Iridium is a retro styled 2D shoot 'em up, taking inspiration from: Uridium, Xenon 2 Mega Blast, Nemesis/Gradius and R-Type. Each game in its own right is considered a classic by many people and offered some very unique features including massive ships, upgrade shops, in-level upgrades and a multitude of weapons.
The game is a multidirectional shoot 'em up where the player is allowed free movement within each level. Unlike traditional 2D shoot 'em up games were the screen scrolls at a fixed rate the player can change speed and turn around in a similar manner to Uridium.