Upon release, Deluxe received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the faithfulness of the translation of Super Mario Bros. to the Game Boy Color and the additional gameplay features and modes, with minor criticism directed at the gameplay effects of the smaller screen size compared to the NES.

Upon completion, Toad will provide the player with a rating based on their performance in reaching a threshold score, collecting the five red coins in a stage, and discovering the hidden Yoshi.

[2][5] The main addition is the ability to play Super Mario Bros. 2 when the player reaches a minimum score of 300,000 points in the original mode.

[7][8] Deluxe was Suzuki's directorial debut, with Nintendo assigning his team to recreate Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Game Boy Color, along with a few additional features.

The team worked closely with Shigeru Miyamoto and Toshihiko Nakago, the designer and programmer of the original game.

[11][12][13] In Japan, Deluxe did not receive a commercial release but was distributed starting March 1, 2000,[14] on Nintendo Power kiosks in Lawson stores, where consumers could have the game copied onto a memory cartridge.

[17] According to NPD sales charts, Deluxe ranked as the fourteenth best-selling video game on all platforms in the United States in 2000.

[22] Describing Deluxe as the "killer app" for the Game Boy Color, Cameron Davis of GameSpot wrote that Nintendo had "pulled out the stops" to deliver rewards and "cool diversions" for players.

He gave special mention to the versus mode, describing it as a "cool use" of the original engine and "worth the purchase of another cartridge just for this feature alone".

Colin Williamson of Allgame considered the adjustment of the screen when jumping was a "major pain" when facing vertical platforms or enemies such as Lakitu.

[32] Chris Scullion of Official Nintendo Magazine similarly expressed that Deluxe was the "definitive version" of the original game, and surpassed its quality.

[10] In describing Super Mario Bros. as the fourth-best Mario Bros. title of all time, Chris Tapsell of Eurogamer noted that Deluxe warranted "special mention" for its additions to the original game including the challenge mode and world map, considering it to be a better version to the original game.