Funko Fusion (2024): The Review
Overview
Funko Fusion is a curious case of too much ambition and too little payoff. Despite boasting a wide range of levels, it’s disappointing that most of the IPs, even some major ones, don’t get the attention they deserve. The repetitive and uninspired gameplay loop drags things down further, even if the shooting mechanics hold up well enough. And while the visuals are solid, the rest of the package feels exactly like the game itself, uninspired, uneven, and ultimately forgettable.
Score: 6 out of 10
The Positives ✅
At its best, Funko Fusion looks like the kind of crossover chaos that should’ve worked. The idea of mashing together over twenty pop culture worlds inside a glossy, toybox aesthetic sounds like instant gold, and, to its credit, it sometimes shines that way. Visually, it’s a treat. The Funko Pops are surprisingly expressive and the worlds you visit, from Jurassic World to Hot Fuzz and The Thing, have all been recreated with genuine love for their source material. There’s something undeniably satisfying about seeing these familiar sets and characters reimagined in Funko form, even if the charm wears off a little fast.
The shooting mechanics, too, are solid enough to stand on their own. While it’s not exactly genre-defining, the act of blasting through hordes of enemies feels decent, and each character having their own weapons and melee attacks gives things a tiny bit of personality. There’s variety here, and for a moment, you might even believe you’re playing a worthy spiritual successor to the LEGO games. Collectibles and secrets are plentiful, and for completionists, there’s no shortage of things to hunt down, though whether you’ll want to is another story.
Even the set pieces deserve some credit. They look great, and the developers clearly understood the assignment when it came to representing different franchises under the Funko aesthetic. Fans will find joy in spotting cameos or laughing at how certain iconic movie scenes have been cheekily remade. For a brief while, that nostalgia hit really does carry you through.
The Negatives ⚠️
Unfortunately, once the initial novelty fades, Funko Fusion starts collapsing under its own plastic weight. The game boasts a ridiculous number of IPs, yet only a handful actually get proper attention. You start off choosing from seven main worlds, Jurassic World, Hot Fuzz, Battlestar Galactica, Umbrella Academy, Masters of the Universe, The Thing, and Scott Pilgrim, and that’s… pretty much it. Everything else? Hidden cameos. It’s a massive missed opportunity, especially when you realize that most of the franchises only exist as tiny side stages you’ll reach deep into the campaign.
Gameplay-wise, things don’t fare much better. While the core shooting feels fine, everything around it just crumbles. The enemies are generic, they swarm endlessly, and fights quickly devolve into exhausting chaos. The level design is full of invisible walls, awkward geometry, and inconsistent death zones that make exploring frustrating. Add to that a messy, confusing UI and missions that never clearly tell you what to do next, and you’ll find yourself wandering in circles wondering if you’ve missed something obvious. It’s not challenging, it’s just poorly communicated.
Then there’s the pacing. The game’s structure constantly forces you to replay stages, backtrack, and repeat objectives just to access hidden collectibles or new areas. This would be tolerable if the moment-to-moment gameplay were engaging, but it isn’t. The story doesn’t help either, it’s a barebones “collect the pieces and save the world” quest that feels like filler between fetch objectives. Even the sound design, which could’ve injected some life, falls flat. The music is forgettable, and the sound effects lack any real punch. For a game built on colorful chaos, it’s alarmingly lifeless.
And then there’s the price tag. Funko Fusion costs sixty bucks, a price that might make sense for something packed with heart, but here it just feels unjustified. Sure, there’s multiplayer and tons of secrets, but none of it saves the game from feeling shallow and dull. For the same price, you could pick up any number of games that actually respect your time and attention.
The Experience 🎮
Playing Funko Fusion feels like watching a crossover event that forgot to invite its best characters. On paper, it sounds amazing, a mash-up of beloved worlds, nostalgic callbacks, and satisfying shooting, but in practice, it’s a slow, frustrating slog weighed down by repetitive combat and aimless objectives. It’s the kind of game that makes you wish the developers had either gone all in on fewer IPs or done the impossible and treated every one of them with the same love. Instead, you’re left with a surface-level highlight reel of fanservice wrapped in mediocrity.
What hurts most is that you can see the potential. You can feel it in the presentation, the slick Funko animations, and the moments when the game almost finds its groove. But every spark of excitement is immediately buried under repetition, poor design choices, and a sense that everything here needed just a few more months in development. It’s not offensively bad, just heartbreakingly average.
In the end, Funko Fusion feels like a glittery box filled with air. It looks great on the outside, and it has just enough nostalgia to make you pick it up. But once you open it, there’s not much inside to keep you playing. It’s fun for a few hours, fine in short bursts with friends, but ultimately forgettable, the kind of game that makes you go, “Huh, that could’ve been something special,” before putting it down forever.
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