The main object of the game is to move two paddles that ricochet a ball which flies around and needs to hit the colored bricks above it.

[5] The success of Namco's later release Galaxian, a revolutionary shooting game, is believed to have contributed to its failure.

[6] Retrospectively in 1998, Earl Green of AllGame said that outside a few minor differences, Bomb Bee was largely the same as its predecessor.

[4] In his blog Before Mario, Erik Voskuel says that Bomb Bee marks the first collaboration between Namco and Nintendo, two developers that would work together on many more titles, making it a historically-significant game.

Voskuel also says that Bomb Bee is notable for being the first appearance of a third-party title on a Nintendo console, and being among Iwatani's earliest creations before Pac-Man.