In the game, the player must simultaneously drive a bus and clear roads of alien potato beings.

The game tasks the player with navigating a bus through roads filled with alien potato beings.

Mission mode requires the player to clear out a set number of an alien species.

[5][6] Hot Potato garnered above mostly positive reception from critics; it received 66.42% and 74% ratings on review aggregate websites GameRankings and Metacritic respectively.

[2] The game's release at a $39.99 price in the United States was seen by some reviewers as being too expensive.

[1] Bob Tedeschi of The New York Times commented that Toys 'R' Us had originally chosen to not distribute Hot Potato, but began to stock the game after it looked like a big seller.