Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 81 | 51 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 97% | 92 | 195 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 96% | 91 | 12 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 31 reviews sampled · 33 total reviews in window · weighted 8.6 up / 0.4 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (26)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 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.”
read full review ↗ - 90
““Time Flies is a little adventure about our limited time in this world,” claims Playables, but Time Flies is much more than that. It is a mirror held up to our own experiences, about how the choices we make influence our time. While we can make lists and plans, sometimes we just run out of time due to factors outside our control. Sometimes it’s better just to learn a little, finish a little, and then spin on a record for a while. Enjoy the last little bits of time we have with each other while the seconds tick down. Or we can snort drugs in a museum and party for no reason other than to party. Whatever passes the seconds.”
read full review ↗ - 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.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“Even as someone who finds video games to be an incredibly worthwhile way to spend my time, I find myself falling victim to the "Is it long enough? Is it too long?" ruminating that plagues the industry today. As I've gotten older, that conversation has shifted, though. If it was two hours or two hundred, I didn't care. It's more about how the time spent felt. We've only got so much of it, after all. And even as it brought a newly heightened sense of my own ever-ticking life clock, I found that Time Flies was time well spent.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“The game will probably only last you a couple of hours or so, but that time is filled with lots of fun moments and amusing gags. It's not something that'll stand up to many replays, but it's an entertaining curiosity while it lasts.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“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.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“Time Flies is definitely novel, and it offers a lot of freedom to explore a tiny sandbox for a little while.”
read full review ↗ - 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.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Time Flies may be on the short side, but its quirky and funny list of things to do and surprising amount of attention to immersion transforms a quick jaunt into an impactful life lesson. Life's too short to worry about the small stuff, be a fly for a couple of hours.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“Time Flies is a profoundly poignant game, allows you to look within yourself and especially with factors that are at play for each person, to hammer down that sonder, if you still have yet to obtain that sense of clarity, or if that sliver of reflection needs to continue growing. Being able to mix gameplay hilarity with the looming death that is ever approaching in this stylistically hand-drawn black and white world fascinates me. Just because you are as tiny as a fly in this game, does not mean your impact on its world is also tiny.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“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.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“A short, surreal roguelike puzzler that proves a video game doesn’t have to be 60 hours long or feature photorealistic graphics to be entertaining and thought-provoking.”
read full review ↗
Pure Nintendo
The Punished Backlog
Nintendo Life
video games are good
Push Square
NintendoWorldReport
Siliconera
KonsoliFIN
FingerGuns
MonsterVine
Gamer Social Club
Metro GameCentral…and 14 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
No patch announcements found on Steam yet.