Developer: 10:10 Games
Release: September 2024
Genre: Third-person shooter, puzzle game
Version Reviewed: Xbox Series X/S
During their first 12 years (the years no one remembers), Funko came out with various collectable bits and pieces, beginning with merchandise depicting classic cartoon characters. However, most Funko fans, haters, and casual observers are most familiar with the Funko Pop! line, which began in 2010.
Eleven years later, Funko Pops! can be found littering the display shelves of every stall at your average Comic-Con or Supanova expo. Understandably, there are people who are sick of these ubiquitous Coca-Cola vending machines replacing the vintage soda streams that are classic pop culture collectibles. The main criticism levelled at Funko Pops! is that they all play off the same basic design and subsequently lack character. However, I have always felt that the main appeal of them lies in the artistry of adding only the minimum number of changes necessary to make them recognisable as a particular character/celebrity. It is amazing how the addition of distinctive eyebrows or a simple moustache can turn an otherwise bland blob of plastic into the unmistakable likeness of Toby Flenderson or Freddie Mercury.
Therefore, when I heard there was going to be a tie-in video game, in a similar vein to the LEGO games, and that it included Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead content, there was no way I could resist (both as a Cornetto Trilogy obsessive and as a LEGO Star Wars obsessive). The IPs included in the game, to Funko’s credit, aren’t just the ones that have already been milked by countless other games. Instead we get entire 6-level campaigns based on cult classics like the original Battlestar Galactica, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and of course Hot Fuzz. The game also includes a couple of blockbusters like Jurassic World, but I don’t think anyone is complaining about that.
Shaun of the Dead was confined to a single bonus ‘cameo’ level, but it was impressive that it made it in at all. Another particularly welcome bonus character was Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess, who can be unlocked after the player has found her hiding in 7 different worlds. Her inclusion brought back fever dream-like memories of the time I was forced to write about Xena: Warrior Princess at school, when I should have been made to study Shakespeare or Orwell (there are several academic papers on Xena, discussing both spiritual themes and social issues to be fair).
The IP-specific stories that did get the full 6 level treatment were all connected by a meta story about Freddy Funko, who is both the Funko mascot and, in Funko Fusion, the owner of the great Wonderworks Factory. Trouble begins when Freddy’s evil counterpart, Eddy Funko becomes envious of Freddy and plots to steal Freddy’s power over the Funkoverse. The player has to foil Eddy’s plans by embodying characters from all the different worlds where Eddy is enacting his dastardly schemes, with each world representing one of the main featured IPs.
These worlds all have a different feel to them, from The Thing with its constant ominous soundtrack to Masters of the Universe with its distinctively 80s explosions and He-Man theme music.
As one can guess from my previous comments, I was most looking forward to the Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead levels and was disappointed that neither were massive highlights of the game. It was cool to see various Hot Fuzz characters in Funko form for the first time, including Michael Armstrong/Lurch, the drunk ginger kid who gave Sergeant Angel sass, and Bill Bailey’s Turner twins (nobody tells me nuffin).
The Hot Fuzz levels closely follow the plot of the film and each level adopts a slightly different but equally lacklustre formula, starting with the first level, which involves the simple repetition of gaining access to a crime scene, scanning some blood stains, then repeating the process at a different location.
In the Shaun cameo level, it was predictably satisfying to explore Shaun’s slice of London while headshotting large headed Funko zombies with the notorious Winchester rifle. However, the level is essentially a fairly tedious escort mission and I repeatedly found myself completely abandoning the main objective to scope out the cool details and references lying around (finding Shaun’s flatmate, Pete, standing naked and zombified in the bath was a highlight).
Just to ensure that the game didn’t butcher every Edgar Wright film it touched, more effort seems to have been made with the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World levels, which felt somewhat more varied and fun. It is also during these levels that the player obtains the jukebox, which can be used to smash glass through the power of Scott’s guitar, and is probably the best piece of equipment in the game.
Funko Fusion contains several collectable items, including fossils (in homage to Jurassic World), silver crowns, and buckets of KFC. It also contains an in-game currency, which consists of a colourful substance called ‘vinyl’. Vinyl is mostly obtained through vandalism, and I must admit that repetitive smashing and looting serves as such a satisfying form of neurodivergent stimming that it can suck me into finishing an otherwise average game.
However, even this smashing and looting suffers from a few issues. Firstly, on a purely aesthetic level, neither bullets nor melee weapons actually smash most items in the game, and instead just cause them buckle from the impact, and spew a small amount of vinyl. More importantly, when smashing items and collecting dough in the LEGO games, your efforts are rewarded with a large catalogue of bonus characters and other extras that require LEGO studs to buy. Although Funko Fusion contains over 60 playable characters, most are obtained by finishing cameo quests, completing sets of collectables, or typing in DLC codes.
Vinyl is useful for purchasing non-permanent items within each level, but you will end up with an insane amount left over and not much of interest to buy with it. You can use this excess to buy bonus skins for your characters (zombie, rainbow coloured etc), but just like the real life Funko variants (chrome, glow-in-the-dark etc) the majority are fairly pointless and often a downgrade from the default appearance of any given character.
Overall, Funko Fusion is an ok-ish bit of novelty fun for fans of the relevant IPs, but unless you’ve utterly desperate for an interactive Hot Fuzz, or can handle repetition as well as I can, it’s probably best to wait until Funko Fusion is cheap on Steam or free on Xbox Game Pass.
References
Clark, D. (n.d.). A brief history of Funko [COLLECTIBLES]. Entertainment Earth. https://www.entertainmentearth.com/news/history-funko/
Collier, N. R., Lumadue, C. A., & Wooten, H. R. (2009). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess: Reception of the texts by a sample of lesbian fans and web site users. Journal of Homosexuality, 56(5), 575-609. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918360903005253
Friedmann, J. L. (2022). The Binding of Ikus—Reimagining the Akedah in Xena: Warrior Princess. Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 34(3), 190-200. https://doi.org/10.3138/jrpc.2020-0019
JoBlo Originals. (2021, June 28). WTF happened to Battlestar Galactica? (1978) [Online video]. YouTube.
RuggedEagle. (2021, May 25). Ranking every LEGO game from WORST to BEST [Online video]. YouTube.
Vintage malt shops images 1930s-1950s. (2015, May 22). The Vintage Inn. https://www.vintageinn.ca/2015/05/vintage-malt-shops/