Title screen and Robot Master selection screen
When you start up the game, you will have to press 
to begin. You will then reach the Robot Master selection screen. You can switch between Robot Masters by pressing 
or 
. To select a stage, press 
or .
Game flow
Over the course of the game, Mega Man will fight the six Robot Masters in their own habitat, in an order of his choosing. After this, he can attack Dr. Wily, who has a four-part stage.
The first six stages (Robot Masters) can be attacked in any order:
| Cut Man | Guts Man | |||
| Elec Man | Ice Man | |||
| Fire Man | Bomb Man |
The trick to choosing which order to tackle them in is understanding that every Robot Master has a particular weakness to another Robot Master's weapon. If you are playing the game for the first time and do not wish to have this strategy spoiled for you, the walkthrough will not reveal a Robot Master's weakness unless you choose to view it. The first time you play, you will not have any idea which robot to start with, and which robot to visit next. The best strategy is to try every weapon available to you when you arrive at the fight with a boss, and make note of the weapons which do the most damage to that boss. Then try playing the game again with the knowledge you've acquired until you determine the most effective order to take on each stage. The Table of Contents lists the robots in alphabetical order rather than a suggested order for fighting them.
After defeating the first six Robot Masters, you can select to attack Dr. Wily. Dr. Wily's stage has four parts. You do NOT get weapon energy recharges after beating one of the following stages.
- Dr. Wily Part 1 - The front gates to Wily's castle are guarded by Big Eyes (large, jumping enemies) and the flying platforms from Iceman's stage. Later on you need the Magnet Beam to progress. At the end is Yellow Devil, who disassembles himself into chunks that fly at Mega Man.
- Dr. Wily Part 2 - The roof of Wily's castle, where lots of precarious platform jumping takes place. Cutman and Elecman also make a repeat appearance. At the end is the Clone Machine, which creates a Copy Robot that can use any of Mega Man's weapons.
- Dr. Wily Part 3 - The plumbing of Wily's castle, this is a very short level. Near the end Mega Man gets flushed down a long pipe under intense water pressure. After all that is CWU-01P, a robot encased in a large bubble that rotates around the room and is difficult to dodge. The Super Arm works well on them, but you have only four blocks, and seven incarnations of CWU-01P to dispatch.
- Dr. Wily Part 4 - The depths of Wily's castle. This is another short level, but a lot takes place here. You have to fight Bombman, Fireman, Iceman, and Gutsman, one after the other. Then you have to defeat two forms of the Wily Machine. Don't miss the Yashichi, which refills all weapon and player energy to maximum before the quadruple-Robot Master steel-cage matchup.
- Ice Man: weak to Elec Man's weapon, Thunder Beam. Easy to beat with the arm cannon.
- Fire Man: weak to Ice Man's weapon, Ice Slasher.
- Bomb Man: weak to Fire Man's weapon, Fire Storm.
- Guts Man: weak to Bomb Man's weapon, Hyper Bomb.
- Cut Man: weak to Guts Man's weapon, Super Arm. Slightly weak to Fire Man's weapon.
- Elec Man: weak to Cut Man's weapon, Rolling Cutter.
- Yellow Devil (sludge/rock robot): weak to Thunder Beam (7 hits), the Rolling Cutter, Fire Storm, and even the regular Mega Buster (14 hits).
- Mega Clone: Fire Storm or Thunder Beam.
- CWU-01P (bubble robots): Mega Buster on the first three, then Super Arm to defeat the last four, each with one hit.
- Dr. Wily: Fire Storm for phase 1 and Rolling Cutter or Thunder Beam for phase 2.