the game was positively received at its release. on july 12, 2013, it was announced that abobo's big adventure had won the newgrounds 2012 "game of the year" award. gamespy praised their work, calling it the "mother of all 8-bit homage flash videogames" mexican magazine "cine premiere" called it fun, and a good way to re-live the nostalgia of 8- and 16-bit video games. gamezone described it as "part parody and part tribute" to the nes, further calling its story "not cheesy. instead, it's all kinds of badass." eurogamer.it called it a "serious contender for [game of the year] 2012" and "the final tribute to the nes", further describing it as both well made and very difficult. rock, paper, shotgun's adam smith stated that while the combination of various sprite styles could be reminiscent of various webcomics, the game was created with the original influences in mind, not just the characters. he further added that it was a "well designed series of tiny games that more often than not succeed in capturing the pleasures of the originals". "wired" called it "8-bit parody done right", further praising it for deviating from similar titles by offering more than simplified graphics and sounds, and that "the fearlessness with which it mocks these age-old heroes portrays an almost tangible love for them at the same time". 1up.com editors jeremy parish and bob mackey both praised the game as well, with parish questioning whether it blurred the line between "parody and appropriation [...] you could make a case for it being a dada-ist expression", while mackey asserted he still felt it was parody, but that the controls for each aspect of the game had been replicated "dead on." gamespot praised the game saying "it's a labor of love that's jam-packed with a staggering number of pitch-perfect references to nes games. it doesn't just duplicate the sprites, environments, and music of so many nes games; it also captures the simple but challenging gameplay of the games it imitates." yoshihisa kishimoto, creator of "double dragon", has stated in a polygon interview that he was supportive and loved the game.