It makes fitting that someone eventually gathered up a number of these block-headed bookshelf warmers and included them in their own video game since it almost seems like licensed Funko Pop figurines are being born into the world at a faster pace than real human newborns right now. Funko Fusion builds its marketing campaign around seven of the most popular TV series and movies, such as Masters of the Universe and Jurassic World, and jams it full of legendary pop culture cameos from characters like Mega Man and Marty McFly. Though it appears authentic to the distinct Funko style at first appearance, the entire thing collapses like a doll with a head too big for its body due to its useless story, mind-numbingly repetitive mission design, and frustrating game-breaking bugs.
Funko Fusion’s eclectic selection of well-known stories can be played in any order. It is essentially a third-person shooter take on the tried-and-true LEGO video game formula (à la LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga), down to the fact that practically everything around you can be belligerently smashed into studs, sorry, chunks of vinyl. The sequence I chose did not seem to have much bearing on the paper-thin overall plot, which revolves around a good vs evil fight between Funko Freddy and the evil Eddy Funko. Instead, I decided to open with Hot Fuzz and close with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The more ardent Funko collectors may recognize these two faces, but having bought only a few of them, I think it is best to keep the discussion about these utterly dull and undeveloped arch-rivals to myself.
You can choose from four different characters at each of the five phases of each substory. Occasionally, there is a compelling reason to do so, like in The Umbrella Academy when I used Allison to manipulate some weak NPCs into following her orders and then switching to Number Five because of his ability to bend space-time to reach otherwise unreachable locations. However, most of the time, there are not many differences between each character save for their basic characteristics, like how quickly their weapons fire.
The same fetch quest and escort mission formats are frequently repeated in levels across all seven substories. Additionally, encounters are frequently copied and pasted to artificially extend each stage to frankly offensive lengths. One such instance is the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World encounter, which required me to fight the same few variations of a cloned stunt double enemy in three or four nearly identical scraps in a row. This comes before the boss fights that conclude in each substory share the same incredibly unsatisfactory pattern. In each boss encounter, you have to blast purple blobs off a huge bad’s body while avoiding its hordes of minions until you gather enough purple goo to fill a towering Funko flask. At this moment, you can summon a massive Pop, such as a T-Rex or Battle Cat, to eliminate the monster as you automatically shoot vinyl pieces out of its body and attempt not to look bored until the cutscene appears.
I generally thought that combat was quite difficult. Funko popping the enemy Funko heads off their little Funko shoulders is rewarding enough at first, but it rapidly gets boring as you battle through these big-headed hordes in waves that are intermittently restricted and irksomely endless at other times. The only significant distinction between each confrontation is which opponents you must fire, which enemy you must whack with your sword, and which enemies you must shoot until they are dazed to whack them with your sword. It grows stale quickly.
Solving puzzles performs somewhat better, at least in sections. While there are still many repetitive tasks to complete, such as crank wheel spinning and timed switch shooting, there are some memorable moments, such as the He-Man parts with a lot of portals and the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World sequence where players use guitar amplifiers to smash through broken glass windows. That is, if these riddles function as intended; however, more on that in a moment.
Vinyl Fantasy
Give credit where credit is due: the 1010 Games development team has done a fantastic job of reproducing the extremely distorted vinyl idols and setting them in some charming miniature toy cities for you to explore. When I first started the Hot Fuzz campaign, I was excited to follow the meddling swan about the charming hamlet streets of Sandford and find the huskies strewn over the chilly steel surfaces of Thule Station in the Antarctic environs of John Carpenter’s The Thing.
Even though I am not too familiar with this series, The Umbrella Academy’s colorful bowling alley combat was especially impressive, and Masters of the Universe’s Eternia’s swirling cartoon explosions were a nice addition. Funko Fusion’s appearance and feel are the result of much effort, and there are many hidden Easter eggs throughout its many worlds.
