Dr. Wily has failed in his first two attempts at taking over the world. In this, his third attempt, he has built 8 new robots. These eight robots are; Spark Man, Snake Man, Needle Man, Hard Man, Top Man, Gemini Man, Magnet Man, and Shadow Man.

Mega Man must traverse through each of these stages. Each stage has graphics and enemies that go with the boss robot master at the end of the stage. For example, Gemini Man, for example, takes place in a space-like atmosphere.

Mega Man may go through these eight stages in any order he pleases, but there are suggested orders to go through. Each expert has a different order that he or she likes to go through the stages in.

After these eight bosses, he must then go through a revisited portion. These four stages have two bosses from Mega Man 2. The four revisited stages are Spark Man, Needle Man, Shadow Man, and Gemini Man. These stages are more difficult than the first eight stages. You do not receive these weapons though. Once you escape this, you fight Break Man. Then you go into Dr. Willy's Castle. Again, in one of the stages, you must fight the eight new bosses again.

You have a life bar with 28 units. Each enemy when you get hit takes off a different amount of health. When you reach zero units you die and go back to the beginning, the halfway point of the stage, or between the gates of the robot master. Falling into pits or touching spikes result in instant death

This is really a fun game and doesn't necessarily require a player to have played the first games to get the story. I enjoy this game. New to this game is a slide feature and a robot dog rush.. You slide by pressing down and A. Also this game has special secrets. You get different upgrades for Rush for defeating certain stages.

Again, you have great replay value in trying different orders to go through the first eight stages in before getting to the four revisited stages. The graphics are excellent for an eight bit game. The play control is great. Each stage has a different tune so you don't have the same background music throughout the whole game. You can continue with a password. Unlike the first game, this game doesn't require you to play straight through in one sitting. A turbo controller isn't necessary. If you haven't played this game, I highly recommend it.