One of our favorite pastimes for years has been trying to figure out which movies or TV shows would make good Lego games.
TT Games has been delivering high-quality brick-based recreations of films such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic World, Marvel, DC and The Incredibles for nearly two decades, so it's only natural that the question “What's next?” is often asked.
Many wish lists were checked off with the multiverse toys-to-life game Lego Dimensions, which brings together 30 separate IPs aimed at both kids (Scooby-Doo, Teen Titans, Adventure Time) and adults (Knight Rider, The A-Team, Mission: Impossible, Gremlins).
Even back then, it was clear that some licenses would probably never get the Lego treatment because they were too adult to fit the family-friendly image of the series.
Given its origins, Funko Fusion, developed by new British studio 10:10 Games, seems to be the possible solution to this problem. Of the roughly 100 employees listed on the company's LinkedIn page, about a quarter list TT Games as their previous employer.
The studio was co-founded by Jon Burton, Arthur Parsons and Paul Flanagan. Burton founded TT Games (then known as Traveller's Tales) in 1989. Parsons joined in 1999 and served as head of design for more than 20 years. Flanagan joined in 2004 and worked his way up from producer to studio head.
Similar experiences can be found across the team. It may say Funko in the title, but if you cut through the plastic figures in this game, you'll find a heart made of studded bricks. Not literally, that would result in a messy copyright dispute.
Even if you're not a fan of the Funko toys themselves (admittedly, they mean nothing to this author), it might be worth looking past that and considering it purely as an artistic style, because based on what we've played of it, Funko Fusion could be exactly the “Lego” game for an older audience that we've long wanted to see.
Drawing primarily on Universal Pictures' films and TV series, Funko Fusion combines more than 20 IPs, many of which are certainly not suitable for children. You'd never see Lego game versions of Child's Play, M3gan, The Thing, The Walking Dead, or Shaun of the Dead, but they're all here, along with titles like 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 battle that seemingly opens the game – steals Freddy's crown and escapes with it.
With the crown, Eddy can corrupt all of WonderWorlds, but the crown has managed to split its essence into a series of smaller copies. By collecting enough crowns, the player can stop Eddy and restore peace to all of WonderWorlds.
Essentially, this means that each IP is represented by an open-world stage with various missions and the like, similar 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 that are thematically related to the character. For example, play the Hot Fuzz stage and Simon Pegg's character Nicholas Angel is armed with two handguns as a ranged weapon and his emotional support plant as a melee weapon. Nick Frost's Danny Butterman, on the other hand, gets a shotgun and a giant Cornetto ice cream. If you want, you can also play as Sergeant 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 a ranged weapon and his emotional support plant as a melee weapon. Nick Frost's Danny Butterman, meanwhile, gets a shotgun and a giant Cornetto ice cream.”
Given the team's Lego background, it should come as no surprise that each level is full of references and nods to the respective intellectual property. The Hot Fuzz level is a brilliantly recreated version of Sandford, including the town square, supermarket and miniature village.
The missions are also inspired by the film. The player uses a scanner to search for clues at the crime scenes of various gruesome crimes. First, you must investigate the fatal car crash from the film, and then at the village fete, you witness the bloody death of Tim Messenger (played by Adam Buxton) and must then investigate it by crafting your own blue light scanner from parts you find in nearby chests.
The Jurassic World stage is similarly detailed and also features four characters – Owen Grady (who was played by Chris Pratt in the films), his assistant Barry Sambéne (Omar Sy), park operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Jurassic Park Dominion character Kayla (DeWanda Wise). Players can explore the park as it is overrun by pterodactyls. The first mission is to track down and stun the five Spitters that are attacking guests.
So the attention to detail is there, but the gameplay is obviously most important and so far we're very pleased. It feels most like Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, as it replaces the usual slightly overhead view of most Lego games with the over-the-shoulder perspective of the Skywalker Saga and most typical third-person action-adventure games. Given the emphasis on gunplay in Funko Fusion, this makes sense.
Enemies still crumble to pieces when you shoot them, there are still plenty of little things to collect – although it's bullets instead of bolts this time – there are plenty of random objects in each world to destroy just for fun, and the general feel is very similar to that of the Lego games, albeit faster and more action-packed and with content that wouldn't have been suitable for children. In a Lego game, an NPC would never call you a fascist or drop the top of a church tower on someone's head, causing it to explode in a shower of blood.
We'll have to see more of Funko Fusion before we can determine how it all fits together. So far, our demo has consisted of two very different worlds, and there's been no sign of crossover into different worlds or the replay value that Lego games are known for.
10:10 Games also tells us that not every IP will be represented by an open-world stage the size of the one we played. Titles like The Thing and Scott Pilgrim will have similarly sized areas, while others like Shaun of the Dead, Invincible, Five Nights at Freddy's and Nope will get secret “cameo” levels that will be smaller.
However, 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 have only scratched the surface. With the game set to release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on September 13 (with a release for Switch and PS4 on November 15), we don't have much longer to wait to see how well it all fits together.