mySince they first hit the shelves in 2010, Funko Pop figures have been an unavoidable part of pop culture, lending their black-eyed, big-headed charm to everything from Ms Marvel to Mr Bean. After a couple of minor smartphone releases, it was inevitable that they would eventually become a major video game. But what could have been an easy business looks to be a lot more promising. Funko Fusion is the first title from Warrington-based studio 10:10, formed by Jon Burton and Arthur Parsons, the directors of most of the hugely successful Lego titles such as Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter. They aim to bring the same energy and humour to the Funko universe.
Funko Fusion is therefore a classic cartoon-style action-adventure, inspired by Lego titles, of course, but also PlayStation favourites Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter. Players can explore seven themed worlds based on Funko Pop figures and master licensee NBC Universal. As Parsons recalls: “I remember they sent us a spreadsheet listing everything NBC Universal owns from the 1920s to the present day. And I thought, ‘Wow, where do we start? ’ That was the fun part.”
They took elements from about 20 favorites. One moment you’re playing as Nicholas Angel, solving crimes in Hot Fuzz, and the next you’re Owen Grady fighting off rogue dinosaurs in Jurassic World. Levels can be beaten in any order, and characters and items can be carried from level to level – so if you want to explore the Back to the Future universe as He-Man, you can. The visual style is a pleasantly bold and colorful representation of the Funko aesthetic, the characters look incredibly similar to the real figures, and the worlds have their own weird, eccentric cartoon vibe. As characters get hurt in battle, they get scratched up and dirty – a nice Toy Story-esque touch.
Unlike the Lego games, the target market is teens to adults, which has allowed the team to be a little more mature with the humor and action. Alongside the main worlds, there are also mini-missions involving horror favorites like Jaws, Child’s Play, and The Thing, though the violence and gore is extremely light-hearted. As Parsons says, “Even when the zombies in The Walking Dead are throwing their arms at you, it’s like a cute little plastic arm.”
As for gameplay, there’s a mix of puzzle-solving and shooting, with objective-based tasks and plenty of Easter eggs scattered around the landscape – in the world of Hot Fuzz, you’ll find a shop called Quint’s Tackle Shop, which of course leads to a Jaws adventure. As well as the single-player adventure, there’s online co-op, though there’s no local split-screen like in the Lego days. This was a conscious nod to the more advanced age rating and the fact that teenagers tend to play against friends rather than family. Each area has its own special elements – in Hot Fuzz you can pick up a blacklight camera that lets you analyse crime scenes, and you can take it into other worlds to see what you can find. There are also vinyl mould machines scattered throughout that let you spawn weapons and other useful equipment.
There’s obviously the potential for a long-term collaboration, but according to Parsons, there’s no grand, highly monetized vision for Funko Fusion. “So we’re going to look at metrics from the standpoint of, what are people enjoying, what are they playing?” he says. “The biggest thing is do they want DLC? Do they want, I don’t know, competitive multiplayer? We have some plans; maybe we’ll add some IP here or there just to see if people engage with that. We have to listen to the people who are paying their hard-earned money.
“Right now, we’re just making sure this game is as successful as possible. A lot of people don’t realise we’re a privately funded indie studio. We’re not a big faceless corporation or anything, we’re just a bunch of people from Warrington who’ve had a really good time.”