Time Flies Review

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Not all too often you catch glimpse of a game unlike anything you've played before and think, "˜ah, that looks absolutely delightful'. In a booth at London Games Festival earlier this year, I had one of those exact moments as I saw Time Flies for the first time. A human drawn, black and white video game about a fly completing a bucket list captured my attention instantly and I couldn't wait to see what the final game came to be.

The game is developed by Playables who have created other short titles including Cars, KIDS and Plug & Play and uses the same animation art style from Michael Frei.

So, is this new indie worth an evening of your time? Or should you swat it away? Lets talk Time Flies.

Story – Lord of the Fly

Whilst there's no specific narrative in Time Flies, the game's story is telling us how short life can be. Or, how the game's store description more bluntly puts it: "Make the best of the time you have left, because we're all going to die."

On the surface, Time Flies doesn't look like an emotion-invoking video game. However, this is a rare example in the medium that will make you reflect on the real world and how little time we have to do some of the greater things life has to offer.

Thus, Time Flies is a short game that doesn't outstay its welcome and can be completed within 2-3 hours, with a little longer for all collectibles - please see our guide to find all Time Flies puzzle pieces.

A message to players is to write your own bucket list, or at least think about the finer things in life that you want to do before we're pushing daisies.

There are four bucket lists in the game and as many locations where to complete them - including two houses, The Gallery and The Sewer. Each tell their own tale of how much fun you can have in places that don't cost you the world.

There should be a user guide on how to use this for younger gamers.

Gameplay – it’s fun to be the fly on the wall

Time Flies gameplay is like nothing I've ever played before, or will likely ever play again. At its heart it's a puzzle adventure game, but with a twist.

As the fly we start each life with under 90 seconds to complete a host of bucket list tasks before we meet our end. There are a whole host of items on the game's four lists and we act them out as a fly would, for example: 1) "˜learn to play an instrument' tasks us with flying alongside a guitars strings to play it; 2) "˜travel round the world' by spinning on a small globe; or 3) "˜go with the flow' for well, drowning. Each of the items across the four lists is satisfying to work out and complete.

To complete a level, one must complete all of the items on a bucket list in one life. Thankfully, in some of the levels are clocks which we can fly up to, and by turning the hands back we can add more time to our short life. If you run out of time, you can restart an infinite number of times, but you'll always see the corpses from your previous runs littered around the levels. Though no level is too challenging, to complete a level you need to learn an efficient route of all objectives which I thoroughly enjoyed learning.

Turn back time. Singing Cher whilst you do so is encouraged.

In a unique gameplay idea, the developers are also keen to shine a light on the inequality in life expectancy around the world. Before each life you can select a country from where your life comes from and your life will begin with as many seconds - eg Japan's life expectancy is 84.5 years so we begin with 84.5 seconds. The game uses World Health Organisation data for this but there are sadly many less-developed countries with 15+ years less.

Audio - the game has quite a buzz

There's very limited audio in Time Flies but what is there works really well. There's no real soundtrack except for a few jingles that play out in a few places. Time Flies audio delight is made from sound effects. The buzz that the fly makes whilst flying combined with some of the adorable sound effects you hear whilst completing bucket list items are a delight – or not, see the picture below.

Yes, you do fly through this mannequin’s intestines. Yes, they do fart as you leave their butt.

I could imagine that if the game was double the length it is, the fly's buzz may start to become an annoyance. But with a sweet spot run time, that never became an issue.

Conclusion – my time flew by with Time Flies

As much an experience as a video game, Time Flies will stick with me for some time. In the handful of hours I had completing everything the game has to offer, the games message that life is incredibly short left its mark on me. If only we were able to rewind clock hands in real life to give us more time with loved ones, or give them more time with us.

I highly recommend you play Time Flies. It is a perfect short game to fit between longer video games and stands out on its on merits.

Time Flies releases on 31 July 2025 on Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Time Flies was played on Steam Deck for the purpose of the review. The game ran flawlessly on Steam Deck. GSC would like to thank the developer and publisher for a review code.