198X received a score of 65 on Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Writing for Nintendo Life, Damien McFerren gave the game 8/10 stars, stating that while 198X had an "exceptional" soundtrack and cited Out of the Void as "perhaps the highlight of the entire game", he found the game to be too short, with McFerren able to breeze through the entirety of 198X in "around an hour". He also bemoaned the lack of replayability in the mini-games, which he found little point in returning to "outside of boosting your high score".
