Funko Fusion is a new game from the dead-eyed vinyl figures that appears to be the most excessive blending of IP I’ve ever seen. From 10:10 Games comes a new title that mixes the universes of Jurassic World, Back to the Future, Umbrella Academy, The Thing, Child’s Play, Masters of the Universe, and goodness knows what else. Given the brand, I imagine it has almost every single property under the sun at its morbid disposal.
Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth both have Funko Pops, so 10:10 Games could easily bring the duo back to life and have them stranded in the science lab from The Thing as fellow royals are slowly taken over by hostile alien forces. Or it could bring countless other dead celebs back to life and put them into its weird video game. God, this is really digging into my dark side. Putting the sheer amount of weird possibilities aside, the game could be pretty fun.
While it isn’t launching until 2024, a reveal trailer for Funko Fusion offers an initial tease of the included universes. Most of the footage features recreations of famous movie scenes and character reveals, but towards the latter half we can glimpse a few moments of gameplay which resembles the popular Lego games, along with any other licensed tie-in platformer from the past several decades. It isn’t set to break any new ground or even push the boat out in its own tried-and-true genre, although I’m not sure if it needs to. Give me familiar characters, fun environments, and cool puzzles and you’re already onto a winner. It worked for Lego’s The Skywalker Saga, and it’ll probably work fine here.
I’ll be clear that I don’t like Funko Pops. I hate the creepy little bastards, and think their rise in popularity is responsible for an increased proliferation of similarly unimaginative products on the market. However, the reality is that these things are popular and a game of this magnitude was inevitable.
I’d much rather milk some fun out of my critique instead of sinking all the way into cynicism, and from a first glance this game looks alright. It seems to have a good variety of characters, plenty of puzzles, and wide open environments that recreate worlds we enjoy with a decent level of accuracy. Line the progression with enough collectibles and secrets, and you are already halfway there. Normally I’d turn my nose up at overstuffed IP nonsense, yet with Funko this excess is entirely the point. I can’t beat them, so I might as well join up for a bit.
Funko Fusion is likely going to launch with a few isolated worlds with their own selection of characters and mechanics which can easily be expanded on with downloadable content or live service updates later down the line. Lego Dimensions and Disney Infinity attempted this years ago, but their reliance on real plastic toys meant that the audience proved too small. Fusion could avoid that pitfall, not to mention that the current climate is likely far more willing to accept an experiment like this.
Who knows, it could be a capitalist pop vinyl nightmare, and I’ll be eating my words next year.