IGN said that "Hotel Mario" was better than "The Legend of Zelda" titles, but noted that closing doors was not "a strong enough hook for an entire game." Chris Kohler of "Wired" magazine saw "Hotel Mario" as "a puzzle game with no puzzles", assuming it was one of the reasons why Nintendo was not impressed by the CD-ROM medium. The game was referred to as "craptastic" by GamesRadar and "little more than a really rubbish version of "Elevator Action"" by Eurogamer.