Only a few copies were produced. As a result of the mislabeling by Atari's marketing department (see "Development"), "Next Generation" reviewed a preview copy of the game, and said it had "some of the worst execution and gameplay yet." The reviewer particularly mentioned the crude, clunky movements of the characters, which he likened to that of the toy Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Upon the game's release "Next Generation" reviewed it again, but was only slightly more positive about the release version. The reviewer judged "Fight for Life" to be an effectively next generation fighter, saying the texture-mapped polygonal characters are detailed, the animation is smooth, and the true 3D movement and defense system are innovative. However, he concluded that the slow responsiveness of the controls and the extremely slow pace override these assets, since they make the game boring to play. The three reviewers of "GameFan" panned the game, heavily criticizing its graphics, camera, music, and gameplay. Dave Halverson concluded, "What an appropriate send-off for the Jag. A terrible system's terrible last hurrah". In a retrospective review, Kyle Knight of "Allgame" also found "Fight for Life"s crippling flaw to be its slow controls and pace, speculating that "You could almost read a book while playing, and glance at the screen every so often to keep track of what's going on". However, he also described the graphics as having minimal detail and the animation as awkward. Noting the move-stealing feature to be its one positive quality, he summarized the game as "one of the poorest examples of 3D fighter you'll find anywhere". On April 18, 1996, the game's trademark was abandoned. "Electronic Gaming Monthly"s Seanbaby put it as number 3 in his "20 worst games of all time" feature. Years after its release, the game's source code would be released by Jaguar Sector II under a CD compilation for PC titled "Jaguar Source Code Collection" on August 24, 2008.