The Quest for Cosplay: A True Gamer’s Halloween Costume
Grant sifted through the hundreds of results for his Google image search. He had originally typed in “video game characters,” but hadn’t found anything he liked. He then looked up “funny costumes,” but all he got was generic product-shots of over priced novelty costumes. Then he simply typed in “nerd” and found a picture of himself around page 12 that had been uploaded to his Facebook profile.
Halloween was only a week away and he still didn’t have any good costume ideas. He had spent a ton of time this year talking smart about video games, so he thought he should embrace that side of himself that he had tried to hide on past Halloweens. After all, this was the one time of year cosplay wasn’t frowned upon. But what to go as?
With the scent of Halloween sweets dangling in the air, many of you are planning your trick-or-treat routes in order to provide maximum candy-grabbing efficiency—and to avoid those people who think pennies, apples, or razor blades are an acceptable substitute for chocolate. It’s a strenuous job, and sometimes you might just decide to “try your luck” at a new place in hopes of free candy. But beware: if there’s anything that video games have taught us, it’s not to go anywhere unprepared (especially if ghouls are involved). The following are five locations you may be better off avoiding during your hunt for free sugar, but in case you do end up waltzing through these neighborhoods, I’ll offer some advice on how to make your trip a treat, even in the trickiest of situations…
I’m a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to movies and video games. I’ll admit, I cover my eyes or look away during the suspenseful parts of a movie, and I’ve even turned off the console after getting surprised by an enemy in Resident Evil. With all the Halloween hubbub going around, there’s been a lot of talk of horror and video games.
Braaaains! With Halloween upon us, it’s time to take a look at one of our all-time favorite monsters, the zombie. The undead make for great cannon fodder in video games. Not all zombie-related video games need to be survival horror, designed to get us wetting ourselves with fright. Some are just good ol’ fashioned fun! Simple games where you can blow off some steam mowing down crowds of walking corpses guilt-free! It’s not like they’re people…Well, at least they used to be. 
The latest game in the Castlevania series, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is taking the vampire vanquishing franchise to new heights, and breaks down gender barriers at the same time. The first game to feature a sole female protagonist, though Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin had a female main character, Charlotte (Jonathan!), sharing the spotlight, Ecclesia’s Shanoa is a worthy successor to the monster hunting throne.
Halloween is a time of year when gamer imaginations can run rampant. How could a fan turn down an opportunity for cosplay outside of a con without those nasty judgmental snickers from the outside world? Truly, Halloween is the ideal holiday for gamers to be their dorkiest, but it can also be the most dangerous if their fashion sense is askew. Thus, I bring to you a list of game-related costumes that you should not attempt under any circumstances: