Tyrian is an arcade-style shooter game that follows the classic concept of top-to-bottom scrolling. The player(s) control a space ship that can be fitted with different weapons and enhanced energy shields. During the course of gameplay money is earned by destroying enemies and grabbing bonuses. Once acquired the money is used to buy weapons, other equipment, and more ships from interlevel menus. The game is fast paced and presents a variety of enemies and bosses.

The main mode is single player. This mode also includes storyline-related messages for the player to read. The player begins with one standard weapon, but throughout the game he/she can pick up or buy a large variation of weapons, which include weapons such as multi-directional cannon, lightning guns, beam lasers, heavy missiles, homing bombs, powerful atom bombs, and mini-missiles. Additionally, the player can purchase up to two "sidekicks" which fly alongside the ship and can fire independently (although they are still controlled by the player and not the AI). In arcade mode, the player picks up weapons and power-ups along the way, instead of by earning and spending money. There are several levels of difficulty to choose from. In the two player games, the players control two different ships that can be combined into one, with the first player controlling the combined ship, and the second player controlling a turret. The game also features seven hidden Super Arcade modes (with specialised ships), requiring the user to type in certain codewords which are shown after beating the game. (The first code is given by beating the regular game, and each consecutive code is given after beating the modes which comes after it.)