Like most shooters, Aero Fighters 2 presents gamers with immediately graspable gameplay and hordes of enemy vehicles of various types and sizes to shoot down. Like most shooters, Aero Fighters 2 does not make a serious attempt to justify the wholesale destruction with a plot of any significance.
Players can choose from one of eight selectable jet fighters to progress through the game's ten successive stages. Each fighter is associated with a distinctive pilot (in one case a pair of pilots), and each pilot has a unique set of dialogue in between-mission scenes. The selectable fighters include the F-117, A-10, F-14, F-15, FXS, YF-23, FRS.2 and the Rafale.
During the course of each stage, players destroy certain types of enemy units and buildings to uncover either power-ups or extra bombs. Power-ups will increase the jet's shooting ability, and each extra bomb gives the jet an additional special attack. Each of the eight jets has unique shooting ability upgrade paths and special attacks.
Aero Fighters 2 has air, sea, and ground enemies. The developers chose to allow the basic shooting attack to target and hit all these enemy types, thus there is no need for a special ground attack like other shooters have, although, buildings and structures in the background can be shot and destroyed. In addition to the power-ups and bombs, sometimes destroyed buildings and enemy units will yield money, which contributes to the player's score. At the end of every level, a large, multi-part boss awaits, which players must defeat to advance.