From 15 June 2015 to 23 June 2015, a beta preview of "Runbow" was released on the Nintendo eShop along with 8 other "Nindie" titles. On 11 April 2016, 13AM Games revealed via Nintendo Life a wealth of new additional downloadable content released on 14 April, which includes themed packs that come with new costumes and music, a complimentary addition of guest playable character Lilac from "Freedom Planet", and a 48-level story expansion called "Satura's Space Adventure". During E3 2016, 13AM Games revealed a trailer officially announcing a port of the game to the New Nintendo 3DS, titled "Runbow Pocket", which compiles the main story, as well as all existing DLC, into a portable game. This marks the second full title exclusive to the New Nintendo 3DS, the first being "Xenoblade Chronicles 3D". "Runbow Pocket" was planned to be released in Fall 2016. However, in October 2016, 13AM Games revealed that, in addition of a release date for the retail version of "Runbow", "Runbow Pocket" was delayed to the first quarter of 2017 because the company ran into some issues along development. As part of the final DLC pack for "Runbow", 13AM Games revealed that another playable character was coming to "Runbow". "Shantae" was released on 25 October 2016 along with the final update for the game. Along with the release of the update, the company was initially going to release the physical version of the game on the same day as the update, but the physical version was instead released on 1 November 2016. However, along with more bugs provided in the game, the developers wanted more time to work on the game, and the game's release date was pushed back to June 20, 2017. The game was later revealed as a Games with Gold title for Xbox's July 2017 Games with Gold lineup. "Runbow" received mostly positive reviews. It has a score of 82 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 33 critics.