Funko Fusion review – a homage in plastic-Steve Boxer-Entertainment – Metro

Funko Fusion – not a Lego game (10:10 Games)

From many of the same creators as the Lego games comes a new movie crossover featuring everything from Jurassic World to Hot Fuzz.

Unlike Lego, Funk Pop toys – the large-headed vinyl figures that seem to have taken over game and comic shops everywhere – are more of an acquired taste. They do, however, offer a similar shortcut to pop culture crossovers with virtually any movie or TV show you can imagine; more so, in fact, given that this new franchise features a much more adult age rating.

Funko Fusion will inevitably face comparison with said Lego games and, unsurprisingly, it follows the same basic formula: a mix of third person action, puzzling and shooting, which, although it features a number of mature-rate movies is still suitable for most teens. But while its gameplay may adhere to the same basic principles as the Lego games it gives the impression that the team has been able to indulge itself in ideas it’s long wanted to explore but never before had the chance.

Funk Pops may not be as universally popular as Lego, but the good news is that you don’t have to be a fan to appreciate Funko Fusion – although it does go to some length to appeal to those who would class themselves as collectors. There’s also a deep love of cinema that runs through the game, filtered through a very British sense of humour.

The game lets you jump into Funk Pop-styled worlds that recreate a large and somewhat random collection of diverse movies and TV shows, with the only connecting tissue being that most of them are Universal Studios properties. So that includes Jurassic World, Hot Fuzz, Battlestar Galactica (the original rather than the remake), Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, The Umbrella Academy, Masters Of The Universe, and The Thing.

In addition, by collecting objects in each main movie world, you can open what 10:10 Games calls cameo worlds, offering smaller vignettes of other movies such as Shaun of the Dead, Jaws, Five Nights At Freddy’s, Voltron, and Jurassic Park.

It’s an odd smorgasbord, but one that will contain plenty for any movie buff, especially when they discover the tongue-in-cheek approach that 10:10 Games has taken with the source material. Funko Fusion also comes with a sense of visual liberation: it looks great, in a slightly cartoonish manner, and each movie world differs in art style from each other. Masters Of The Universe goes full-on cartoon style, for example, whereas others are more photorealistic.

Funko Fusion – you get both flavours of Jurassic trilogy (10:10 Games)

Does Funko Fusion have a story?

Perhaps Funko Fusion’s weakest element is its attempt at an overarching storyline, in which Freddy (of Five Night’s At fame) becomes corrupted by purple goo in the Funko factory and spawns a baddie called Eddy, who scatters gold and silver crowns across all the movie worlds and corrupts one of the main characters in each one. As you collect gold crowns you can open new worlds and as you retrieve the purple crowns Freddy gets his strength back in preparation for the finale.

That story only really functions as an excuse to visit all the movie worlds, so there’s no strong narrative thread and it’s only delivered in snippets whenever you beat a boss. All the cut scenes (which you’ll recognise from the movies) are wordless, and none of the characters speak, although you occasionally encounter dialogue in speech bubbles. Even so, 10:10 Games has done an impressive job of capturing the essence of the movies it pays homage to.

Each world has its own set of key gadgets which are crucial for overcoming different obstacles and once you’ve unlocked them you can use them anywhere. They include a bounce pad, a battery, a gas canister, a CSI style blacklight, a turret, and a portal; these provide considerable replayability, since as you collect them they allow access to esoteric parts of the levels and you can jump back into any level in each of the worlds even after completion.

Each world also has its own unique weapon, with a flamethrower for The Thing, for example, or a laser for Battlestar Galactica. Finding the tokens required to build those is quite tricky but each character in each world also has a default gun, or the ranged equivalent, plus a unique melee weapon.

In each world, you can switch between at least four characters, all with their own subtle differences. Often, mini-bosses and the like are easier to take down with one particular character, so experimentation pays off. Umbrella Academy, in particular, forces you to switch between characters with particular special abilities, ranging from teleportation to mind control.

When you’re swarmed by enemies you can always buy space with a ground stomp or evade with a roll, although some characters have shields or in one case a mini-flamethrower in place of the roll move. Gunplay is accurate and responsive, and one of the biggest differences from the Lego games, although still nowhere up to the standards of dedicated third person shooters.

The puzzles are more distinctive and can often be pleasingly elaborate. In Battlestar Galactica you fire laser guns through different-shaped glass prisms, while one particular level in The Thing takes place outside, in the cold, and forces you to stay close to lit flares or braziers. The portal-based puzzling in Master Of The Universe gets quite mind-boggling at times and in Hot Fuzz you tap into CCTV systems, Watch Dogs-style.

It’s all good fun, but not free of flaws. We found a lot of visual glitches and bugs, a couple of which interrupted the gameplay flow, which isn’t unsurprising if you know the Lego games but is disappointing for a new franchise. There were also times when a bit more hand-holding would have helped, as the solutions to beating some of the bosses are just a bit too obscure.

Does Funko Fusion have co-op?

The most glaring omission, especially when compared with the Lego games, is the lack of a co-op option. 10:10 Games says that’s something it plans to add this year, but whether that happens remains to be seen. This seems a strangely low priority for such an important feature, given the game could’ve easily lost a few additional worlds in exchange for it being available at launch.

Funko Fusion is still perfectly entertaining on your own though, assuming you like the majority of properties involved and don’t have an inbuilt hatred of Funko Pop toys. As with the Lego games, the very British sense of humour is one of the main draws, complementing a fun action game whose appeal goes beyond just its myriad movie cameos.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £54.99
Publisher: 10:10 Games
Developer: 10:10 Games
Release Date: 13th September 2024 (PS4 – 15/11, Switch TBC December)
Age Rating: 16

Funko Fusion – OG Battlestar Galactica is a deep cut (10:10 Games)

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