In Sea Hawk you begin the game with eight Sea Hawk fighter planes, each of which are equipped with a machine gun and an unlimited supply of torpedoes. The action in this air-sea battle scrolls to the left and the right, and you can fly in all directions. Your job is to shoot down E-Gull helicopters and destroy AtakLaunch ships. Watch out where you drop the torpedoes, because your own Red Hawk aircraft carriers share the ocean with the enemy ships. If you bomb one of the aircraft carriers, you lose points.
If you are taken down by an E-Gull or an AtakLaunch ship, you can parachute to safety. If you land in the ocean or on an enemy vessel, you die, but if you can manage to maneuver to one of the aircraft carriers, your life will be spared. For every 20 E-Gull helicopters you destroy, you will get an extra plane.
You can play Sea Hawk in a fast or slow mode, and there are also three difficulty levels to choose from. In the first level, only one helicopter will appear in the skies. In level two, a couple of helicopters will appear simultaneously, and in the third level of play, three helicopters will come after you. If you are in either the first or second level, you will advance to the next level when you score 10,000 points.