At the player's disposal to fight the approaching enemies, some of them made in pseudo-depth 2.5D graphics with scaled sprites, is a small space fighter capable of firing two types of projectiles: the unlimited but slow rockets and the fast laser shots that are limited by draining the ship's power.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Sky Fox on their April 1, 1987 issue as being the twelfth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

"[5] Commodore User, however, refused to even score this "slickly-executed" but "otherwise boring game", accusing its "warped idot [sic]" creators of promoting sexual assault due to in their opinion "tasteless", "highly objectionable" and "offensive" stage featuring a group of female enemies who are only vulnerable when they open up their cloaks "and expose their sparsely-clad bodies in the spreadeagle position.

The reviewer described it as an act to "humiliate and belittle women in the most violent, degrading way, by subjecting them to sexual violence," and implied this "cheap 'n' nasty" game's "presence in arcades" to be "dangerous" for British society.

[8] According to a retrospective review in Retro Gamer, when compared to much of Jaleco's other arcade titles, Sky Fox "can be seen as a bit of diamond in the rough, as it's a nicely presented little-known vertical shooter that plays like a mixture of Galaxian and Space Harrier."