If you enjoy toy-collecting or any other hoarding-adjacent activity, then there’s a good chance you know what a Funko Pop is. There might even be one close to you right now, staring at nothing with its beady eyes, like the physical embodiment of the worst purchase you could have made with $10.99.
As if it wasn’t already difficult enough to avoid these figures, they have now made their way into video games with Funko Fusion, a 3D puzzle and exploration game that features a wide selection of franchises, all reimagined as the titular Funko vinyl toys.
Funko’s reach is seemingly infinite, as they have acquired the licensing for pretty much anything that exists, from popular manga/anime, like Jujutsu Kaisen, to even real people, like Michael Jackson. One question remains, though: Does having access to so many franchises guarantee success when making a video game? Find out in our full review for Funko Fusion.
Funko Fusion
Developer: 1010 Games
Publisher: 1010 Games
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows (Reviewed)
Release Date: September 13, 2024
Players: 1
Price: $49.99
Before anything else, we have to talk about some of the franchises included in Funko Fusion. You have some no-brainers in there, like Five Nights at Freddy’s, Invincible, and Jurassic Park, but then we have some wild curveballs like M3GAN and Knight Rider.
The list of worlds and playable characters featured in Funko Fusion feels absolutely random as opposed to what you would expect from a game like this, and while it is interesting to see some of these titles who have very low chances of being adapted into video games being represented, like The Umbrella Academy and Child’s Play, there are a lot of odd choices.
Even as a Simon Pegg fan, there’s really no reason for a company like Funko, who has so many licensing rights, to use Hot Fuzz of all things as a 5-stage world in their game, and then double down by having Shaun of the Dead as a special cameo world, just for good measure.
Funko Fusion launched in a rough state, riddled with performance issues, broken achievements, wonky controls, weird difficulty spikes, and what can only be described as an abundance of ways in which you can softlock yourself. Some of these issues have been corrected, like the achievements and difficulty, but the most glaring problems remain unchanged.
The game features some very obtuse mission design, thanks to its cluttered environments and almost random puzzles. You’ll always be second-guessing where to go or what to do, and will most likely have to restart a stage three or four times before being able to finish it once, thanks to the many ways you can get stuck.
What’s even more egregious is that most levels feature multiple objectives, meaning that if one doesn’t break, the other most likely will, forcing you to restart and redo everything. This happens way too often, to the point where it’s safe to assume that Funko Fusion simply skipped the QA part of development.
Funko Fusion features seven main worlds, each with five stages that serve as a loose adaptation of that franchise’s most iconic moments. They aren’t necessarily connected in a cohesive way, so the game feels like a mishmash of loose plot points connected by filler objectives.
Funko Fusion‘s cutscenes also attempt their best to replicate some of these franchises’ key moments in the game’s own style, but come off as dry and uninspired, essentially misunderstanding what makes these scenes work to begin with. It reads like some out-of-touch corporate entity pointing at a franchise you enjoy and expecting you to clap because it acknowledged it.
The worst part is that the game doesn’t even do fanservice correctly. Most characters play about the same and a good chunk of them don’t have any relevant skills, meaning they are almost never used for puzzles, instead becoming filler to pad out the game’s character roster.
Funko Fusion attempts to imitate some of the Lego game formula established by Traveller’s Tales, while also appealing to an older audience. The franchises featured as main worlds seem to be aimed towards millennials rather than kids, which makes sense considering they have always been Funko’s target demographic.
It’s astounding in hindsight to look at how Funko Fusion had a clear path to success, featuring a hobby that millennials enjoy wrapped up in a formula that is nostalgic to them, but still manages to drop the ball in such spectacular fashion by delivering absolutely nothing of worth to its target audience and forsaking a younger demographic by featuring too much horror content.
There is one silver lining to this entire thing, however, and it’s the fact that the game features a dodge roll and a stamina system, meaning that it can be considered, by a loose definition of the term, a souls-like, which would be pretty funny if someone who played Funko Fusion was capable of feeling joy again.
Overall, Funko Fusion looks, plays, and runs like an Unreal Engine fan project, while simultaneously having no charm of its own or any real art style aside from the game’s characters being Funko vinyls. The game’s attempts to replicate more popular things fall flat and don’t feel in sync with any of its source materials, as it fails to deliver anything interesting.
Even making an effort and ignoring the uninspired gameplay, shameless KFC product placement, and seemingly random selection of franchises, there is simply no way to look over how infuriating it is to play Funko Fusion. It constantly breaks for no good reason whatsoever, making for a legitimately unpleasant experience.
Funko Fusion was reviewed on Microsoft Windows using a game code provided by 1010 Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Funko Fusion is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows (trough Steam). A Nintendo Switch port is set to release later this year.
