Funko Fusion preview – universal appeal-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Funko Fusion – maybe He-Man will finally be in a decent game (10:10 Games)

From many of the same people behind the Lego movie games, comes a Funko Pop! mash-up featuring everything from The Thing to Knight Rider.

There was a time, pre-pandemic, when there were two, or even three, new Lego games being released every year. Nowadays though they’re rare, with the last traditional one being Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga in 2022 and the next the very peculiar, not-quite multiformat, Lego Horizon Adventures.

As with most things in the video games industry, it’s not clear exactly why this happened but part of it seems to be the general problem that it’s no longer possible to produce a game with high production values in just a year or two, even if it is based on an existing template.

What’s also changed is attitudes towards the ‘crunch’, with developers being overworked, and expected to do unpaid overtime, just to get a game finished. That seems to be the reason why Lego Star Wars designer Arthur Parsons organised an exodus to set-up new studio 10:10 Games, which promotes a healthier work-life balance. Although their first game is strangely familiar…

We’ve already had a brief look at Funko Fusion, when it was first unveiled, and while it features Funko Pop! toys instead of Lego figures the concept initially seems very similar, in that it’s a casual gamer-friendly romp through a variety of pop culture favourites. Although this time it’s not limited by Lego games never incorporating anything from adult-orientated films.

Although it doesn’t advertise the fact too much, all the films and shows featured are Universal Studios properties, so you’ve got more recent films like M3GAN, Nope, Shaun of the Dead, and The Mummy and older classics such as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Back To The Future, The Thing, and the Universal Monsters.

TV shows have a similarly broad range, going from the original Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider, and Masters Of The Universe to Invincible, The Umbrella Academy, and The Walking Dead. There’s also a couple of video game properties in there too, with Five Nights at Freddy’s and, only in the PC version, Team Fortress 2.

However, apart from the story cut scenes with original characters, there’s no spoken dialogue and instead everything uses text bubbles and nonsense mumbles, similar to the early Lego games.

We still haven’t been able to get hands-on with the game but while the Lego connections are obvious it’s clear the game isn’t just the same thing with a different toy line. For a start, there’s no building element and all the puzzles seem to be much more tailored towards the individual properties.

So, for example, the Hot Fuzz one involves using a black light camera to discover clues, as you visit various crime scenes from the film (led by a swan with a police emergency light on its head). The black light camera is obtained from a vending machine-like device which allows you to use any device from any of the different worlds, once they’re unlocked, for a certain amount of in-game currency.

Other puzzle types seem to be non-denominational, with a CCTV one that appears reminiscent of Watch Dogs, where you trace electricity lines in order to open doors and activate other electrical devices.

Some properties have larger worlds than others, with the main ones being accessed from a central hub (in that sense the game is closest to Lego Dimensions, although this is not a toys to life title). There’re also connections between them though, such as opening a Quint’s Tackle Shop in Hot Fuzz in order to access the smaller Jaws ‘cameo’ world.

Funko Fusion – Back To The Future was also in Lego Dimensions (10:10 Games)

Likewise, different characters can be used in different worlds, so you can have He-Man slashing zombies in Shaun Of The Dead or fighting the thing. Not only that but certain properties bring with them unique gameplay elements, such as the ability to be bitten by a zombie and play as one afterwards.

There aren’t any driveable vehicles though, which seems a shame, especially as that was always a big part of the Lego games. Although various vehicles will feature prominently, such as the time-travelling DeLorean and K.I.T.T.

To compensate, the third person combat seems more involved, and violent, although until we try it for ourselves we can’t say how it actually feels, especially as it’s not clear that any of the team have had much experience with that style of gunplay. According to Parsons though Ratchet & Clank has been an influence, which is relatively encouraging.

Ultimately, the main sticking point with the game seems to be the same one there’s always been: everyone loves Lego but lots of people hate Funko Pop! But even if you do despise their dead-eyed stare, glaring at you from every office desk and comic book store shelf, it seems much less of a problem than you’d think when you’re playing the game.

Funko Fusion – all the Hot Fuzz stuff seems great (10:10 Games)

We’re not certainly not fans but we found it far less distracting than we expected even just watching footage, perhaps simply because the main character is usually facing away from you. Instead, we were much more interested in the surprisingly good graphics, especially the portrayal of Sandford in Hot Fuzz, which is one of the very few times a rural British town has been recreated with photorealistic graphics in an action game.

Even London, from Saun Of The Dead is rare, while the other films and shows seems to promise an even wider range of locations and characters. Whether Funko Fusion will be as successful as the Lego games remains to be seen but it certainly offers something different, in terms of both gameplay and film homages.

Formats: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC
Publisher: 10:10 Games
Developer: 10:10 Games
Release Date: 13th September 2024 (PS4 and Switch on 15/11)
Age Rating: 12

Funko Fusion – we think both Jurassic World and Park are featured (10:10 Games)

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