Master of Magic was inducted into GameSpy's Hall of Fame in 2000, with the network describing it as a visually stunning game with "enduring replayability", due to its randomness and large variety of spells. GameSpy credited the game with being more popular than Master of Orion and responsible for making Steve Barcia and Simtex household names. Computer Gaming World inducted Master of Magic into its Hall of Fame in 2005. The game has been referenced as a representative product of MicroProse in gaming reviews. The writer Alan Emrich, responsible for coining the "4X genre" term, has placed Master of Magic in the top position on his "Games of All Time" list in 2001.
