Computer Gaming World in 1987 called Falcon "one of the most detailed and accurate flight simulators on the microcomputer market today". It reported that a F-16 pilot with the 474th Tactical Fighter Wing "gave it good marks for accuracy". The game received 5 out of 5 stars Dragon, with 4 out of 5 stars for the DOS version.
Compute! praised Falcon's graphics, realism, and documentation.
The Falcon 4.0 series is one of the longest running game series using the same code base in the PC history, spanning well over a decade. This video shows its evolution from start to its end.