On its way from the Delta Tau Galaxy back to earth, the interstellar spaceship Irata enters the Zarkow system where they are to replenish their water and food supplies.

The settlers inform the captain that the Targoid insect people have installed 8 powerful reactors in Zarkow's network of caverns to exploit the planet's supplies of energy and raw materials.

A hand picked team consisting of the spaceship's five best pilots is chosen to break through the security system and disable the reactors.

[4][5] The gameplay of Fly Harder follows in the footsteps of gravity-based shoot 'em up games, like Gravitar and Thrust, where the player pilots a spaceship that is constantly subject to gravity and the craft's inertia.

The players have to rotate the spaceship, thrust its engines and fire its weapons in order to shoot down enemies and navigate their way through the 8 stages of the game.

Their review praised the game's methodical gameplay and graphics, but warned the players about its steep learning curve by noticing that "it's practically impossible to play for the first hour or so".

[6] Amiga Format reached the same conclusion and gave the game a score of 87% arguing that "after the initial shock of crushing 40 times on the trot, Fly Harder becomes extremely addictive".