Time Flies

 Switch
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. Loot Level Chill
    Jul 31, 2025
    95
    Time Flies may seem like a silly distraction at first, but its heartfelt message and compelling speed-running gameplay make it a masterpiece.
  2. Nintendo Insider
    Aug 7, 2025
    90
    Time Flies is yet another home run from Panic’s publishing. Playables has released one of my favorite indie games of the year here. When I recently reviewed Dear Me, I was…, I mentioned how every game doesn’t have to be for everyone. Time Flies is another release I know won’t be for everyone, but I absolutely love it. Go forth. Fly, die, fly again, die again, and think about how everyone’s time on this planet is limited with so many things to do.
  3. NintendoWorldReport
    Jul 31, 2025
    90
    If you like short and comedic games then Time Flies comes highly recommended. You’ll have seen most of what the game has to offer in a few hours, but it has a high “Wait, I need you to play this game for five minutes”-factor that makes it a lot of fun to show to friends and family. It is rare that a game is so sharply tuned that I can be satisfied with having fewer levels to play through. Time Flies is such an easy recommendation to just about anyone who plays games. Your time with it may be short, but it is certainly well spent.
  5. Pure Nintendo
    Sep 30, 2025
    85
    Overall, Time Flies is a unique adventure full of surprises. Don’t let the simple aesthetics and short runtime put you off; this is one of the most creative outings of the year.
  6. Guardian
    Aug 5, 2025
    80
    Mocked by the clock and the whizzing sounds in your ears, Time Flies gets under your skin not only because it’s a clever puzzle game, but because it manages to break down its profound ideas into easily digestible nuggets of gameplay. By blending its thinky thesis with such playful mechanics, Time Flies supplies a lighthearted canvas for players to engage with existentialism for an hour or two. As you seek a sense of meaning for the fly by ticking off their ambitions, there’s plenty of room left for you to muse about your own.
  7. Nintendo Life
    Jul 31, 2025
    80
    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.
  8. Game Informer
    Jul 31, 2025
    73
    Cracking each puzzle is rewarding, but the true excitement comes with trying to complete all the bucket-list items in one fly's lifespan.
  9. Siliconera
    Aug 3, 2025
    70
    Time Flies is definitely novel, and it offers a lot of freedom to explore a tiny sandbox for a little while. It does get you thinking about lifespans, which is part of the point. It looks quite stylish too. The only downsides are that it is incredibly short and there aren’t as many secrets as I expected or hoped there’d be.
  10. KonsoliFIN
    Jul 31, 2025
    60
    Time Flies is a short but clever game where you guide a fly through a bucket list of life goals before its inevitable death. Blending dark (and crass) humor with thoughtful design, it offers a light yet thought-provoking take on the fleeting nature of life.
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  1. Polygon
    Jul 31, 2025
    It’s a clever micro-adventure in the vein of Minit (a game in which each life only lasts 60 seconds) that’s all about learning to make the most of a short lifespan. Though it may be centered around the Animal Kingdom’s most forgettable pest, Time Flies cuts deep as an interactive meditation on the limited time every fragile creature has in this world.
  2. The Verge
    Aug 4, 2025
    Once I got the hang of things, I found myself zipping through the game’s four stages to figure out the bucket list tasks and eventually string them all together, and I finished it after a couple hours. As the game went on, I felt that some of the tasks got a bit more sincere, even if the activities to accomplish them were still quite silly. Don’t we all aspire to “Bring People Together” (push one bust toward another with a wheelchair to make them kiss), “Spend Time with Family” (sit on a floating pile of garbage with other flies), and “Reflect on Your Life” (fly into an upside-down mirror world)? Maybe it’s because I’m a new dad and I’m just a little bit softer now. But when I showed my wife the whole game — which, if you know what you’re doing, you can do in just a few minutes — we were both choked up on the couch. Even a little fly can have a big life.