As I have been making my way through the worlds present in Funko Fusion, I've had the same feeling time and time again: "Man, I wish I was playing Lego Indiana Jones/Star Wars/ [insert franchise here] instead."
Pitched as 'a festival of fandom' by developers 10:10 Games, Funko Fusion is an action-adventure title inviting players to experience scenes from a variety of movies, TV shows, games, and comic book franchises in Funko Pop!-ified, video game form.
I'm not necessarily a Funko figure kind of guy, but as someone who literally spends all day writing about the latest shows, movies and games (and spends most of their time outside work watching, playing or reading about the same industries), the idea of journeying through levels based on some of my favorite franchises seemed like a total winner.
"Hot Fuzz" and "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" are some of my favorite movies of all time, and the team has cast a huge net to nod to everything from "Nope," "Child's Play" and "Mega Man" to Five Nights at Freddy's and "Umbrella Academy." A mash-up of all these ideas was definitely intriguing and the bits of gameplay footage I had seen leading up to release made it seem like a solid experience. Unfortunately, after spending several hours with the PS5 edition of Funko Fusion, I can't say that I'd recommend picking it up.
Funko Fusion shares a ton of DNA with the Lego titles; like Funko Fusion, most of the Lego games are adventures through worlds based on popular franchises like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel/DC, and Star Wars, to name but a few.
It's not a massive surprise that the two games play similarly; Funko Fusion developer 10:10 Games is, after all, home to several ex-Traveller's Tales (Lego Game developers) staff. In both cases, you're running about, smashing things up and collecting Studs — or, in Funko's case, Vinyl — as you progress through the stories of these particular universes.
So what's the big difference? Well, sadly, Funko Fusion isn't nearly as satisfying or fun to play. On the surface, it looks like it fits the bill. Funko Fusion is a bright, colorful title, third-person action game that promises to bring your favorite media franchises to life. It does have some personality; the giant heads pop off your enemies when you beat them in combat, and there's some evidence of that same Lego-game style irreverent humor in the cutscenes that introduce individual levels.
Unfortunately, the core gameplay loop of Funko Fusion is just too shallow and, frankly, dull. Once you get past the initial enjoyment of 'Hey, this is fun, I'm wandering around a tiny version of Sandford, Gloucestershire' (the setting of "Hot Fuzz") or the laugh of seeing a smooth, Funko Pop! version of the monster from "The Thing"... there's little here to keep you entertained.
Most of the time, you'll be mashing your way through way too many enemies, either with bland third-person shooting or endlessly hammering the melee attack button. Frequently, you'll encounter frustrating sections where enemies continuously respawn; the balance is so off, in fact, that I'd already bagged the "kill 1,000 enemies" trophy before I set foot in my fourth world.
Otherwise, you'll be roaming around the themed hubs, hoovering up collectibles, solving very light puzzles that are sometimes just a touch too obtuse, and deploying the same unlockable tools over and over again.
Each themed world I've played thus far has played out roughly the same across its respective levels, and then wrapped up with an almost-identical boss battle: shoot purple gunk off a giant bad guy, then team up with a thematically appropriate giant-sized Funko figure from that world to finish the boss off, all while waves of smaller enemies crowd around you.
There's simply not enough mission variety to keep me playing and certainly not enough to have me revisiting previous worlds with new abilities to finish collecting all the items. Some sections are built better than others — the slightly open environment of the "Jurassic World" world is probably my favorite of what I have played thus far — but you're still repeating the same tasks with a fresh coat of paint.
The repetition has only been made worse because progress-hampering bugs caused me to have to replay certain levels more than once just to carry on a particular story. The very short soundtrack loops playing in the background are also short enough that I ended up having to play stretches on mute; no one should listen to the isolated beats of "The Thing's" main theme that often.
Overall, I can't see myself wanting to play much more of Funko Fusion; it's simply not enough of a polished or engaging experience. That said, now that I've got the itch for this sort of collectathon... I'll be reinstalling Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga on my PS5 to replace it.
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