The game has a single player mode along with multiplayer support. Both modes can either be purchased separately or together. The game plays similarly to a lot of other third person shooters at the time, using a cover system and regenerating health (represented on the bottom screen of the 3ds with a heart rate counter as well as a colour, red signifying being close to death). You could reload more quickly and load extra ammo in your mag by pressing the reload button a second time, similar to Gears of War's active reload system.

The enemies are mostly metal robots, although they are referenced as aliens in the game. They all have names starting with dyx, such as dyxide.

The enemy types are:

- Standard enemies with assault rifles;

- Smaller flying enemies;

- Tankier enemies with shields that cover their fronts (but can be destroyed with bullets);

- Snipers with laser sights;

- Four legged slower tankier bots; and

- A big drilling worm.

The weapons the player can use are:

- An assault rifle;

- A pistol;

- An energy assault rifle;

- A rocket launcher; and

- A grenade launcher.

The player can choose between easy, normal and hard difficulties. The game autosaves frequently with various checkpoints.

Details on IronFall: Invasion were first shared on October 17, 2013 by Nintendo Everything.^[4] The game was shown as a tech demo on November 4, 2013.^[5][6]

On January 14, 2015, the game was revealed during a Nintendo Direct presentation and was confirmed to be out February 2015 as a free-to-start title for all Nintendo 3DS users, with enhanced support for the New Nintendo 3DS console.^[7] The free-to-start version allows players limited access to the multiplayer campaign, whilst only making the first map in the single-player campaign playable until a certain point. The game gives the player the choice to purchase the full version of each campaign independently, or both campaigns collectively.

Overall, Ironfall: Invasion received average reviews by critics, with an aggregate Metacritic score of 48/100.^[8]

In late March 2015, VD-Dev announced that the game had been downloaded 300,000 times.^[11]

On July 27, 2015, Jordan "Smealum" Rabet, the developer of the Cubic Ninja exploit, announced a new version of the homebrew exploit, with the same features. On July 31, Rabet confirmed that the game the exploit was found in was IronFall: Invasion.^[12] On August 11, Nintendo temporarily delisted the game off the Nintendo eShop, as to prevent the exploit from spreading further.^[13] Six days later, Rabet released his exploit. On October 13, IronFall: Invasion returned to the eShop with "Update Data", which prevents the exploit from being used. As of January 15, 2016, the exploit has been patched on system menu 10.4.0-29 which released the same day. When trying to load the game, the system does not allow users to launch the title until the software is updated, forcing users to download the patch, rendering the exploit unusable even if the older version of the game is available.^[14]

• Official website