Iron Man VR is an aerial shooter played from a first-person perspective, taking place across various global locales as Iron Man attempts to thwart his enemy Ghost and the various combat drones she employs to bring ruin to Tony Stark and his company. As a virtual reality game, it is played from a first-person perspective, employing the use of one PlayStation Movecontroller in each of the player's hands to allow control of Iron Man's palm-mounted repulsor weapons and flight stabilizers. Based on hand and head positioning of the PlayStation VR headset and Move controllers, the player can freely fly around the game's various environments in order to attack combat drones while also interacting with elements of the game map in order to do things like deactivate explosives, repair broken items or put out fires.
Environments can be navigated freely as opposed to employing elements of rail shooting, with the player in total control of roaming each game map by use of the Iron Man armor. The player uses the weapon systems of the armor including the repulsors and various auxiliary weapons (such as small missiles or larger-scale explosives) to defeat enemies, and can also employ melee attacks that are given additional power through the use of the armor's jet propulsion systems. Successful completion of missions earns the player up to five "research points" based on their received score-based star rating, which can then be used to purchase upgrades to the Iron Man armor that can be crafted and installed in Tony Stark's garage between missions. The upgrades can augment the capabilities of the Iron Man armor while also adding new auxiliary weapons that have different effectiveness in different combat scenarios, and the player can create and choose between two different armor loadouts while in the garage featuring different upgrades and armor shaders ("decos").
Cutscenes which progress the story are also presented from the first-person perspective, allowing the player to interact with objects and look around freely while story material is taking place around them. Challenge modes consist of racing and combat-based exercises taking place through the game's pre-existing environments, giving the player an additional opportunity to earn research points they can use to upgrade the armor.