Funko Fusion Review

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As a seasoned gamer who has spent countless hours exploring various game worlds and battling formidable foes, I must say that my experience with Funko Fusion has been rather underwhelming, to put it mildly. While the recent balance updates have certainly made some improvements, such as streamlining boss fights and speeding up progression, the game still falls short in many aspects.

I’ve never been one to collect Funko Pops, but Funko Fusion still caught my eye. I was intrigued by its bizarre concept of mashing together completely unrelated entertainment franchises into a third-person shooter, and when it became clear that it was inspired by the LEGO video games, I was even more on board. But after playing Funko Fusion, I can say that Funko fans should stick with buying the vinyl figures instead.

The concept of Funko Fusion, with its assorted mix of intellectual properties (IPs), seems intriguing on a theoretical level, but it falls short in practice. This game features a diverse range of IPs, from the chilling atmosphere of Five Nights at Freddy’s to the classic gaming feel of Mega Man. These IPs are brought to life through characters that can be unlocked and stages that can be played. Interestingly, seven franchises receive fully-fledged worlds where most of the gameplay occurs; however, it feels as though these IPs were selected at random, with no discernible strategy.

Even so, it can be fun to find special characters like Chucky from Child’s Play in Funko Fusion, and there is an absurdity to it all that at least makes things entertaining on a surface level. The developers clearly have a love for the IP featured in Funko Fusion, with clever touches like Number Five from Umbrella Academy teleporting instead of dodging like the other playable characters in the game. It’s also neat to see the worlds of these franchises recreated and hardcore fans of the IPs will get some entertainment value from exploring certain levels.

However, while Funko Fusion may seem intriguing in concept due to its fusion of various franchises, the experience of playing it is far from enjoyable. The initial appeal of a haphazard blend of universes quickly fades when players find themselves in the heat of battle, struggling with the game’s chaotic mechanics. A typical level in Funko Fusion resembles an open-ended playground where players wander around, tackle straightforward puzzles with ambiguous goals, and engage in heavy shooting of Funko Pop figures. The confusion sets in when it becomes unclear where to proceed or what action to take next, and the game is plagued by repetition and technical glitches. Players often grapple with uncertainty over whether they’re stuck because they haven’t figured out the solution or due to the game malfunctioning itself.

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
  • Jaws
  • Jurassic Park
  • KFC
  • Knight Rider
  • Masters of the Universe
  • M3GAN
  • Mega Man
  • The Mummy
  • Nope
  • 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

Despite everything functioning smoothly, the tasks in Funko Fusion can often be surprisingly dull. Repeated escort missions, seldom enjoyable, are a common feature across multiple stages. An especially frustrating escort mission is featured in the Jurassic World stage, where players must guide a gyroball through an area previously traversed in a prior level. The objective requires keeping enemies at bay from the ball while staying close enough to it for it to move, yet touching the ball causes players to fall down. This occurs numerous times, typically more than a dozen, before reaching the end of the level. Add to this the apparent lag issues that seem to plague the Jurassic World levels, and players will find little incentive to replay them.

As a devoted fan, I find myself grappling with the recurring stages in Funko Fusion, which unfortunately, reveals its secret characters and levels. Emulating LEGO’s gameplay style, the developers invite us to revisit levels with distinct characters boasting unique skills, capable of overcoming puzzles that initially seemed insurmountable. On paper, this mechanism could significantly boost Funko Fusion’s replay value. However, given the existing tedium in the stages themselves, the prospect of revisiting them stirs a feeling of apprehension rather than excitement.

Funko Fusion Boss Fights Are Awful

In the Funko Fusion game, the flaws in its boss battles are glaringly apparent. The boss fights, like the game’s levels, tend to be repetitive, prone to bugs, and can drag on excessively. Many of these bosses employ a ground-pound attack that forces players to jump over the resulting shockwave, and more often than not, defeating them involves shooting specific weak points or laboriously filling a pipe with purple goo. The irritation comes from the fact that it frequently takes too long for these bosses to become vulnerable to damage, and even then, some of them take so long to kill that players might wonder if there’s a glitch in the game.

Although Funko Fusion’s boss fights initially leave much to be desired, 10:10 Games has commendably addressed several issues since the game’s release. The most recent update for Funko Fusion has significantly improved boss encounters by eliminating the persistent enemy respawns. Previously, players had to contend not just with the boss, but also a relentless wave of enemies that often disrupted the focus on the actual fight. These enemies frequently interrupted healing animations as well, making recovery or activating buffs excessively challenging. However, following the update, Funko Fusion’s boss battles have seen noticeable enhancements, even though their fundamental design still requires refinement.

In the final battles of the worlds within Funko Fusion, there’s a kaiju-style showdown that spectators merely observe, leaving the experience somewhat underwhelming. Regrettably, each world’s narrative also falls short, with inadequate resolution. The Umbrella Academy world is particularly problematic as it only partially covers Season 1, while Season 2 is largely ignored and then the final stages take place during Season 3. This makes it difficult to keep track of or become invested in the storyline. Funko Fusion attempts to replicate the humorous approach of storytelling found in LEGO games, but it falls short of achieving that charm.

The recent tweak in Funko Fusion‘s balance has streamlined progression, allowing players to access new worlds quicker and reach the final boss more swiftly, even bypassing the requirement of finishing all additional stages.

In terms of its humorous cutscenes and overall idea, Funko Fusion frequently appears as a less successful clone of a LEGO game. It attempts to recreate the joy of destroying everything in sight, but falls short because most interactive items players can hit merely bounce, spin, or launch small orbs that function as Funko Fusion‘s currency. These orbs can be spent on machines situated throughout the levels for healing items, weapons, and crucial objects necessary to complete any particular level. This system is meant to mirror the buildable objects found in the LEGO games, but it fails to evoke the same enthusiasm.

One way to rephrase the given text in natural and easy-to-read language is: The unique aspect of LEGO games lies in their cooperative play feature. It’s been announced for quite some time that Funko Fusion will also offer co-op gameplay, but at present, it has not been implemented. However, Funko Fusion plans to introduce online co-op in October. Delaying such a significant feature at launch is puzzling. Players eager to experience Funko Fusion won’t likely still be waiting for co-op when the game comes out, and the levels aren’t engaging enough to warrant playing them twice with a friend.

The Funko Fusion game falls short in execution despite an intriguing idea, making it challenging to enjoy even with cooperative play. However, its recent balance adjustments have improved the experience slightly, hinting that further improvements might bring about a smoother gaming experience than initially anticipated.

Currently, the game titled “Funko Fusion” can be played on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. The versions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 will become available starting November 15. For this review, Game Rant received a PC code to play the game.

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2024-09-24 08:14