However, despite Funko Fusion’s abundance of recognizable characters and settings, it lacks a surprising amount of its own identity. I can only remember laughing at Funko Fusion once throughout its entire campaign when the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica nod in approval at Knight Rider’s KITT after realizing the strobing red light on its grill mirrors the one on their visor lenses. In the past, I have laughed a lot at games like LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga or LEGO Marvel Super Heroes because of the many clever comedic touches they bring to each adventure.
It is difficult for these miniature warriors to appear like anything other than lifeless empty vessels in place of some of my favorite fictional characters because they typically lack character voices and facial expressions. The accompanying He-Man theme song is doing much of the heavy lifting as Adam raises the Power Sword with a nonplussed look on his face.
There is no signposting and the mission objectives are rather confusing.
Its cast of characters does not talk at all, save from the occasional static speech bubble, and Funko Fusion does not communicate very well either. Mission objectives are frequently quite confusing and do not provide any guidance. This frequently resulted in a lot of backtracking, especially because there is no minimap to help you navigate some of the game’s larger environments—like the Jurassic World shopping area. Frequently, I would go back and redo my steps just to locate a vending machine where I could make health potions and discover pieces of equipment to solve puzzles like jump pads and gas canisters.
.. To be honest, I believe I played through more virtual vending machines in Funko Fusion than I did in all of the Like a Dragon games put together. It is also a little bothersome that you have to go back to locate a Funko Pop display box to change characters; there should have been a menu button that would have allowed us to do so instantly.
Additionally, it does a poor job of explaining why some of your shots hit larger monsters and others do not. In The Umbrella Academy, a large samurai mini-boss had a bright red weak spot on his back. I spent years blazing away at it, continuously registering as ineffectual red Xs onscreen until it abruptly changed to hit point numbers falling off him with no change in my approach. That was one confusing instance of Funko Fusion’s combat’s counterintuitive quirk, but it was not the only one.
Even worse, Funko Fusion does not reveal to you right away that you need to collect 45 golden crowns to access the game’s final plot battle. I had to backtrack and go through levels I had already finished in search of special cameo missions to harvest the extra crowns from because I had only completed 38 of the seven major plot tasks. This put a three-hour stop to my story’s progress. After that, when I managed to start the last encounter, I had to endure a ridiculously drawn-out boss battle that dared to need me to pump rounds into its eight distinct forms for about forty-five minutes before cutting to an unexpected
Go Funk Yourself
If the initial PlayStation 5 version that I played is any indication, Funko Fusion has sadly arrived in stores somewhat damaged in the box, although most dedicated collectors prefer to keep their Funko Pops immaculate. Apart from minor presentational issues like cutscenes freezing while the audio played or background music disappearing completely for extended periods of a level, I have encountered numerous other annoyances such as puzzles breaking and impeding my progress, vending machine screens freezing and preventing me from leaving, and multiple crashes during boss fight loading screens.
I once encountered a Masters of the Universe level where I needed to create two portals to complete a certain challenge. However, the vending machine informed me that the first portal was out of stock. I restarted the level after spending around thirty minutes attempting in vain to figure out how to solve the puzzle with only one portal, only to discover—to my absolute dismay—that there were now several portals available. I was utterly perplexed during the previously stated Shaun of the Dead-based level as to why, in the face of incessant waves of zombies, the automobile I was escorting just would not move. Eventually, I discovered that a zombie had glitched into a piece of scenery.
Verdict
Funko Fusion has no shortage of big heads, yet despite this, it still manages to lack many fresh and intriguing concepts. Its child-pleasing character styles and LEGO-like level design are oddly married to a lot of clearly adult film and television licenses. Its simple shooting is boring, its numerous glitches and backtracking needs are tiresome, and it just looks like a bad idea from the start. It has the iconic appearance of the pint-sized collectibles down pat, but it is not very enjoyable to play, therefore, like your Funko Pop collection, it is probably better kept on the shelf.
