The CD and digital version were released in Hong Kong on the same day, and was made available for purchase on February 27 in South Korea.

received mostly positive reviews from music critics – AllMusic's Heather Phares praised the album as showcasing the group's musical strengths, while Billboard's Jeff Benjamin positively viewed the EP as a more "impressive" release compared to the group's previous album I Got a Boy (2013).

[2][4] "Wait a Minute" was described as a "bouncy" jazz-pop track with "beautiful [harmonizations]",[5] and "Back Hug" (Korean: 백허그) features a "simple, snappy" R&B production.

[2] The original version was used as the theme song on commercials for the Korean MMORPG video game, Blade & Soul, in Chinese-language markets across Asia.

[7][8] The title track served as the EP's lead single and it was released to South Korean mainstream radio on February 25, 2014.

[9] To promote the EP, Girls' Generation appeared on several South Korean music programs, the first being Mnet's M Countdown, where they performed "Mr.Mr."

Heather Phares from AllMusic labelled the EP "a set of songs that offers something for every kind of Girls' Generation and expands their musical reach."

[4] Writing for Billboard, Jeff Benjamin named the six songs of the EP "strong" and called it a more "impressive effort" compared to the group's 2013 album I Got a Boy.

He also deemed the track list "a tight bundle of songs that still see the group dipping and experimenting into new sonic territory, but possibly more focused than ever.

"[2] Benjamin also wrote an article for Fuse, on which he complimented the album's musical styles as "short, sweet, but strong.

[13] On the other hand, Kim Do-heon from online magazine IZM compared the EP to the group's 2011 album The Boys for its "balance of musical competence and appeal to mass popularity", but found the songs to be inadequate.

By doing so, the EP became Girls' Generation's highest-charting release on the Billboard 200 following subgroup TTS's Twinkle, which charted at number 126 in 2012.