By July 1981, Midway had sold 2,500 "Rally-X" arcade machines, significantly less than the company's other releases at the time. Dick Pearson of "RePlay" highlighted its colorful visuals and sound effects in a preview from the tradeshow, comparing its gameplay favorably to "Pac-Man" and writing that it "shows promise as an entertaining maze video game". A writer for "Cash Box" provided similar comments, further applauding its scoring system and layer of strategy. In 1991, "Gamest" listed it as being a "masterpiece" alongside "New Rally-X", and believed its underwhelming critical and commercial reception was attributed to it being ahead of its time. Staff considered it a successor to "Head On", as well as being influential for the maze genre.