As I sat down to write this review, I typed ‘What is the lifespan of a housefly?’ into my search bar. It’s not a question I ever really pondered prior to my playthrough of Time Flies. Somehow, this minimalist indie puzzler got me curious enough to wonder. I can’t say there’s ever been a piece of media that’s ever piqued my general interest in a pest in quite the same way.
That’s because Time Flies’ protagonist is a fly, and they made him cool. That’s not how I thought I’d be anchoring this review, but it’s the truth. Much like how the goose in Untitled Goose Game wins hearts by being a chaotic menace, the fly is an existentialist rebel worthy of an Albert Camus novella about, say, the absurd search for meaning in a life measured in seconds.
That’s essentially what Time Flies is all about. Developed by Michael Frei and Raphaël Munoz and published by Panic (of Untitled Goose Game fame), the game puts you in control of a tiny housefly with a bucket list of cheeky to-dos to complete. The catch is that, depending on where you live, you’ll only have around a minute and a half or less to tick them all to progress.
Using data from the World Health Organisation’s life expectancy figures, your in-game lifespan (measured in seconds) is tied to the average life expectancy of the country you’re in. In my case, Singapore’s 83.9 years afford me 83.9 seconds of playtime, after which your little fly drops dead and you begin anew. You’re free to set any country as your location ahead of each ‘run’.
There are no button inputs; only the control stick is used to manoeuvre around with buttery smooth flight physics. Exploration is the name of the game. You’re given a vaguely phrased list of objectives like ‘Get Rich’, ‘Start a Revolution’, ‘Go With The Flow’, etc., and it’s up to you to experiment with the world around you through trial-and-error.
For example, if your goal is to ‘Learn an Instrument,’ you could try buzzing around the strings of a guitar. Tasks are never too cryptic and often play out in ironic or unexpected ways with a deadpan delivery that lends the game a distinctive comedic tone. Times Flies never tells you what to do, opting to let you poke around and figure things out on your own.
Despite the small size of each of the game’s four areas, there’s plenty to discover. The camera zooms in when you’re near certain objects, which is usually your cue that there’s something to interact with. Time pauses during these moments to let you prod, which more often than not leads to the quiet satisfaction of ticking something off your bucket list.
Unlocking a new level requires you to tick off all area-specific objectives within a single life, which is easier said than done. Fortunately, you’re able to buy yourself some additional time when there’s a clock nearby. You literally turn back the clock to gain precious seconds needed to complete your tasks, which adds a layer of strategy to the gameplay.
There’s also a larger achievement list to chip away at as you play, along with 12 hidden puzzle pieces scattered throughout the game. These collectibles are impressively well-hidden, requiring careful observation to sniff out and precise timing to access. Hunting for the last puzzle piece kept me invested and finding it made me feel mighty clever.
The game’s visual aesthetic won’t be for everyone, but it absolutely lends personality. Settings are imperfectly hand-drawn yet slyly expressive, rendered in black and white with no gradients or shading. It’s unpolished in a deliberate way, landing somewhere between doodles on the margins of a student’s philosophy notebook and early Macintosh aesthetics.
Time Flies similarly uses sound design sparingly but effectively. Throughout the game, two sounds persist: the steady ticking down of the clock and the soft buzz of your wings. Ambient details like dripping water, the crackle of old jazz records, flickering TV channels, and even a tunable radio add charm and ambience to the world.
If Time Flies has a weakness, it’s one the game fully owns: it’s short. The game can be completed within two hours or so, and once you’ve finished it and collected all its secrets, there’s little incentive to return. The developers clearly anticipate criticism of the game’s length and, at one point, even break the fourth wall to gently rib themselves.
Its creators know exactly what kind of game they’ve made, and they lean into it fully and stay committed to the bit. Time Flies feels like the lovechild of Untitled Goose Game and Minit, blending checklist-based mischief with clever time constraints. But where the goose is gleefully anarchic, the fly revels in the shortness of life and is committed to enjoying the ride.
Just a warning, the game does depict nudity and drug/alcohol use, so it’s not one for the kids. Times Flies runs flawlessly on both the Switch and Switch 2 with no discernible difference in performance apart from slightly speedier load times on Nintendo’s newest console. Oh, and if you were wondering, houseflies live between 15 to 30 days. Now you know.
Conclusion
Time Flies is a clever puzzle-exploration game and a playful meditation on life’s brevity. Its gameplay mechanics don’t evolve dramatically from one level to the next, but that never felt like a hindrance. It’s a tight, focused experience that delivers its core ideas with confidence but doesn’t necessarily push beyond them. That said, Time Flies never feels like a concept stretched too thin, and it bows out before overstaying its welcome.
