Funko Fusion is filled with novel ideas. In the levels inspired by The Thing, it’s got strong survival horror vibes, with Funko plastic twisted and melted to form a delightful body horror spree. The Umbrella Academy stage hides a compelling array of head-scratching puzzles – and a lovely tribute to Elliot Page in its depiction of Viktor Hargreeves.
In corners of each of its world, you’ll find an array of easter eggs. John Hammond of Jurassic Park pops up in the Jurassic World level. In crossover fashion, you’ll find folks like Chucky in Hot Fuzz‘s stage, and David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight (Knight Rider) in the Umbrella Academy stage. It’s a game that wants you to point and laugh at its many references, layering in the cheese to amp up its pop culture bonanza.
Your mileage with it will vary based on your tolerance to enthusiastic, unabashed fandom – and how much silliness can paper over enormous gameplay cracks.
As a fan of many of the franchises included in Funko Fusion – The Umbrella Academy, The Thing, Scott Pilgrim, Hot Fuzz – I was fairly well-served by the choices of these stages. There are seven total, and you’ll need to stomp your way through all of them to unlock various abilities and characters.
Playing through nearly the entire plot of The Umbrella Academy, facing down Hazel, Cha-Cha and pals in Funko form, was pure and delightful. I enjoyed the challenge of manipulating music to save Viktor as The White Violin. Exploring Sparrow Academy and solving its many exploration challenges was equally rewarding.
The recreation of Hot Fuzz‘s Sandford as a bright and cutesy but murder-filled local was bizarre and compelling.
But in stages for franchises I didn’t particularly care for – Jurassic World, He-Man, and Battlestar Galactica – the biggest flaws of Funko Fusion were made clearer. Away from the brain-tickling fog of spotting easter eggs and being amused by silly-bordering-on-stupid cutscenes, Funko Fusion is a surprisingly beige and relatively unpolished adventure platformer.
There’s a lot that unabashed glee can do for a game like Funko Fusion. But it can’t completely cover up just how strangely segmented and poorly-constructed the game is. Look closely, and you’ll find an egregious lack of polish in nearly every game facet.
Read: Funko Fusion preview: Bizarre and compelling at once
Cutscenes are fine, but they tend to interrupt gameplay in whiplash fashion, near-stalling the game every time they load in. There’s spelling and grammar errors in much of the game’s dialogue – and while not an essential part of gameplay, this contributes to that sense of slapdash work.
There’s also the matter that the game feels so incredibly disjointed and lacking an overarching narrative that would better tie everything in together. Playing a preview of Funko Fusion ahead of launch, I was confused about the guiding narrative, and assumed there would be an explanation of sorts about why these pop culture worlds are mashed together, and why these particular adult-oriented franchises were chosen (particularly as gameplay feels quite basic and kid-friendly).
As it turns out, there is none. You start the game choosing a character to play, and suddenly you’re thrust into a giant battle with an evil being known as Eddy – the mirror opposite to Funko’s mascot, Freddy. There’s no lore here at all, you’re simple thrown into battle, you defeat a towering beast, and then you enter your first round of worlds.
It’s not my position to speculate, but it does feel like 10:10 Games perhaps left some things unfinished in this presentation. Without a linking narrative or any real clues as to why “Funko Fusion” has begun, you’re left with seven disjointed stages adapting various pop culture franchises, with five levels in each, containing different styles of gameplay.
Frequently, these individual levels are compelling, as standalone experiences. But that’s part of the trouble in Funko Fusion – it is a smorgasbord collection of cool, fandom-pleasing ideas, without a bag to hold them. There’s extreme highs and lows in this journey, as defined by personal fandom. The highs of defeating towering beasts in The Umbrella Academy, and the lows of churning through cannon fodder as your attempt to fight Mer-Man in the Masters of the Universe stage. The highs of fighting the Dog-Thing in The Thing, and the lows of tranquillising velociraptors in Jurassic World.
At the end of the road, I was successfully confused by Funko Fusion. It’s a game that is bizarre and compelling at once. It’s good fun, but only when you let go of any notion of a game needing to be “good” rather than “enjoyable.” It’s packed with a multitude of clever little ideas, wonderful silliness, and cute homages. It gets away with a lot purely because it has a good heart, and one that appears to be in the right place.
But then again, it isn’t a particularly good and well-constructed game, and it does feel like there’s missed opportunities here. Some levels are plain boring, for one thing. For another, it has the most confusing array of franchises included for a game that seems to target younger players in design and humour.
Perhaps the intention is to allow younger players to engage with more mature franchises, to learn more about the classics in approachable form. But if that is the intention, it’s missed the mark in its overt gore and frequent horror tones. If it’s for nostalgic older players, then slapstick humour and a lack of genuine difficulty will more than likely turn them away.
Funko Fusion is a game of multiple pieces, none of which are particularly cohesive. Yet having played through, I still came away with a positive impression – and with strong feelings about “good” vs. “enjoyable” and what’s “enough” to make a game fun. Perhaps fun is all that matters, in a world where games are often taken too seriously.
Let go of your inhibitions, and Funko Fusion can be a real blast. Like a magic trick, you shouldn’t look too closely, though. Sometimes a game can be fun without being good, and Funko Fusion fits that description quite nicely.
Three stars: ★★★
Funko Fusion
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Developer: 10:10 Games
Publisher: 10:10 Games
Release Date: 13 September 2024
A PlayStation 5 code for Funko Fusion was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews were previously rated on a five-point scale. As of 29 July 2024, they are rated on a ten-point scale.
