The game opens with a boss select screen, giving you the option to choose which of the "Robot Masters" you wish to take down first. Once you have selected a Robot Master you are teleported by Dr. Light to an approximation of the Robot Master's location. From there you must find your way to the Robot Master, along the way overcoming many traps, pitfalls and other obstacles. Once you defeat a Robot Master you gain its power, which can be used on other Robot Masters and follows a Rock, paper, scissors type effectiveness, where a rock attack would work better on a robot with scissors than one made of paper.