Taking the form of a side-scrolling beat-'em-up, in the SNES and Genesis version players have a strict time limit to defeat each level of the game.

[7][8] Rich Robinson, executive producer at Sony Imagesoft, oversaw the filming of Last Action Hero as well as the development of the game adaptation, to ensure consistency between the two.

The Sega CD version was in development by a team of 11 people, led by producer Steve Riding of Psygnosis.

Regarding the lack of weapons in the game, Riding stated that the film's star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, "feels that if children are constantly subjected to these violent images on the screen, they will identify with the violence and project it through to their real lives."

[4][10] The Amiga version was to include a multiplayer option in which a second player could play as Jack Slater's daughter Whitney or as an animated cat police officer, both of whom appeared in the film.

[16] The One Amiga criticized the repetitive gameplay and background scenery, and called it "without a shadow of a doubt, the worst game ever."

The magazine also considered the gameplay simplistic, writing that enemies could be "easily dispatched by simply sidling up to them and holding down the fire button," sending the player into a "punch-frenzy".

[8] Stuart Campbell of Amiga Power had the same complaints about repetitive scenery and the use of the fire button to easily dispatch enemies.

[17] In later reviews for the website AllGame, Brett Alan Weiss heavily criticized the Genesis and SNES versions, believing they were rushed through development in order to capitalize on the film.