Exclusive preview of No Big Head Required

We had the chance to give you an exclusive look at Funko Fusion a month before its official release. In this roughly 3-hour preview, there are two worlds to visit (Jurassic World and Hot Fuzz), but in the final version there will be a ton of licenses available, like Back to the Future, Jaws, Chucky, The Umbrella Academy, and more.

Before approaching the core of the game, it is important to state that although there are bugs in this test, given that this is a preview version and far from the final version, these will not be mentioned, hopefully even if everything is worked out and corrected by then.

So what is “Funko Fusion”?

As “LEGO” has been doing for years with its famous plastic building blocks, “Funko” with the help of the “10:10 Games” studio decided to create a video game that will feature selected vinyl figures from different licenses.

“Funko Fusion” is thus a third-person action-adventure game set in a 3D environment, where an evil version of Teddy (the brand’s mascot) has decided to sabotage the many licenses held by the company. To prevent the latter (Eddy) from ruling the company by seizing power, the player will have to travel to different worlds and try to defeat this harmful entity.

After a short introduction inside the factory, where you can learn about the game mechanics and discover the basis of the story, the game throws the player into a “Funko Pop” landscape box corresponding to the level of the selected license. Each world consists of several boxes, the last of which allows you to fight a boss controlled by Eddie.

By alternating between four key characters in this universe, you must perform various different tasks (mostly combat and puzzles) to recover the key and the Golden Crown, thus unlocking access to the following damaged license while the current one is out of danger.

To do this, players have fairly simple game mechanics and a very basic combat palette (specific ranged weapons depending on the statue, melee attacks, and special moves behind a jump, roll, or shield).

In addition, there is an inventory that allows you to collect loot and use it at the right time. In particular, it is possible to obtain energy tanks to strengthen yourself or restore life, open chests to get additional weapons, or buy health points, bombs and other useful items to complete the mission.

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So, at first, the game is easy to pick up and fun, the missions are not very complicated, even though during the game the mission instructions sometimes disappear, leading to confusion about what to complete… but this is definitely due to a bug.

It remains to be seen whether the sequence of the different worlds will fall into redundancy, risking boring players as the repetitiveness of the gameplay loop increases. That said, the missions are very different for the two licenses played, with specific goals for each cinematic universe.

Visit popular statues alone or with others

The first thing you notice when playing is the attention to detail, recreating the different licenses in a very typical “Funko Pop” style. The art direction succeeds in wowing the player while constantly showing off the precious figurines and their unique packaging.

While this will obviously make you want to run straight to the store and fill your own window display, it’s still enjoyable to embody each statue with a big bobbing head. The game’s environments are believable, and the fun of players traversing an alien world is there.

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Whether it’s Hot Fuzz or Jurassic World, Adventure Stories does a great job of tracing back the cult scenes in the movies.

But of course, traversing each world is not without risk. Due to direct ties to pop culture licenses, spoilers can occur at any time if players are not familiar with the film, series, or even comic book from which the level originated.

However, for all the fans out there, there are tons of Easter eggs and references scattered throughout each level, either through side quests or details that can be found here and there in scenes, dialogues or cutscenes.

Particularly worth mentioning is the tone of the game, the overall atmosphere is full of humor and two-dimensionality, which brings a lot of fun and self-deprecation to the whole.

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During this test period, only the single-player mode will be available. But when the game is released (September 13, 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series and PC / November 15, 2024 on PS4 and Nintendo Switch), it will also be possible to explore the game in cooperative mode for up to four players. This mode should bring the game to a whole new dimension and will hopefully be ideal for spending some quality time with friends or family. In addition, even if the title is quite easy to understand, the universe covered and the horror and gory dimension of some passages are not really suitable for a teenage audience, but it will be perfect for teenagers and adults.

In “Funko Pop” heaven!

“Funko Fusion” is a fun and simple game, and players will quickly grow to love the characters of these big-headed figurines, which often hang on the shelves of geeks around the world, whether they’re unboxed or still in their original boxes.

Aimed at an audience that appreciates pop culture and the famous “Pop!”», the game can boast of having a good foundation, despite the simplicity of the gameplay, thanks to its visual rendering faithful to the figurines, a mature sense of humor and numerous licenses.

Funko Fusion will be released on September 13, 2024 (PS5, Xbox Series and PC) and November 15, 2024 (PS4 and Nintendo Switch), and given the popularity of its figures, the game will surely succeed in finding a fan-base, especially since the scope of its license will also interest early fans, who will be happy to get a dose of their favorite universe.

However, even if there are a lot of very well-known licenses among them, we can’t help but notice that there are a lot of others missing, such as Star Wars, Marvel, DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings… Whether they will gradually be integrated into the game or whether they will one day become the subject of a second entry in the franchise remains to be seen.