Is it worth it?
Summary
Funko Fusion has enough there for both children and adults to enjoy, and I think that it is definitely worth checking out.
Developer – 1010 Games Ltd.
Publisher – 1010 Games Ltd.
Platforms – PS4/5 (Reviewed), Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
Review copy given by Developer
When I first got my hands on Funko Fusion, I had no idea what I was getting into. I didn’t even know the game was coming out and I was a pretty big Funko Pop collector a few years back. After seeing the synopsis and the similarities to the Lego games, I was pretty excited to give it a try. With levels themed around properties like Masters of the Universe, The Thing, and Hot Fuzz, I was even more interested to see how far they would go to keep it accurate to those worlds. Surprisingly enough, outside of a few annoyances, I had a pretty good time!
When you first start the game, we see the Funko mascot Freddy having his crown stolen by an evil version named Eddy. The crown is shattered into several different pieces and each of those pieces is launched into its own world. Your task is to retrieve those pieces and bring them back to Freddy so he can repair the crown and stop Eddy from achieving Funko universe domination. It’s a pretty basic story and as we get individual pieces back we see short cutscenes that educate us on the creation of Eddy.
In each world, which is represented by a floor of the Funko factory, there are individual levels that you can go inside. Think of Mario 64 and the paintings, you get access to the first level and after you beat that you can go to the next level. Once you get a certain number of gold crowns you can then open up a new floor of the factory and a whole new world of characters.
In each world there is a specific set of characters that you can use at first and you also discover a tool that you will use throughout the 5 individual levels of that world. All of these aspects come together to create different obstacles where you have to use those tools and the character’s powers to overcome.This is very much like a Lego game, where individual characters can do specific things like breaking gold objects, using a flamethrower, and teleporting.
One nice aspect of the progression system is you get to choose the order of the worlds you want to play. Myself, being a huge horror fan, I chose John Carpenter’s The Thing. I was actually shocked with how well The Thing was represented in the game, they didn’t shy away from the horror aspects and while it was made a bit light due to the type of game this was actually really cool! However, this is where the technical problems started to crop up.
During some of the boss fights certain targets seemed to be bugging out blocking progression. Frame rate issues and stuttering was frequent when first starting the game but seemed to stabilize later on. There were a few times where I had to completely restart a level due to random issues but luckily the levels are about 30 minutes each, so it was not a huge loss of time but definitely annoying. Other people that were watching my playthrough were noting this as well in the comments so it wasn’t just me. There was a patch released this Monday that was supposed to address a lot of these issues along with progression quality of life changes so a lot has been fixed! I replayed a level that I know I had issues with and it worked properly after this patch.
Also along with the previously mentioned update, they fixed a major issue I had with progression. Originally you had to finish all five levels to unlock characters and complete the full world in order to move onto the next world which basically meant you needed to play through all the worlds and then revisit them multiple times to get all the unlockables. This update should reduce a lot of that backtracking and that is a great thing. Unfortunately for me, this is after I had already beaten the game so I still have to do the backtracking, but new players should have a much better experience so I can’t fault the game at this point for that.
Along with the major worlds there are also cameo levels and hidden unlockable characters to be found, the cameo levels are about 30-40 minutes each and are completely separated from the other world’s themes. To find these, you have to have specific powers and tools that are unlocked by other characters and you will find them hidden in a few levels throughout the game.
These are some of my favorite experiences! Five Nights at Freddy’s added a new mechanic of finding time tokens using security cameras and then collecting them around the level to advance time. As you progressed through the nights, more enemies began to populate as well so that was fun.
Overall, I’d have to say I enjoyed my time with Funko Fusion! Even though I didn’t have some of the quality of life changes of the most recent patch in my playthrough, I think a lot of my individual gripes have been fixed and won’t be noticed by new players which is a great thing.
You have to respect developers that continue to work on a game when there are issues and want to provide the best available game. I put in about 50 hours and have finished collecting about 60% of everything that the game offers so there is plenty there in terms of content. Funko Fusion has enough there for both children and adults to enjoy, and I think that it is definitely worth checking out.
There is a demo currently available as well to get a feel for the game and see if it is something for you. I hope you had as much fun as I did!
