STACK #239 September 2024

GAMING FEATURE

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TIPS FROM THE TOP OF THE POP!S Arthur kindly offered up these tips for Funko Fusion players… . I would highly recommend tracking down the red and green proto parts, as collecting these in the various worlds will allow you to unlock a raft or super useful Soda buffs. Also Wonder Weapons, which are overpowered fun IP based weapons that any character can use. If you hunt these out and unlock them early, they really add to the experience. Collect all of the vinyl that you see in the worlds, as this will be super important to help you unlock more of the fun stuff. Keep an eye out for the hidden character outfits and treatments, some of them are super cool, and unlocking them can be somewhat of a surprise. Make sure that you let yourself get bitten by a zombie in Shaun of the Dead …

There’s no escaping the pull of Funko Pop! figurines, and now they’re invading our game screens in Funko Fusion . STACK caught up Arthur Parsons, co-founder and head of publishing at 10:10 Games, to find out more about bringing the collectible pop culture sensations to gaming life. Words Amy Flower

has come about because of their proportions. In the finished game there’s a lot of humour that comes from this, whether it’s that characters can’t fit through a doorway together, or whether they can’t reach their heads with their arms. There’s a lot of fun to be had with the exaggerated proportions, which is definitely something that’s additive to Funko Fusion . Given that there’s combat in the game, we’ve had to compensate for the characters proportions, so weapons have had to be oversized to ensure that it’s satisfying. Our animation team have also had to come up with interesting solutions for characters when they’re carrying items around in the game, again because of the large head sizes, and we’ve also had to spend a lot of time on the camerawork in the game to make sure that it’s still fun to play in third person when there’s a large head in your way! What do you most hope that players get from their time playing Funko Fusion ? All of us here at 10:10 Games want players to play Funko Fusion and just enjoy all of our hard work. Buy the game, get stuck in, and not only will you enjoy the things that you’re a fan of, maybe, just maybe, you’ll find some things that you weren’t a fan of, but by playing Funko Fusion you’ll be introduced to a whole new wealth of movies and TV shows.

The world of Funko Pop! figurines is absolutely massive. How did you go about narrowing focus down to just NBCUniversal properties? Right at the start of our journey we had a clear vision of the type of game we wanted to make, and also had a clear idea of who would likely play the game. As such we quickly realised that this was a very broad demographic spread, and as such it was important that we had something awesome that would appeal to the entire spectrum of potential players. There’s a wealth of incredible properties within the NBCUniversal stable, from blockbusters like Jurassic World , through to the cult classics like Jaws or The Thing . We truly believe that with everyone being a fan of something, there’s something for everyone in Funko Fusion . From there, how did you go about selecting those that you did from the studio’s rich history? Narrowing down the actual movies and TV shows that would feature in the game was actually a pretty tricky exercise. We approached it very logically, in terms of making sure that there are things that would appeal to people from every decade and ensuring that we had a wonderfully eclectic mixture of high-profile well-known properties, mixed with some cult classics. We also looked to span the genre mix, ensuring that we have action content, as well as some comedy and horror, really going as broad as we possibly could.

• Funko Fusion is out Sep 13 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, Nov 15 on PS4 and Switch

With their odd proportions, what challenges did replicating Pop! figurines in-game throw at you? The anatomy of Funko Pop! characters was a really fun challenge for the entire team. Their unique proportions have allowed us to have a lot of fun with the characters in the game, and during the evolution of the project we’ve definitely tried out a host of fun stuff that

Back to the Future Battlestar Galactica Child’s Play Five Nights at Freddy’s Hot Fuzz Invincible Jaws Jurassic World Knight Rider Masters of the Universe M3GAN The Mummy Nope Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Shaun of the Dead The Thing The Umbrella Academy Universal Classic Monsters The Walking Dead Voltron Xena: Warrior Princess CULTURE CLASH! Get ready to battle it out with characters from these top franchises classic and new…

14 SEPTEMBER 2024

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