One of our favourite pastimes over the years has been trying to figure out which movies or TV shows would make for good Lego games.
With TT Games delivering high quality brick-based renditions of the likes of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic World, Marvel, DC and The Incredibles over the course of nearly two decades, it stands to reason that “what’s next” has been an oft-asked question.
A lot of wishlists were ticked off with the multiverse toys-to-life game Lego Dimensions, which mashed together 30 separate IPs aimed at children (Scooby-Doo, Teen Titans, Adventure Time) and adults alike (Knight Rider, The A-Team, Mission: Impossible, Gremlins).
Even then, there was always an understanding that some licences would probably never get the Lego treatment, because they were too mature to fit the series’ family-friendly image.
Given its pedigree Funko Fusion, developed by new UK studio 10:10 Games, appears to be the potential solution to this. Of the roughly 100 staff listed on the company’s LinkedIn page, around a quarter of them list TT Games as a previous employer.
The studio was co-founded by Jon Burton, Arthur Parsons and Paul Flanagan. Burton founded TT Games (back when it was Traveller’s Tales) back in 1989. Parsons joined in 1999 and was head of design for more than 20 years. Flanagan joined in 2004 and worked his way from a producer role to studio director.
Similar experience can be found across all areas of the team. It may say Funko in the title, but cut through the plastic figures in this game and you’ll find a heart made of studded bricks. Not literally, that would be a messy copyright battle.
Even if you’re not a fan of Funko toys themselves, then – they admittedly do nothing at all for this writer – it may be worth trying to see past that and treating it purely as an artistic style, because based on what we’ve played of it Funko Fusion may just be that ‘Lego’ game aimed at an older audience that we’ve wanted to see for a long time.
Mainly drawing from Universal Pictures’ films and TV series, Funko Fusion mashes together more than 20 IPs, many of which certainly aren’t suitable for children. You were never going to see Lego game versions of Child’s Play, M3gan, The Thing, The Walking Dead or Shaun of the Dead, but they’re all in here along with the likes of Jaws, Jurassic Park, Scott Pilgrim, Xena, Battlestar Galactica and Five Nights at Freddy’s.
The story goes that a strange purple plasma has infected every WonderWorld (i.e. licensed property) in the Funko universe, turning everything evil. It’s the work of Eddy, an evil version of Funko’s mascot Freddy, who – after an entertaining boss fight which seemingly opens the game – steals Freddy’s crown and escapes with it.
With the crown, Eddy can corrupt all of the WonderWorlds, but the crown has managed to split its essence into a bunch of smaller copies. By collecting enough of the crowns, the player can stop Eddy and restore peace to every WonderWorld.
What this essentially means is that each IP is represented by an open-world stage with various missions and the like, similar in a sense to the adventure worlds in Lego Dimensions (but on a smaller scale). The demo we got to play featured two of these worlds, Hot Fuzz and Jurassic World.
Each character is armed with a ranged weapon and a melee weapon, and these are themed to the character. Play the Hot Fuzz stage, for example, and Simon Pegg’s character Nicholas Angel is armed with two handguns as his ranged weapon and his emotional support plant for his melee weapon. Nick Frost’s Danny Butterman, meanwhile, gets a shotgun and a giant Cornetto ice cream. Should you wish you can also play as Sgt Tony Fisher (Kevin Eldon’s character) or PC Doris Thatcher (who was played by Olivia Colman).
“Play the Hot Fuzz stage and Simon Pegg’s character Nicholas Angel is armed with two handguns as his ranged weapon and his emotional support plant for his melee weapon. Nick Frost’s Danny Butterman, meanwhile, gets a shotgun and a giant Cornetto ice cream.”
Given the team’s Lego game background, it should also come as no surprise that each stage is packed with references and nods to the IP in question. The Hot Fuzz stage is a brilliantly recreated version of Sandford, including the town square, the supermarket and the miniature village.
The missions are also inspired by the movie, with the player using a scanner to find clues at the scenes of various grisly crimes. First you have to investigate the car crash death from the film, and then at the village fete you witness up close the gory death of Tim Messenger (who was played by Adam Buxton) and then have to investigate that, by crafting your own blue light scanner from parts found in nearby chests.
The Jurassic World stage is similarly detailed, and also offers four characters – Owen Grady (who was played in the films by Chris Pratt), his assistant Barry Sambéne (Omar Sy), park operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Jurassic Park Dominion character Kayla (DeWanda Wise). Players get to explore the park as it’s overrun by pterodactyls, with the initial mission being to track down and tranquilise the five Spitters attacking the guests.
The attention to detail is there, then, but how it plays obviously matters the most, and so far we’re very happy. It feels most like that of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, in that it ditches the usual slightly overhead view seen in most Lego games for the over-the-shoulder viewpoint seen in The Skywalker Saga and most typical third-person action adventure games. Given the emphasis on gunplay in Funko Fusion, this makes sense.
Enemies still fall to pieces when you shoot them, there are still a lot of small things to collect – though this time they’re orbs instead of studs – there are plenty of random objects in each world that can just be destroyed for fun and the general feel is just very similar to that of the Lego games, albeit in a faster and more action-focused way, and with content that wouldn’t have been appropriate for kids. A Lego game would never have an NPC call you a fascist, or drop the top of a church tower onto someone’s head, causing it to explode in a shower of gore.
We need to see more of Funko Fusion before we can determine how this all comes together. For now our demo consisted of two very distinct worlds and there was no sign yet of crossing over into different worlds or the replay value that Lego games were best known for.
10:10 Games also tells us that not every IP will be represented by an open-world stage as large as the ones we played. Properties like The Thing and Scott Pilgrim will have similarly sized areas, whereas others like Shaun of the Dead, Invincible, Five Nights at Freddy’s and Nope will be getting secret ‘Cameo’ levels which will be smaller.
Still, with more than 60 characters in total and support for 1-4 player co-op, it’s clear that our few hours with Funko Fusion were only scratching the surface. With a September 13 release planned for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC (with a November 15 release on Switch and PS4), we won’t have much longer to wait to see how well it all comes together.
