About.com ranked the song number one in a list of the top five singles from Stefani's career, with the band as well as solo, reasoning by saying that the song's "bumping contemporary beat pushes along 80's style keyboards making it nearly impossible to keep from moving your body."
Blender described it as a "blazing start" to
Rock Steady and compared it to the work of
pop group
Was (Not Was), rapper and producer
Timbaland,
ska punk band
Fishbone, and
electro DJ Afrika Bambaataa. The
NME also compared the song to Bambaataa's music as well as that of
Britney Spears and
Duran Duran.
PlayLouder called the track outstanding and compared
Nellee Hooper's production to the
electroclash style of
Chicago house DJ
Felix da Housecat.
Entertainment Weekly characterized the song as a sequel to Madonna's 1985 single "
Into the Groove". The publication listed "Hella Good" seventh on its list of the top singles of 2002. It went on to include the song in its list of the top five No Doubt songs, in which it described the song as "a
dance-pop delight irresistible enough to make you forget that
hella is one of history's most irritating slang terms."
Billboard referred to the group as
the B-52's of the 2000s and praised "Hella Good"'s combination of a strong bassline; "fairly aggressive electric guitar accents";
Kraftwerk-style electronics; and Stefani's "loose, playful" vocals. The song was listed at number 26 on the 2002
Pazz & Jop list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by
Robert Christgau. ==Chart performance==