I didn’t expect a brief game about flies to make me emotional. But when I finished Time Flies, I nearly began to cry.

Time Flies may initially come across as quite whimsical. In this game, you control a buzzing fly aiming to fulfill a bucket list of tasks before its life abruptly ends, often within seconds. The tasks bear playful titles like “Just Roll with It” or “Meet Your Biggest Fan.” Your objective is to speedily navigate each level, causing mayhem to complete these tasks and finish the entire stage’s list to advance to the next one. Appropriately, the final task on each list involves the fly meeting its end.

The task names are generally puns or jokes, adding to the enjoyment of interacting with various objects around the levels to determine if they suit the task. For instance, unraveling a roll of toilet paper completes the “Just Roll with It” task, while turning on a fan fulfills the “Meet Your Biggest Fan” task.

As you fly around, the game retains a zoomed-out view with the fly appearing as a tiny dot. However, when you approach something noteworthy, the game zooms in, allowing you to engage with objects like the toilet paper roll or the fan’s chain more easily. These closer perspectives often hint that you’re interacting with an object linked to your task list.

An intriguing aspect of Time Flies is determining the duration of your life by choosing your country. Utilizing World Health Organization (WHO) life expectancy data, the game converts real-life expectancy details into seconds to set your fly’s lifespan. Selecting the US granted a 76.4-second lifespan, but I preferred Japan for a longer 84.5 seconds. With such short playthroughs, every second is precious, though there’s a smart trick to extend your exploration time slightly.

Once familiar with the mechanics, I swiftly maneuvered through the game’s four stages, identifying bucket list tasks and eventually completing them collectively in a few hours. As the adventure progressed, some tasks felt more heartfelt, though the means to achieve them remained delightfully quirky. Don’t we all dream of “Bring People Together” (pushing two busts to kiss using a wheelchair), “Spend Time with Family” (hovering over a garbage pile with fellow flies), and “Reflect on Your Life” (entering a topsy-turvy mirror world)?

Perhaps it resonates more since I recently became a dad and find myself more sentimental. When I shared the entire game with my wife — a feat possible in a matter of minutes with some knowledge — we found ourselves touched while sitting together on the couch. Even a tiny fly can experience a significant life.

^{Time Flies is now available on Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation.}