According to Metacritic, "Paperboy: Special Delivery" has a score of 55 out of 100, indicating "Mixed or average reviews." Blake Patterson of "TouchArcade" considered "Paperboy: Special Delivery" to be an improvement over Elite's iPhone version, praising the improved controls and graphics. Jon Mundy of "Pocket Gamer" rated the game 5 out of 10, criticizing the gameplay and controls, and writing that the biggest flaw "is the game's technical shortcomings. The graphics are extremely basic and yet the game paused and stuttered repeatedly on my second-generation iPod touch." Andrew Nesvadba of AppSpy rated the game 3 out of 5, praising the updated graphics while criticizing the controls. Nesvadba also praised the addition of a story mode, but criticized its short length. Jeremiah Leif Johnson of Gamezebo gave the game three stars out of five, praising the story mode and the 1980s-style graphics, but criticizing the poor controls.