The player achieves this by bouncing the ball off Mario's platform and hitting various targets, the destruction of which also earns points.

Catching her on Mario's platform earns bonus points, but allowing her to hit the ground causes the player to lose.

German magazine Power Play said that although the game was fun, it was not worth its price at the time, and thought it should be cheaper.

[6] Corbie Dillard from Nintendo Life reviewed it in 2006, stating that for 500 Wii Points, "you'd be hard-pressed to find a better game for those times when you just need a quick and simple pinball fix without a lot of bells & whistles".

[4] In Japan, Game Machine listed VS. Pinball in its October 1, 1984 issue as being the twenty-fourth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.