Total Eclipse

The game is played in a third-person perspective as the player's ship flies across each stage. The player is free to accelerate, decelerate, and maneuver around to dodge obstacles and attack enemies, but the course for each stage is fixed.

Rather than space, the player's ship flies over planetary surfaces and through tunnels. On the surface, the player flies over 3D heightmapped terrain, avoiding mountains and obstacles. In tunnels, the player avoids mechanical traps such as large moving doors and twisting passageways. The exit of the tunnel appears later on the surface of the same stage, so the player may miss a power-up (or a challenge) on the surface by taking a tunnel and vice versa.

Earth is attacked by an aggressive alien race known as the Drak-Sai. The aliens use their powerful weapon, the Sun Dagger, to initiate a supernova in the sun. The player must pilot their ship across four planets and ultimately destroy the Sun Dagger to prevent further destruction.

Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the graphics of the 3DO version, but criticized that the controls are too sensitive, the music is inappropriate for the theme of some stages, and that the hit detection is overly punishing. GamePro were held in similar awe of the graphics in the 3DO version and found little to complain about with the gameplay, concluding, "Total Eclipse blasts off into familiar fighting space ways, but the graphic look of this cool shooter is truly out of this world."

Reviews for the PlayStation version were less positive, as critics commented that despite the "Turbo" in the title, the PlayStation version made almost no changes to the by-then over a year old game. Bob Mackey of USgamer listed Total Eclipse Turbo as one of the worst launch games for the PlayStation.