Falcon Patrol is rather like a cross between Zaxxon, Scramble and Defender. So like Defender, the top of the screen is dedicated to a radar scanner that warns what it up ahead. Like Zaxxon, there is a scrolling screen 3D landscape and like Scramble there are things on the ground to hit. You are supplied with 100 missiles and, as you cross the landscape, three different types of helicopter attack you. Fast and manoeuvrable solo fighters, bigger gunships and the transporters that drop nasty things like Flack Bombs and Radar Jammers.

The graphics are good but really they're only decoration because the ship only moves in 2D. Nevertheless, they are very smooth and as fast as is necessary. Once the controls have been mastered, the game becomes quite frantic and it is at this stage that it becomes enjoyable. That is, once you have mastered the controls. This is no mean feat because the controls don't self-cancel! - this is to say, if you press to go down the ship keeps going down until you tell it to go up, thus altitude is very difficult and cruising along happily bombing things a la Scramble is out!