The reviewer for "Next Generation" saw significant promise in "Red Alarm", and believed that its elements should add up to "a fantastic game"; but the writer panned the final product as a wasted opportunity. Similarly, Danny Wallace of "Total!" wrote, "On the one hand, it's a pretty impressive 3D spacey shoot-em-up, with a real grip on the Virtual world and all those fancy techniques, and on the other it's an often visually confusing, headache-inducing attempt at being something it's quite obviously not." However, Dave Halverson of "DieHard GameFan" called "Red Alarm" "a great shooter" with excellent graphics. Co-reviewer Nicholas Barres hailed it as a "masterpiece", and he considered it to be "the one and only reason to buy a Virtual Boy".