Funko Pop figures, the ubiquitous bobble-head collectibles that have wiped out plastic toy competition through sheer volume, are getting their own video game. Funko Fusion will bring together pop culture characteristics like Jurassic world, Back to the Future, The Umbrella Academy, the thing, child’s play 2, masters of the universeAnd Shaun of the Dead a unique experience early next year.
The first trailer for Funko Fusion shows what a strange prospect this is. Along with family-friendly dishes like He-Man and Marty McFly traveling back in time to 1985, the chaotic carnage of dinosaurs eating funko-pop people and the shock horror of Dr. Copper, who had both arms amputated by John Carpenter’s Norris monster the thing
The team behind Funko Fusion is 10:10 Games, founded by former TT Games people. Based on brief snippets of gameplay seen in the trailer, it appears that Funko fans can expect a similar experience to Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter – recreations of familiar movie moments in much sillier toy form. Players will “battle enemies, explore vast environments, and solve intriguing puzzles,” Funko and Universal Games said in a press release. Online multiplayer immerses up to four players in pop culture mashups.
“It’s incredibly exciting to be able to show everyone what the team is up to here at 10:10 Games,” said Arthur Parsons, design director and co-founder of 10:10 Games, in a press release. “We’re taking the incredible properties entrusted to us by our partners at Universal Games and Digital Platforms and bringing them together into a gaming experience that’s incredibly fun, surprising, authentic and celebrating fandom like never before, all through a Funko- lens experienced.”
The developers promise “Dozens of playable characters in Funko Pop! Shape from Popular NBCUniversal Stories” – including Universal’s list of famous monsters – in addition to other unannounced properties.
Funko Fusion Slated for release sometime in 2024 on PC and unspecified consoles. Given the wide reach of the Funko brand, expect to find it on every console.
Funko has previously flirted with video games in the form of gears popa mobile real-time strategy game based on Microsoft’s Gears of War franchise. gears pop was released in 2019 and discontinued in 2021. Funko also publishes tabletop games, many of which (unsurprisingly) are based on popular franchises including Fast and Furious, The Goonies, ET the extraterrestrialJurassic World and the Warriors.
Funko itself is a 25 year old company that started out making Big Boy banks and bobbleheads based on Austin Powers and Breakfast Cereal mascots. Over the past few decades, the company has licensed hundreds of characters from film, television, comics, anime, and video games, and has become a staple of pop culture outlets like Hot Topic and GameStop. An animated film based on the Funko Pop brand was announced in 2019 by Warner Bros and Funko.
