The game holds a rating of 69 of 100 on Metacritic.[8]
GameSpy gave the game a 3 of 5 stating "Yup -- that's your "Yugi Sense" tingling. With Duel Masters: Sempai Legends, Atari gives gamers a new way to do their handheld card-based dueling. While it doesn't let you bang away with the 1000-plus monsters available in the Yu-Gi-Oh! games (at least not yet), it does offer somewhat deeper and more complex gameplay. Toss in the harrowing tale of a boy trying to find a stolen, priceless card, and you have a pretty solid package. There are a few rough edges, but if Atari plans on cranking out dueling games as fast as Konami does, those edges should be buffed smooth in no time"[6]
Dave Clayman from IGN gave the game an 8 of 10 stating "Sempai Legends is clearly designed to compete with the super popular Yu-Gi-Oh! series. So how does it stack up? As I stated earlier the battle system is a matter of personal preference. However, gamers may be attracted to the more complicated duels and the individuality of the different Mana classes. At one time Magic: The Gathering was the most popular card game in the world and it will be interesting to see if its rule set can attract a new, younger audience for of Duel Masters"[4]
Nintendo World Report gave the game an 5 of 10 praising the "Neat looking backgrounds" while criticizing the absurd storyline and noting the game is repetitive, boring, and tedious[7]