[2] The game was designed to build critical reading skills,[3] by applying speech rules to a real-world scenario.

[4] Reader Rabbit 3 is made up of five different activities that teach player's the structure of the English language.

[5] The Deluxe version contains 20 different digitized voices that add to the dramatization to the game.

[2] PC Mag reviewer Charles Taft wrote that the game was "fun to play", while praising its replayability (four levels of difficulty and multiple stories), as well as its "delightful" animations.

[6] The game was regarded as a winner in the book "Only the Best: The Annual Guide to the Highest-Rated Educational Software/Multimedia".