Zarlor Mercenary is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up in which the player controls a spacecraft destroying enemy spaceships and buildings in order to earn money which can be used to buy upgrades between levels.

[1] Ship health is displayed on the right as a vertical green bar, this will deplete to yellow and flash red when near destruction.

Invisibility so you can hide from other players and Back stabber which will attack your allied friends and not the enemy as well as protecting your loot so you don't lose it in that life.

[6][7] In Computer and Video Games, Paul Glancey called Zarlor Mercenary "a decent-looking shoot 'em up, but quite difficult and not overly exciting to play.

"[10] Clayton Walnum wrote in STart, "As you struggle to destroy the attacking aliens and blast the ground targets, you'll begin to understand what people mean by the term 'control pad ache'.

"[13] In a 1999 retrospective review, Robert Jung of IGN stated "A great no-nonsense action game, perfect for people who love the 'shoot it if it exists' philosophy.

[11] In July 2013 GamesRadar's Jeff Dunn wrote that Zarlor Mercenary along with Blue Lightning were the "obscure but excellent games" for the Lynx.