Halloween - Small Dog Costume - Katamari Damacy Style - Katamari Prince [Etsy via Wonderland]

I have serious thoughts about doing one of these for Halloween. Pirate Sackboy!!!

How to Make Your Own Sackboy Costume

The annual West Hollywood Carnival has become the traditional stomping ground (get it) for many a Mario... and Luigi, and Princess Peach. This year the upcoming Mario Galaxy seemed to bring out the Nintendo in force.

After reading of the MTV intern's plight to create a Master Chief costume earlier this week I remembered that some reader had sent me a picture showing a pal of his wearing the helmet from the Legendary version of the game on his head.

I had asked him to email me the details on how it was achieved and then never heard back. So I decided to do it myself... big mistake.

Before I walk you through this let me point out two things: I had to use a glue gun to put my helmet back together. That's because the center black piece that takes up all of the headroom is in fact also the frame that holds the whole thing together. The second reason? I'll leave that no-brainer till the end.

Instead of detailing the 25 steps necessary to do this, I'll sort of summarize. All you really need to do is unscrew all of the pieces. Unfortunately, the thing is put together like a puzzle, or an onion, or a puzzle of an onion. All said, I had to remove about 50 screws just to remove the big black piece of plastic that sheathes the copy of the game when the helmet is on its stand. I also ended up breaking a couple of tabs, though really they aren't necessary to create the finished helmet.

Once you've taken the whole thing apart, what you're left with is a pile of Master Chief colored plastic scraps. Fortunately, with the help of the mighty glue gun, it's not that hard to put them back together again.

While it took me a good hour or two to dismantle the helmet. Gluing it all back together again only took me a half hour or so. And I was quite happy with the end results, with one exception: You can't see out of it.

Now you'd think that I would have thought this through, before spending a big chunk of my time tearing the thing down, but I didn't . No sireee. It crossed my mind, but I figured I'd come up with a solution. As far as I can tell there really isn't a good one. I could cut holes in the visor, but that would ruin the effect. I even thought of covering the wholes with pieces of like-colored sunglasses, but that's just stupid.

I think the best idea might be to not do this, and instead work on building out shoulder and then mounting that on your head, with this helmet on top. That way you'd be about 7-feet tall. But that's a really bad idea too.

For now I guess I'll just amuse myself, roaming blindly around the house, scaring the dogs until i flip over the railing of my second-story loft and plummet to my death.

Fortunately, she ignored you and instead came up with a plan. The first step involved hollowing out a Special Edition Halo Helmet. Something, incidentally, one of our readers emailed was possible earlier this week. Now she just has to figure out how to see out of it.

Then she pieced together the rest of the armor, which she's broken down into nine distinct parts, by ordering from paintball and athletic gear companies. Next step, paint it all up and put it together.

And Now To Shop For That Master Chief "Halo" Halloween Costume... [MTV Multiplayer]

But it all begs the question, who out there is dressing up as a game character for Halloween? We need to start planning this now, people. Well, we need to start planning this out vicariously. You need to start planning this out now.

Because laughing at our readers is always in season.

The obviously Mario, but not Halloween costume [via wiiwii]

Stephen Totilo, stationed in thriving NYC, had no problem landing a nearby college Intern. Billie Edington did her first post today on the site, asking readers to help her design and implement a Master Chief costume this Halloween.

She did some preliminary searching and only came up with a $22k or so replica suit of armor. So what she needs howto for creating her own suit of MIJOLNIR armor that doesn't involve blacksmithing or fiberglass work. Any suggestions? I'd say that empty beer cases are your friend, they're amazingly pliable and fun to empty.

Help Wanted: A Halo Halloween Costume Conundrum [MTV's Multiplayer]

You can see some of the other contest entrants here and here.

[via Wonderland]

Sony's Playstation Underground recently took submissions from it's members for their "God of War II Alternate Costume Contest". While it may be too late for you to submit you Bob Mackie inspired, Swarovski crystal encrusted tunic for Kratos, you can still have a hand at picking the winner.

Out of the sixteen entries, most are pretty run of the mill with a few standout exceptions and some are thrown in for obvious comic effect. Just for the hell of it, I hope one of the comic ones wins. Watching Kratos run around in a giant misshapen fish costume or Michael Jackson's red leather Thriller outfit would be totally worth it.

You must be a member of Playstation Underground to participate in the vote, but it only takes a minute to sign up and the fish costume is worth it, trust me. Flynn De Marco

The God of War II Alternate Costume Contest [Playstation Underground - thanks, erutangis]

Sure, CES is going full steam as I write this, but there were other conventions this weekend that were just as important. For instance, Ohayocon, the largest anime convention in Ohio! That's right, out of all the anime conventions in Ohio, I'm 75% sure this is the biggest one. I'm also willing to bet was the only place in Ohio this past weekend where you could find randomly hot Chun-Li cosplayer, complete with too-small thighs and authentic Asian heritage! Actually that's pretty rare at any anime convention. Generally the hottest girls end up being underage or guys in drag. Or possibly both.

