I have never been one to collect Funko Pops, but Funko Fusion captivated me nonetheless. I was fascinated by the bizarre concept of mixing completely independent entertainment series into a third-person shooter, and when it became clear that it was from the LEGO Video games, I was even more on board. But after playing Funko FusionI can say that Funko fans should stick to buying the vinyl figures.
Funko FusionThe strange collection of random IPs sounds like a fun idea on paper, but doesn't work in execution. The list of Funko Fusion ranges from Five Nights at Freddy's To Mega Manrepresented by unlockable characters and playable levels. Seven of the franchises get fully-fledged worlds where most of the action takes place, although it's as if the IPs chosen for this larger focus were pulled out of a hat. It's baffling that The Umbrella AcademyYears after the peak of its popularity and with an almost universally panned final season, has five levels dedicated to it, while something with greater cultural relevance in 2024, like Invinciblehas only one. And although I love Edgar Wright's hilarious 2007 action comedy Hot Fuzzit is strange that it also has five levels, instead of Wright's own Shaun of the Deadwhich is clearly the more popular film.
Nevertheless, it can be fun to play special characters like Chucky from Child's play In Funko Fusionand there is something absurd about the whole thing that makes it entertaining, at least on the surface. The developers obviously have a fondness for the IP that Funko Fusionwith clever details like number five from Umbrella Academy Teleporting instead of dodging like the other playable characters in the game. It's also nice to see the worlds of these franchises recreated, and hardcore fans of the IPs will find their entertainment value in exploring certain levels.
But when it comes to actually playing the game, Funko Fusion is a disaster. Players will quickly forget the chaotic charm of throwing random franchises at a dartboard once they are in the trenches trying to play the game. A typical Funko Fusion Level is a mostly open area where players run around, solving simple puzzles with vague objectives and shooting lots of enemy Funko Pops. It can be confusing at times to know where to go next or what to do, and the game suffers from being extremely repetitive and buggy. Players don't know if they're stuck in the story because they haven't figured out what to do or because the game isn't working properly.
All franchises featured in Funko Fusion
- Back to the future
- Battlestar Galactica
- Big boy
- Child's play
- Five Nights at Freddy's
- Funko
- Hot Fuzz
- Invincible
- The Great White Shark
- Jurassic Park
- KFC
- Knight Rider
- Master of the Universe
- M3GAN
- Mega Man
- The Mummy
- No
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
- Shaun of the Dead
- Team Fortress 2 (DLC)
- The thing
- The Umbrella Academy
- The Walking Dead (DLC)
- Voltron: Legendary Defender
- Xena: Warrior Princess
And even if everything works properly, Funko Fusion Objectives can be incredibly boring. Several levels have escort missions that are rarely fun. A particularly annoying escort mission can be found in a Jurassic World Level where players must escort a gyro ball through an area they have already explored in a previous level. Players must keep enemies away from the ball and stay close to it to move it, but touching the ball will knock players over. This will happen about a dozen times until players reach the end of the level. Combine this with the extreme lag that the Jurassic World The levels seem to suffer and players will not want to play them again.
Unfortunately Funko Fusionsecret characters and levels often means that you have to replay levels you have already completed, which only increases the repetitiveness of the game. A page from the LEGO Game manual, players are encouraged to replay levels with different characters with unique abilities that can then be used to solve puzzles that were impossible to solve on the first playthrough. In theory, this would give Funko Fusion a high replay value, but since the levels are already so awful to play, the thought of playing them again leaves a deep feeling of dread.
Funko Fusion boss fights are terrible
Funko FusionThe biggest problems of become apparent in the gruesome boss fights. Like the levels, Funko Fusion Boss fights are repetitive, buggy, and often take far too long. Many of the bosses rely on a ground slam attack that sends out a shockwave that players must jump over, and in most cases, killing them requires shooting weak spots or laboriously filling a pipe with purple slime. The bosses are annoying because they often take too long to take damage, and even then, some of them take so long to kill that players wonder if the game is bugged.
But while Funko FusionBoss fights are terrible, 10:10 Games has, to their credit, already made some big improvements compared to the state of the game at the time of its release. The latest Funko Fusion Update rebalanced some boss fights to make them more bearable, mainly by removing the constantly respawning enemies. Before the update Funko Fusion Not only did players have to contend with the boss, but in some cases, they also had to deal with an endless barrage of enemies that made it difficult to focus on the fight itself. These enemies also often interrupted the drinking animations, making healing or activating buffs far more frustrating than necessary. After the update: Funko FusionThe boss fights have definitely been improved, although their basic design still leaves something to be desired.
The final boss fights at the end of Funko Fusion Worlds end with Kaiju-like battles where players don’t actually participate but instead watch the action unfold, which is disappointing to say the least. The stories told in each world also suffer from a lack of proper resolution, with The Umbrella Academy World is one of the worst offenders. The first two missions tell the story of Season 1, but Season 2 is mostly skipped and the last few levels take place in Season 3. It's impossible to follow or care about. Funko Fusion tries to imitate the LEGO However, the games' slapstick way of retelling stories is a poor imitation.
Funko Fusion
The recent balance update also improved gameplay, allowing players to unlock new worlds faster and reach the final boss without having to complete all the bonus levels.
From the unfunny cutscenes to the overall concept, Funko Fusion often seems like an off-brand LEGO game. It tries to recreate things like the fun of smashing every object in sight, but delivers something far less satisfying, as most of the objects players can hit don't even break. Mostly they bounce, spin, and shoot little orbs that act as Funko FusionThe currency of. Players can spend this money on machines in the levels to obtain healing items and weapons and to generate important objects needed to pass a level. I think this is supposed to Funko FusionEquivalent of the buildable objects in LEGO Games, but like the other options Funko Fusion tries to copy the LEGO games, it doesn't create the same excitement.
A defining feature of the LEGO Games is co-op support. As expected, Funko Fusion The co-op feature was confirmed a long time ago, but is not yet available in the game at the time of writing this article. Funko Fusion will be getting online co-op in October, but not having such an important feature available at launch is a real headache. Anyone interested in playing through Funko Fusion You'll have already done this if co-op mode is included in the game, and the levels aren't nearly fun enough to justify playing through them again with a friend.
Funko Fusion messes up its interesting concept with low-level gameplay, and it's hard to see how a co-op approach could make it more bearable. That being said, the game's latest balance update has has at least made it a little better, and perhaps future updates will make a bigger difference than expected.
Funko Fusion is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, with Switch and PS4 versions coming November 15. Game Rant was provided with a PC code for this review.
