"GameSpot" said, "What is most frustrating about "Skullmonkeys" is that it just wears you down after a while." "Next Generation" said, "As a concept, "Skullmonkeys" works. But in practice, the idea has been squeezed into a monotonous series of simplistic levels that drone on and on with little variation between them. [...] If this started out as either a nostalgic tribute to great 2D platformers of old or as a parody of cliched gameplay conventions, it fails on both accounts, simply because the game hasn't been constructed solidly enough to keep the gamer's attention in order to prove either point." In Japan, where the game was ported and published by Riverhillsoft under the name of on August 13, 1998, "Famitsu" gave it a score of 26 out of 40.