Jet Set Willy follows up Manic Miner with another platform game. Matthew Smith has struck it lucky in the first game, and now Willy owns a large mansion that needs to be tidied before his housekeeper will let him sleep.
The rooms in the mansion can be freely explored from the start, but each one has its own dangers, such as spikes, monsters, and ropes. If Willy touches a monster or falls off a height, he loses a life and starts again at the entrance of the room.
The aim is to navigate through the house carefully, using the multiple entrances and exits to your advantage. A new feature in this game is manual protection - a colour-coded sheet that can be used to keep track of which rooms have been visited.