In the February 1981 edition of The Space Gamer (No. 36), Forrest Johnson liked Quirks, saying, "This is a good family game."[2]
Ian Livingston reviewed Quirks for White Dwarf #24, giving it an overall rating of 9 out of 10, and stated that "All in all it is totally absurd but great fun and Eon Products must be congratulated for coming up with another ace."[3]
In the May 1981 edition of Ares (Issue 8), Eric Goldberg found the most serious flaw in the game was an ever-diminishing replay value as players either consciously or subconsciously memorized the card values. "Quirks.. is fun only for a limited number of times. The game is quite good until that point of diminishing returns is reached."[1]
Games magazine included Quirks in their "Top 100 Games of 1981", praising it as a "lighthearted game" involving "weird creatures and plants".[4]
In the December 1993 edition of Dragon (Issue 200), Allen Varney gave a thumbs down to the game. "One big flaw, I think, is that [the game] never identifies players with the animals they're evolving. Instead they're unspecified creature-makers who look down on these beasts and foliage from above. Quirks would involve me a lot more by evolving me — making me the creature who needs to emerge victorious in a niche. Deciding whether to eat plants or animals, or if I should ditch my wings in favor of an electric sting — that sounds like fun."[5]