Along with some help from his old friends, Mega Man finds potential allies in the mysterious robot pair Bass and Treble, who are later revealed to be in league with Wily.

In terms of gameplay, Mega Man 7 follows the same classic action and platforming play style introduced in the 8-bit NES titles, but updates the graphics and sound of the series for the more powerful SNES.

Upon driving into the city with Roll and Auto, he sees that it is in ruins, and that he is too late to stop Wily's Robot Masters from liberating the evil scientist.

Mega Man defeats the remaining Robot Masters and goes back home, learning upon arriving that Bass had gone berserk and had torn up the lab, escaping with parts for new enhancements Dr. Light was working on.

The player, as Mega Man, must complete a series of side-scrolling platform levels that typically end in a boss battle with a Robot Master.

[8][9] Certain stages contain the letters "R-U-S-H", which, when collected, will grant the player access to the "Rush Super Adaptor", a combination of the two enhancements introduced in Mega Man 6 with a powerful rocket-arm attack and jetpack for flying short distances.

[6][10] Defeated enemies found throughout each stage can give the player extra lives, items which refill health and weapon power, and special bolts.

The player can visit "Eddie's Cybernetic Support Shop" from the stage select screen, which is run by Dr. Light's new lab assistant, Auto, and where these bolts can be spent on items and power-ups, a feature that originally debuted in the Game Boy Mega Man titles.

In the mode, two players can control Mega Man or Bass in a fighting arena, where the goal is to defeat one another, similar to Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise.

[2][15] The franchise's primary artist Keiji Inafune felt that due to the team's high motivation during that time, it was a very fun experience for him personally.

[2] As with many other games in the series, the eight Robot Masters featured in Mega Man 7 are the product of design contests held for fans by Capcom in Japan.

[2] In addition, Inafune wanted to include a hidden boss battle mode and recommended the idea to Tsuda, who discussed the matter privately with the game's playtester.

Just one week before the game went into its beta stage, the team decided to include this mode on the conditions that Mega Man and Bass be the only playable characters and that it would have no bugs.

[18] Gregory Ballard, the president of Capcom's North American division, admitted the company was too conservative in shipping copies of Mega Man 7 when it launched in the region in September.

[20][21] A CD soundtrack for Mega Man 7 containing 37 pieces of music was published for the first time in Japan by Team Entertainment on November 21, 2007 amidst the franchise's 20th anniversary.

A large amount of criticism arose from the game's alleged failure to bring anything new to an already aging series, with some considering it inferior to Mega Man X, which Capcom had released on the SNES more than a year prior.

[3][12][23][24][28][30] Tony Mott of Super Play found the game to lack improvement over its 8-bit counterparts in gameplay, stating that the level layouts are "muted and appear regular when compared to the X series".

"[8] Lucas M. Thomas of IGN described the introduction of Mega Man's rival Bass as the seventh installment's most important contribution to the franchise.