Zoom 909

The game takes place in a pseudo-3D playfield, with the player's ship seen from behind as if it is flying into the screen. Enemies appear both in front of the player flying toward them, as well as behind flying past them and then typically turning around to attack again. The game is separated into sections in which a certain number of enemies have to be killed to advance, the remaining number shown as a bar graph in a fashion similar to Time Pilot. A second bar shows a timer that counts down at a steady rate; any time left in the bar becomes a bonus score when the section ends.

The first section takes place in a trench reminiscent of the final attack on the Death Star in Star Wars. Enemies in the form of spaceships and hopping robots appear in the distance and approach the player, attempting to collide with them. The action then moves into sections in space, over a planet where the player has to fly between upright pylons, back to the trench, and other levels. This progression ends with a boss fight against a large ship where the player has to destroy the enemy's four engines while it launches attacking craft. The pattern of levels repeats after this.

In the United States, it was among the thirteen highest-grossing arcade games of 1983. In Japan, Game Machine listed it as the thirteenth most successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of May 1985.

The arcade game received positive reviews from critics. American magazine Video Games gave it a highly positive review following its AMOA 1982 debut, calling it the second best game of the show. They called it a "gorgeous, 3-D game that deserves the" moniker "Space Turbo" with "high-quality graphics" and "fast and furious" action.

Planet of Zoom influenced Sega's Space Harrier (1985), which in turn influenced Nintendo's Star Fox (1993).