Each Constellation Droid has taken up residence in a certain part of Africa, Asia, or Europe. Mega Man and the rest of the team must make their way to these locations in order to deal with the Droids, and the Robot Masters that Dr. Wily has sent to accompany and support them.
When a character's turn comes up, they can do one of several things:
Move: They can move a certain number of squares, but only over certain terrain. Flying characters are more mobile than terrain-bound characters, of course.
Attack: They can attack or use a special-move. This only works if an enemy or ally is nearby. If they choose to attack an enemy, they enter combat for a period of 30 seconds, and either they die, the enemy dies, or time runs out. During combat, they can attack regularly, use special attacks, use an item, defend, or run away (if allowed). The "special-move" feature depends on the character. For Mega Man, this allows him to change his color (this will be discussed later on).
Data Management: From here they can save the game, load a save file, or quit.
Options: From here they can access the Options Menu, and change features such as text-speed and sound mode.
Heal/Change Direction: This option is very important. It allows the character to heal (while also changing the direction they are facing). It is a good way to end a turn.
The game is played in "active time" and, as such, each character has an "active time" bar (a green bar) that fills up slowly after each turn. Once this bar is fully filled it is their turn again. The same is true for each enemy character and Robot Master: they get a turn and also have a green bar which is filling up along with the player's characters.
