The story of StarHawk is about an evil alien race which wants to conquer everything. The player controls a space ship in the all-important quest to kill them all. This is horizontally scrolling shooter in which the space ship moves from left to right while facing enemy formations. Each hit or contact with the environment means instant death, but as long as there are lives left the ship comes back right away. Power ups either upgrade the weapon system or give an extra life. There are five levels with one boss each and two difficulty levels.