Funko Fusion Preview: A Massive Pop Culture Mash-Up

Highlights

Funko Fusion offers a wide variety of iconic brands and allows players to switch between characters with unique abilities for puzzle-solving and combat.
Developed by 10:10 Games, the title features characters like He-Man and Shaun from Shaun of the Dead, delivering a playful yet reverential experience.
Funko Fusion promises fun co-op gameplay and expanded content potential, catering to a diverse range of fandoms.

It’s hard not to compare Funko Fusion to the LEGO games, but that’s not a bad thing. As a fan of TT Games’ work gameifying and LEGO-ifying properties like Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Batman, the idea of a group of former TT Games devs forming 10:10 Games and making Funko Fusion is exciting. And after seeing a brief hands-off preview of Funko Fusion, that excitement has only grown.

For Funko Fusion, 10:10 Games has partnered with NBC Universal and dug deep into its library of IP. Obvious brands like Back to the Future and Jurassic World are big selling points for Funko Fusion, but the inclusion of media like Shaun of the Dead, Voltron, and The Thing shows that 10:10 Games wants to offer a wide variety of experiences to gamers. The selection isn’t restricted to Universal either; Funko Fusion also includes properties like Masters of the Universe and Invincible.

Funko Fusion Has a Familiar Feel, With New Faces

Funko Fusion is a third person character action game with elements that should be familiar to fans of the LEGO Games. Set dressings have destructible elements with vinyl to collect (and use as currency), players can switch between various characters from within a given IP (or even bring outside icons into new worlds), and different abilities unlocked within those worlds will help with puzzle-solving and progression.

Confirmed Properties in Funko Fusion:

Jurassic World
The Thing
Masters of the Universe
The Umbrella Academy
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Back to the Future
Five Nights at Freddy’s
Child’s Play 2
The Mummy
Megan
The Walking Dead
Invincible
Battlestar Galactica
Xena Warrior Princess
Hot Fuzz
Jaws
Shaun of the Dead
Voltron
Nope

In one section, 10:10 Games’ Co-Founder, Director of Publishing, and Design Director Arthur Parsons was playing as MacReady from The Thing, walking around the snow-covered Antarctic landscape and within the research facility, blasting humanoid “Things” with his shotgun. Combat seems to blend ranged and melee combat, with different characters having their own arsenal of options. He-Man from Masters of the Universe, for example, can slice away at baddies with his Power Sword or fire blasts from it to take out further targets. While Shaun from Shaun of the Dead has his signature cricket bat and a rifle to work with.

We only saw a quick sequence from The Thing and one from Shaun of the Dead, but it seems as though the setup of Funko Fusion will feature players completing key sequences from the respective properties in order to “complete” their story. At first, that will involve using the major players from the IP, but bringing outsiders in can also unlock new areas or collectibles. 10:10 Games has also added something called cameo levels to the game, which are one-off experiences with their own theming. Presumably, this is how 10:10 Games was able to accommodate so many different licenses in one game.

Funko Fusion Brings Co-op Fun to Fan-Favorite Properties

During the demo, Parsons was paired with only a single 10:10 Games dev for co-op, but Funko Fusion can support up to 4 total players through online cooperative play. Online co-op was always something that most of the LEGO games were missing, so to see it in Funko Fusion is exciting. Being able to get a group of friends together as members of The Umbrella Academy or the Battlestar Galactica crew has the potential to tap into a wide swath of fandoms in a way you rarely see outside of Fortnite.

It wouldn’t be a Funko game without Funko Pop Tie-Ins and rest assured those are coming.

The preview included the briefest look at a character select screen, which had the various Funko versions of the characters in their signature Pop boxes on a sort of virtual display. Parsons explained that some of the characters will be available right from the beginning, while others will require some extra effort to unlock. There are also secret versions of characters to unlock as well, like an undead He-Man that unlocks if you let him get attacked by a zombie while in the Shaun of the Dead world.

With so many disparate IP all trying to mesh together, the concern is that Funko Fusion might feel disjointed, but Parsons explained that there is a main story to the game. Players will have the freedom to jump into any world in any order after an initial onboarding process, but it sounds like there will be a narrative throughline to push players towards a conclusion. Of course, that doesn’t mean there won’t also be reasons to repeat levels with new characters. These developers are known for packing their games with replayability and that seems to be the case with Funko Fusion as well. One example shown was using collected vinyls to purchase an amp from Scott Pilgrim vs the World to clear out an obstacle and unlock a hidden area.

The little details stood out the most from the preview, like the Funko Soda bottles that players can buy for buffs and health replenishment or the objective in The Thing level that required MacReady to find and free 6 huskies. Bringing one IP to life must be challenging as it is, but finding a way to have 20+ licenses work together has to require a lot of patience, creativity, and passion. Again, I only saw a small bit of the game, but I felt like the game was being playful but also reverential.

There are also two important things to note about Funko Fusion, especially for fans of the LEGO Games. 10:10 Games experimented with different forms of storytelling and settled on the pantomiming and grunting seen in a lot of the earlier LEGO games for Funko Fusion. It might be disappointing that the actors won’t be voicing the characters or that the game doesn’t use audio from the films and TV shows, but I’m sure that presented its own licensing challenges. Parsons and the 10:10 Games devs have shown they can still nail the tone (and even skew towards comedy when necessary) of a lot of different properties.

This is also a T for Teen rated game, so 10:10 Games is getting creative with how it portrays some of the violence when dealing with more mature IP. The Thing level, for example, looked like a Funko-fied third person shooter, but it wasn’t gory or scary. The Funko brand has a broad appeal and this game doesn’t seem to be shutting the door on younger gamers, even with properties like Five Nights at Freddy’s and Child’s Play 2 attached.

The Biggest Video Game Mash-Up Since Fortnite

We only scratched the surface as far as seeing everything that Funko Fusion has to offer, but the potential is certainly there. With so many TT Games veterans on staff, 10:10 Games is the perfect developer to make this type of game, and Parsons made the studio’s passion for the IP and this game abundantly clear. Obviously, I would need to see more to make a definitive assessment, but knowing many of these developers’ prior work and how much respect they have for the properties they work with, Funko Fusion has shot even further up my most anticipated games list.

What’s more, Funko Fusion is the foundation, a first step, and 10:10 Games can only expand from there. Parsons did confirm plans for both free and paid DLC , but one has to imagine there are so many properties that didn’t/won’t make the cut for this first game but could be included in a future game. Whether your pop culture tastes are broad or narrow, it seems like Funko Fusion will have a little something for everybody.

Funko Fusion

Funko Fusion is a four-player action-adventure game featuring Funko Pop! forms of iconic TV show and movie characters. There are dozens of playable characters available, with each boasting their own unique personalities and abilities inspired by the NBCUniversal shows and movies from which they originated.