Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" wrote: "Is there anything more tiresome than watching people play video games?" and "The competition is so vicious because the stakes are so low." However, all thirty-one Rotten Tomatoes “Top Critics” who reviewed the film upon its release praised it—often effusively—except for Hornaday. Several years later, Stephen Garrett of "Time Out New York" called it "moderately entertaining and ultimately kind of pathetic" and felt the early-1980s arcade subculture is explored in greater depth in the documentary "".