Our friends over at GayGamer have posted a gallery of the more game related costumes from the weekend's festivities. Highlights include an amazing Katamari Damacy cosplay team, Pyramid Head from Silent Hill number 237 (collect the whole set!), Phoenix Wright, Ico, and my personal favorite, Ice Climbers! Note the awesome poses. For those of you unfamiliar with the world of cosplay, only 10% of it is making the costume. The rest is rehearsing your awesome anime pose. Check them out! Michael Fahey

Ohayocon '07 Gallery [GayGamer.net]

After mercilessly mocking the Darkwatch costume earlier this month, the company that makes it offered to send me one to check out myself.

I was convinced that they had chickened out when Halloween morning it arrived in the mail via FedEx.

They didn't include the gun or bracelet accessories, so what I got was what you get if you buy the bagged costume off the rack.

It actually wasn't too bad, but not one single person recognized me and I don't just mean as Jericho Cross, I mean as even a cowboy.

The duster is pretty awesome, as is the separate badge, which feels to be made of pewter. The rubber gunbelt is pretty cool too, but the hat is absolute crap and the little boot spats are horrid. All in all, I'd say that the slicker makes buying the costume worth while, especially if you happen to own your own boots and cowboy hat. Brian Crecente

Ps. That littelist Darth Vader is Tristan. He spent the whole night running around trying to do force chokes on people.

There's always a lot of banter about the best this and the best that, but it's rare that something actually fits the description, especially in the realm of gaming oneupmanship. Well, it's going to be awhile before anyone topples rluzinski from his throne for best homemade game-themed Halloween costume.

At first glance, all you see is a guy dressed as the Pac-Man arcade cabinet. But the thing is, this costume actually plays the game. That's right he spent last weekend bar-hopping as greasy-palmed drunks played him. Cheat code for the Pac-Man Costume: Up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

Hit the site for the instructions for how to make your own. Brian Crecente

Pac-Man Arcade Costume [Another Baseball Blog]

Is it all you imagined from the headline? No? Too jowl-y? – Jason Chen

Dead Pixel Costume [Happy Designs via Gizmodo]

California Costume Collections, makers of crappy generic costumes, have come out with a new costume line based on the vampire meets western shooter Darkwatch. Trolling the internet, the only one I could find was of Jerichp Cross. Not too bad until you read the fine print and find out that the costume doesn't come with the kneepads, gloves or GUNS. What the hell. How can they sell this costume without the guns? So basically it's a shitting pleather trenchcoat and hat. You can buy the pads, gloves and gun seperately, but that's just a scam. Brian Crecente

As a lead-in to my own, possibly game-related Halloween costume, I proffer this pretty decent Gordon Freeman and crab, constructed primarily of cardboard and duct tape. Looks pretty good for tape and boxes, huh? Eliza Gauger

Gordon Freeman Costume [Aeropause]

Still looking for that Halloween costume? Fret not, it's still way early. Big brother site Gizmodo points to this MAME cabinet costume. Wear this Super Snake (yes, we geddit) to parties, have strangers jerk your joystick, mash your buttons and extinguish cigarettes on the cabinet's paneling—just like the real thing. It's available at Amazon, one size fits all. Though, the online retailer points out that the "White and pants no included." Thank goodness. Look at that guy's mock turtleneck! *shudder* Brian Ashcraft

You Can BUY This [Gizmodo]

We didn't lie. This is not a booth babe photo. Rather, here's a shot of almost the exact same collar we put on my 16 year-old dog to keep him from biting himself. Brian Ashcraft

This picture is just sorta site squatting over on the Baltimore City Paper's site. It's kinda cool, but I sure would love to know WTF. So seriously, WTF? Brian Crecente

Untitled [City Paper]

City of Heroes second annual costume contest wrapped up recently. This year, Ncsoft asked gamers to submit a screenshot of their hero from the game and a second picture of the gamer dressed like the hero s arch enemy from City of Villains.

Prizes included a Sony 32-inch CRT HD TV, TiVo Series2 DVR s, 12 month Tivo Gift Subscriptions, Apple iPod 4 GB nano s and City of Villains Collector s Edition copies.

Winners after the jump:

Best Overall Kor
(Adam McDuff, Kent, WA)
board name: Kor
Best Female - Frostfaerie
(Maral Agnerian, Toronto, ON)
board name: Frostfaerie
Female Runner-Up - Vile Thorne
(Sarah Stewart, Covington, GA)
board name: VileThorne
Best Male Xius
(Adam Singer, Oak Lawn, IL)
board name: Chronos
Male Runner-Up Argonnus
(Kevin Casper, Palos Heights, IL)
board name: Ayundas
Scariest Kill The Clown
(Justin Papreck, Decatur, GA)
board name: FreshOats
Scariest Runner-Up - Solomon Creed
(Sean MacDonald, Hamilton, ON)
board name: Smackdee
Best Costume/Public Location Ravenna
(Rob Gaines, Fairfax, VA)
board name: Avonlea
Costume/Public Location Runner-Up Vortex
(Joshua Heeter, Fulton, MO)
board name: n/a

Halloween Contest [City of Heroes]

With Thanksgiving looming it's probably a good time to finally wrap up our Halloween contest. Man, I'm a slacker.

