I have to admit that a thing that has passed me by utterly is Funko Pops. Despite nearly every shop I go into having at least one shelf filled with these wide-headed characters, I’ve never owned one. So it’s with a small sense of bafflement that I look at Funko Fusion, a pop culture-filled action game that’s out now. That said, there may be some reasons to work through that fog of confusion and give Funko Fusion a chance.
There are two saving graces that make me look at Funko Fusion with anything other than abject cynicism. One is its developer, 1010 Games, which is made up of people who worked on the LEGO games and is helmed by the founder of LEGO studio Traveller’s Tales. If Funko Fusion can recreate that same sort of joyful, chaotic, action-adventure game style, then it might be a winner. A quick glance at any gameplay footage and you can see there is a lineage there, with this looking a little like an HD LEGO game in some ways.
The other is the recent success of Astro Bot. Now – wait a minute, don’t reach for the pitchforks yet. I’m not saying Funko Fusion is basically Astro Bot on PC, but it might be the nearest we can get on our beloved home computers. They both have the same sort of rambunctious, platformer action with levels containing minigames and abilities you can deploy to solve puzzles and earn rewards. And then there’s the references.
Astro Bot is absolutely chock-full of references to other Sony properties, from Days Gone to Bloodborne, feeling at times like a PlayStation greatest hits album. Funko Fusion, as befitting a Funko game, does much the same – but for pop culture at large. From Knight Rider to Invincible and beyond, it promises over 20 franchises lurking under its plastic hood.
It’s that roster of properties it’s managed to secure that brings back a little of the bafflement, however. This is a game where The Thing and Jurassic World rub shoulders, where Hot Fuzz and He-Man can share a level, where The Umbrella Academy and The Walking Dead trot side-by-side. It’s almost too much, a true hodge-podge of popular culture all blended together into one slurry. As someone who feels the years pass by with increasing speed it does feel a little exhausting, but that’s alright – it’s simply not aimed at me. So while I may look at Funko Fusion with a furrowed brow like a horse trying to do algebra, there may be plenty out there for whom this is exactly the thing they’ve been looking for.
Though you will have to explain why Colonel Sanders is there to me.
Funko Fusion is out now. If you’d like to check it out for yourself, head over to Steam to make up your own mind.
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