Funko Fusion review: Plastic landfill

The fact that it has taken this long for us to get a Funko-inspired game is quite honestly mind-blowing. The collectable figurine empire has grown to a ridiculous level over the years. It's likely worth billions, and yet we haven't seen a digital game since Gears Pop (remember that?).

That's all changed thanks to the arrival of Funko Fusion. The trailers had everyone excited about the prospect of crossovers that were possible, but it feels like an opportunity squandered no matter how many cool tie-ins are included.

Swanning About

Funko Fusion starts by allowing you to dive into several separate campaign starting points all revolving around different movie and television franchises. The options you get at the start are Hot Fuzz, The Umbrella Academy, Battlestar Galactica, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, The Thing, Jurassic World and The Masters Of The Universe. Each of these starting points in Funko Fusion will give you the chance to play as four different characters from your chosen franchise which you can chop and change between at any point. 

Each square-headed character you can choose has a different ability, each of which will offer different levels of assistance for the levels you explore. I went for The Umbrella Academy on my first Funko Fusion playthrough but found in the earlier levels that I was only really relying on the characters Number Five and Allison. Both Diego and Klaus were relegated to the sidelines, with them not having any real use at all.

I then switched to the Hot Fuzz Funko Fusion campaign and encountered similar issues the same with some of the characters getting more of a priority over others. It forces your hand to take a certain route, and leaves the remaining characters as mostly window dressing and ultimately useless.

Rinse and Repeat

While there are a number of unique gameplay elements on offer in Funko Fusion, the core gameplay grows repetitive very quickly. There are plenty of missions where you are escorting some sort of object or person from point A to B with enemies stopping you every two minutes that you're required to clear with repetitive combat.

There are also plenty of levels where you face smaller boss battles which are dragged on for so long thanks to simple mechanics. To defeat one-half of the mini-bosses in The Umbrella Academy stages, you essentially just need to visit six different rooms on the same floor and knock the boss about until they run into the next room.

Gameplay is tough to get excited about, and it simply feels like a way to funnel you through a dull rollercoaster of your favourite franchises without giving you much to do in them. The result feels very hollow.

Like a Headless Chicken

I don’t often like having my hand held, but Funko Fusion takes things to a whole new level with no real guidance on what's next, where you should go, or what to interact with. It's at odds with the relatively basic nature of the controls and action and means Funko Fusion may be tougher to recommend for younger gamers.

I'm not asking for big arrows to guide my path through each stage, but a little less ambling would have made my time with Funko Fusion much more enjoyable.

One bonus mission early on offers the tantalising reward of the Knight Rider bonus character and K.I.T.T car. All you need to do is outrun the car, but it's not entirely clear how, or what constitutes a viable way of completing the task. Fail the race, and you have to run all the way back.

It's hardly game-breaking, but it does pad out a relatively thin set of mechanics - and not necessarily in a good way.

I persisted with Funko Fusion through a few of the campaign scenarios thinking the issues that I had faced might be just linked to one specific campaign, but they were not. Over and over again I was left feeling frustrated by a level of jank that made me question what year it was.

Perhaps one of Funko Fusion's biggest crimes is in the soundtrack, or lack thereof. So many key tracks are missing from their respective franchises that it comes across as feeling a little cynical, like a merchandising opportunity first and a game second.

The Verdict

While Funko Fusion offers a huge array of characters and recognisable locations, the wonder is short-lived thanks to repetitive action and baffling design choices.

Here's hoping for better next time around - many of these franchises deserve it.

Reviewed on PS5. Code provided by the publisher.