'Funko Fusion' is a children's action-adventure game in the third person, based on the popular Funko Pop toys. The developers are 10:10 Games, for whom 'Funko Fusion' is the first published video game. We played the PlayStation 5 version. It can be played solo, and there is also a local and online cooperative mode.
'Funko Pop' are globally popular toys. If there is someone living under a rock who has never heard of them, they are tabletop figurines of characters from almost all popular global franchises – from Marvel to The Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, the most popular franchises have not found their place in this game, but there are still about twenty popular ones – Jurassic World, Back to the Future, Hot Fuzz, The Thing, The Umbrella Academy, and there are also DLCs with worlds from The Office, Wicked, and Bob Ross franchises. It is a true wonder that this is the first game based on Funko Pop toys, as they have been around for many years.
Let's start with the story. It is not something that will be talked about for long, if it is talked about at all. The leader of the Funkos, Freddy, is attacked by Eddy Funko, and after an introductory battle, Eddy escapes through Funko worlds and we must collect hidden Funko crowns and defeat Eddy. After this introductory battle, we can start with whichever Funko world we want. I chose the Jurassic World, which seemed the most interesting of all the starting worlds available.
The worlds are made super well, and there are many details, so-called easter eggs that connect the world of the Funko Fusion game with movies and cartoons from that franchise. However, we soon realize that this game, like other children's games, is repetitive. The levels (worlds) are visually different, but each is actually the same in terms of combat and exploration. Also, each level is unnecessarily long. It is a real struggle to go through the entire world and defeat the opponents. What bothers the most is that the game has no maps, and there is a significant lack of guidance or instructions. It would be great if the game were open-world, but it is not. You are always asked to do something specific, which you have to discover on your own while constantly being attacked by annoying and irritating opponents. This wouldn't be a problem if the game were more fun and if there were a more interesting way to defeat opponents. Targeting with various weapons, in my opinion, is not a good mechanic for this type of game. The game would be better suited to some sword fighting, slashing, or RPG-style combat. It is frustrating to constantly empty and reload weapons, which takes too long. During the levels, there are no checkpoints; if you do something wrong or get defeated, you go back to the beginning. And that always means watching uninteresting introductory cutscenes again, which cannot be skipped.
In the game, there is collecting items, opening various chests and boxes. In the initial level, it's somewhat fun, but soon it becomes boring. Gameplay, fun, combat, and exploration are not the strong points of this game – so let's move on to the positive aspects. Specifically, the positive aspect – the variety of characters and a ton of references to popular global franchises. They didn't hold back on that – the diversity of characters you can play with is impressive. I can't think of any game where we can play with more than 60 different characters from popular franchises, so in that regard, this game is unique. An interesting feature is the popular Funko boxes that are found everywhere, and with them, we can change characters in the specific world we are in at any time – for example, we played as Owen Grady at the beginning, but we could always swap him for the fun Ian Malcolm or Claire Dearing from the same world. However, even though there is a variety of characters, it doesn't really matter which one we have, as the gameplay is the same with any character. Unfortunately, no character brings any special ability that would differentiate them from the character we previously used.
All in all, the game has its fun moments and is somewhat interesting with numerous references to popular franchises. Additionally, very few elements can justify the price (34.99 euros currently on the PS Store + any additional known Funko franchise figures for about 30-40 extra euros). This game could capture a child's attention for a while, and the target players would be those who are just crazy in love with Funko Pop figures.
A copy of the game for review purposes was provided by the development studio 10:10 Games
