The Virtual Boy's standard red-and-black color scheme resulted in criticism of this and other games on the platform for causing nausea, headaches, and eye strain.

[4] The Cosmic table features a cameo from Metroid where players control protagonist Samus Aran's ship.

[1] Like all Virtual Boy games, Galactic Pinball uses a red-and-black color scheme and parallax visuals to simulate three-dimensional depth.

"[11] On release, Weekly Famicom Tsūshin scored the game a 24 out of 40,[12] while GamePro reviewer Slo Mo praised the diversity of tables, responsive controls, and innovative 3D stage design.

[13] Writer Jeremy Parish called it a quality pinball game for its time and felt that it would have been a better pack-in title than Mario's Tennis.

[5] Retro Gamer's Nick Thorpe felt that it was less popular than other Virtual Boy games, but deserved to be played.

[20] Outlets such as Electronic Entertainment and Nintendo Power praised the 3D design, the latter voting it the fourth best Virtual Boy game of 1995 due in part to the limited use of 3D.

[23] PC Magazine's Benj Edwards included it among his list of seven "forgotten Nintendo Virtual Boy classics."

[24] A writer for Electronic Gaming Monthly found the level design excellent but that the flippers were too slow to respond.

[25] Kill Screen writer Jon Irwin similarly criticized its physics, stating that slowdown occurred whenever the puck approached the flippers.