The PlayStation 2 version of the received a 24% and a 37% from Metacritic and GameRankings respectively. GameSpy's Miguel Lopez criticized the unresponsive controls, collision detection, and sound design, stating "... "Dirt" has ...a propensity to live up to its name." IGN's Chris Roper compared it unfavorably to "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" for the Atari 2600, which is often considered one of the worst games of all time. Roper noted that the game was full of glitches and had an unresponsive control scheme. GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann called the gameplay "broken" and the game itself "unfinished". GameZone's Natalie Romano praised the game's sound selection, level size, and character variety, while calling the control scheme "one of the game's major weaknesses." The Xbox version of the game received a 22.5% from GameRankings, and the criticisms were mostly the same as those seen for the PlayStation 2 version. Jeff Gerstmann criticized the game for its glitches and control issues, and wrote, "Wasn't it canceled?".