Hard Corps: Uprising is a side-scrolling arcade shooter in a sci-fi setting. The game takes place in 2613, when the entire world is under the rule of a powerful empire known as the Commonwealth, led by the power-hungry Tiberius. Ordinary residents suffer from such a dictatorship, so rebel organizations begin to appear everywhere, aiming to overthrow the sinister regime. One of these rebellious groups is led by Colonel Bahamut, once a soldier in the elite military unit of the empire, and now a militant oppositionist. His closest comrades in the fight are the orphaned girl Crystal, the experienced veteran Harley Daniels and the mysterious traveler Sayuri.