The record reflects California's interests in science fiction, Hawaii and The Urantia Book; among its songs are two collaborations with Kim Fowley and a cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", which was released as a single.

He added "there was a certain point I reached, while making that album, where I felt that there was a real cosmic type of all-involved great sound to it and then I changed it, y'know, 'cause people were telling me not to do this or not to do that – there were a lot of influences in it..."[8] The record was mastered by Wally Traugott.

[10] The album's disorientating sound is heightened by the use of sampled dialogue from pop culture detritus,[3][11] including excerpts of conversation from citizens band radio,[12] 'wireless' script and synchronised snatches of American television and movies,[11] such as taped snippets from Star Trek, which break up the record's melodies.

"[12] Lester wrote that California used science fiction "as a means to express his own altered state" and that the use of such themes was well-timed, as the record's release coincided with that of Star Wars and the then-current public demand for "all things interstellar".

He also contends that despite being "weird", the "bright and buoyant" album appeared on paper to be a commercial project, due to it being "a series of infectious pop songs" interlaced with snippets from Star Trek, at the time "the world's biggest TV sci-fi show".

[11] "So Happy Now" is a very short song with Beach Boys-style vocals and has been compared to "throwaway moments of bliss" from that group's "Magic Transistor Radio" (1973); it is followed by Spirit's heavy version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", a less faithful cover than California's earlier interpretations of "Hey Joe" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'".

[15] In a contemporary review for New Musical Express, Bell deemed Future Games to be Spirit's weirdest and most impenetrable release, featuring "a myriad of sound, effect and stone beauty in composition" that almost result in a 1970s equivalent to Hendrix's Electric Ladyland (1968).

He wrote that, unlike the "flashbacks" that constitute the previous two Spirit albums, Future Games is "solid window pane" that openly disregards standard rock techniques, which is why listeners do not "decipher the solos" or follow Cassidy's drumming, and concluded that: "Hearing is believing that Randy California has tripped out on his own genius.

"[20] Less favorably, Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone opined that Future Games deserved to be the "last freakout" by the "noble post-psychedelic" band and added: "The way some of these aging hippies hang around, it's not hard to see why they believe in reincarnation".

[21] Carol Clerk of the Gazette and Post stated that while Spirit were among the late 1960s' most important and innovative groups, they had become "a parody of their former selves", criticizing them for wasting their talents by delving deeper into psychedelia, a style she deemed to have "long gone", instead of "moving ahead and making what would probably be a worthwhile contribution to contemporary music."

Clerk believed "nostalgic hippies" would prefer Steve Hillage and dismissed the album for resembling what "the BBC sound effects department might dream up to accompany a film or play about the old days in Haight-Ashbury.

"[3] Lester states that as Future Games is composed of television and film samples, it is arguably "the first collage-pop album", predating Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981).

He also contends that, as an early 1977 release, Future Games "now seems incredibly punk", citing its short songs, succinct melodies, do-it-yourself ethos and extremely applied "notions of individualism and non-conformity", likening it sound to a fusion of the Ramones with the "spaced-out freakiness" of the Grateful Dead.