots that try to hunt you down. Contact with a robot wears down your air supply.

After you have landed and explored all eight areas, your mission is completed and you proceed to the next one, which is more of the same.