Choplifter is military themed scrolling shooter where you play as a pilot. Take off from your home base and fly across a horizontally-scrolling playfield of rugged terrain to reach the enemy Bungelings' barracks. There, you must land and rescue a group of helpless hostages and return then to your base. To hinder your mission, the enemy will attack with an array of armaments including tanks, jets, and dangerous air mines. To complete a perfect game, you must rescue all of the 64 hostages.