I tallied the votes and it looks like The Luigi Kid took first place with a HUGE lead over the rest of the competition. He actually beat third and fourth place combined.

Hit the jump for the four winners, their votes and prizes. If you are one of the winners it would speed things up if you could shoot me an email with your shipping information. Please email from the same address you submitted from for verification purposes.

FIRST: The Luigi Kid 34.1 percent, with 795 votes
X-Gaming X-Arcade Joystick (with Xbox, Gamecube, PC and PS2 connectors) and Collector s Edition of NCSoft s Guild Wars.

SECOND: Metal Gear Solid on the can 21.1 percent, with 492 votes
Atari Flashback 2

THIRD: The Medic 16.2 percent, with 377 votes
I scored with Samus T-Shirt

FOURTH: Half-Life 2 12.9 percent, with 300 votes
Castlevania bullwhip

Castlevania guy missed fourth place, and winning a Castlevania whip by a bit more than 100 votes. Ah, the irony.

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This is it, the last week for the Kotaku Costume Contest. (There are very obvious reasons why I didn't go with the whole starting all the words out with a K thing.) Vote now and vote often. Voting will be open until Friday and then I will be announcing the winners over the weekend.

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Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Now get to voting. I'm gonna try and wrap this up in the next week or two, so I can send people cool shit in the mail.

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I finally uploaded all of the pictures for our costume contest, so hop over to the page and check em out. There are some pretty amazing and creative entries. There were about 150 entries. You should be very proud.

I plan on selecting the finalists over the weekend, so get on the page and comment to your heart's content to help us decide who they should be. Drop me a line if you need commenting privilege.

Costume Page

GolinHarris, PR firm to the stars and Nintendo, had their own little Halloween happening. Here's a few pics of the people behind the press releases in full party garb:

Nintendog

E3 booth babes

Supreme Court Justice Nominee KFS with skater girl.

Halloween Costume Entries [Kotaku]

Wow, we had quite an avalanche of costume submissions in the witching hour of Halloween. We'll be posting them up over the next day or two on the Official Costume Page so you can peruse them and comment in the comment section. At the end of the week Team Kotaku will look over the comments and submissions and pick our favorite batch of costumes.

Next week we'll post up the favorites in a poll so the masses can vote for the winners. Thanks for all of the clever entries everybody.

Ps. Yes, my costume is uninspired and has nothing to do with video games. I suck.

Official Costume Page [Kotaku]

We re down to the last few days or so for the official Kotaku Costume Contest (notice how I resisted using Ks for the second and third word in the title, aren t I grand?)

All you have to do is send in a pic of yourself in costume and be judged, think of it as high school but with prizes. Check out the links below for the contest rules and entries so far. Don t freak if you don t see your submitted pic in the line-up, I probably just haven t added it yet.

Rules and prizes and Entries so far [Kotaku]

Wow, the costume contest is really heating up. I was happy to see that we're getting a ton of costume entries from both men and women. It's nice to know that we have such a mixed readership.

After much head-scratching and schwag-digging, I've landed on what I want to give away for first place.

The person with the top costume is going to land themselves an X-Arcade joystick complete with hook-ups for use on the Xbox, Gamecube, PC and Playstation 2. So if you game at all, you're going to be able to use this super sweet stick. (Check out my review here.) But then I started thinking how I've been going on and on about the first-place prize and making you guys wait. As nice as the X-Arcade is, it's not really the super sweet prize I think some of you have been expecting, so to bump things up a notch I'm also going to throw in a copy of NCSoft's Guild Wars for first place. And this isn't a normal copy, no this will be the Collector's Edition with that sweet ass art book, a soundtrack and your very own divine aura(for your character that is.)

So hop to it and start sending in those pictures. I want to see some staggering entries. Check out the link below for the official rules and prize break down.

Show Us Your Best Costume [Kotaku]

I've asked and I've pleaded, but Crecente will not tell me what he's planning to give away for first place. There's only one way to break the dude: send more cosplay pics. I've uploaded a couple here. For those gracious enough to enter the contest, fear not if you don't see yer pic. We've getting tons of images and will be posting throughout the day.

This is the official page for the first ever Kotaku Halloween costume contest. I'm planning to post all of the entries here. Check the link at the bottom for the rules.

Rules and prizes [Kotaku]

Check out the link for the details on the contest and no I still haven't figured out what to give out to the winners. I'm thinking at least one of the prizes will be that sweet "I scored with Samus" T-shirt I landed from Nintendo last week. I promise I'll give a full break down of prizes sometime next week, cross my heart, yada, yada, yada.

Show Us Your Best Costume and Maybe You'll Win Some Crap [Kotaku]