We figured Funko Fusion could have been fun — or even a surprise gem. Except Funko Fusion isn’t either of those things. Much like the figurines the game is based on, it feels soulless and a poor approximation of the pop culture it’s trying to represent.
The main point of comparison with Funko Fusion is the LEGO games of years past, except instead of Jurassic World and Harry Potter, it’s working with the likes of Hot Fuzz, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and Back to the Future. Yet, despite following the plots of these classics to a T, the game lacks the visual gags and charm that made said LEGO games sing. Part of this can be attributed to the bland look of the Funko Pops themselves, but it’s something that still has to be acknowledged.
The game itself plays like an off-brand LEGO game: you travel around five levels in each hub, solving puzzles and battling enemies with the mechanics available to you, and then later on you can go back in with characters with different powers to unlock new stuff. There are also hidden crowns in each stage that act like the Minikits which unlock extra characters. Despite being simplistic, it’s also incredibly vague about certain puzzles or when you need to bring another world’s character in to interact with something.
There are seven different worlds to play through, each taking you through the plot of a movie or show, while hidden in these worlds are Cameo levels, which are secret one-off levels. Each world consists of doing roughly the same repetitive tasks before taking on a boss at the end, which involves summoning a giant Funko and shooting at it from distance.
The combat feels awkward; the game is buggy, and filled with abrupt cutscene transitions. At the end of the day, we’re left asking, ‘Who is this for?’ Children don’t care about Battlestar Galactica and The Thing, and adults won’t love the boring, simplistic gameplay loop.