Awhile back, Sega teamed up with Maxim to trick women into dressing up like Bayonetta to win a 50 inch Panasonic TC-P50X1 HDTV Plasma TV and a copy of Bayonetta for the Xbox 360.

Well, a winner has been chosen, and it's Andrea Bonaccorso. Bonaccorso says that when she was nine, she begged her mom for a Sega Genesis, and then become obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog, Toe Jam and Earl, and (random much?) Rolo to the Rescue. In 2009, she dressed in black, found a fake gun, put on some glasses, and won a television. Good for her. 

While congratulations are in order for Andrea, her win is suspect. Taking a look at the list of top nine entrants chosen by Maxim, one who goes by the name of Sydney, went all out. I'm talking like, hardcore cosplay get-up. What gives?

Harrison Krix, the guy responsible for the new Mr. Destructoid helmet, keeps producing awesome stuff. Recently, he took the Big Daddy costume and Little Sister syringe that he designed and had a photoshoot with the props at the Georgia Aquarium. Harrison is the one walking around in the Big Daddy suit and his fiancee is the Little Sister.

There are a bunch of photos from the photoshoot over on Volpin Props, where Harrison has more of his amazing custom props. Harrison has also just put up the Big Daddy suit for sale on eBay where the current bid is at $250. I'm looking forward to see how much Harrison makes off this sale. A few thousand easily, right?

[via Super Punch]

Atlus held a special Halloween contest last month called Atlus-O-Weenie. People just needed to submit photos of themselves dressed up as Atlus videogame characters and then fans could vote for their favorites on Atlus USA’s Facebook page.

The votes were tallied up and the grand prize winner of all this Demon’s Souls hotness was Evan, otherwise known as EarthbounderNess here at Destructoid.  Five other winners were also selected (one by Atlus, four at random) and will be getting a bunch of Atlus games, art and more.

Check out the Facebook page to see all of the great looking Atlus costumes that were submitted and congrats to EarthbounderNess!

[Thanks, DevilMaySly!]

Craftster member Sweet_Sylvia has a pair of absurdly cute kids. And wouldn't you know it, their cuteness is amplified about one billion percent when dressed in Team Fortress 2 Medic and Heavy costumes.

Basically, it's the greatest set of TF2 costumes I've ever witnessed, and I see people dressed up on an almost daily basis in this line of work.

P.S.

There is video of their hijinks in action. Warning: it will end you.

[Via AwesomeExMachina's community blog]

Damn, THQ goes all out on Halloween. Well, some of its employees do for the annual Halloween contest. While not strictly gaming related (which is a little odd considering this is a gaming company) it is Halloween today so we thought we would share. Of course the man who brought this to our attention, THQ employee Ryan Arnold, went as Frank from Dead Rising (you can see him below), but sadly he did not win, claiming that the non-gaming judges didn't get his costume.

You can check out all the costumes here, but images of the winners are below. The doctor with no eyes got scariest, while the guy with the beard and the iPod dock go funniest (I think I'm missing something). The girl dressed up as Pink Floyd won Most Creative and Harley Quinn-esque lady got Least Likely to Be Taken Home to Mother. The Best Overall Costume was the fellow dressed up like the Operation board game and the clown, green thing and nerdy old man got honorable mentions. No word on what they won for their hard costume work, but I'd guess it was a lifetime supply of wrestling games.

I preemptively apologize for not recognizing some totally obvious costume from some totally awesome anime/movie/videogame/book/etc.

[Thanks, Thomas A.]

Poor little videogame-lovin' naked guy. Halloween is literally just around the corner, and he still has no costume!

It could be that he can't decide on who to be. Perhaps someone from one of those games he likes so much... but making a good choice can be overwhelming. There's so many great characters out there to choose from. Or it could be that he lacks costume-making skills. A lot of the stuff that game characters wear seems too complicated to emulate in real life. Or maybe he's just a procrastinator who only just remembered he agreed to go to a costume party months in advance.

I hope that you aren't in the same position as this hypothetical person I just created. I hope that you had your costume all planned out weeks, even months, ago, and have been able to make the best damn tribute to whatever game character you're dressing up as. But if you are this close to the holiday and have nothing to show for it, don't worry. I'm here to help! It's true that there's not a lot of time left, but you can make some pretty cool videogame costumes with what little you have. And no, you won't have to resort to Sexy Mario or Luigi.

Hit the jump for some ideas to inspire you.

[Editor's Sonic9jct made himself a Mr. Destructoid helmet for Halloween. Awesome! -- CTZ]

The idea for this baby came to me about a month ago for whatever reason. Probably that Dante's Inferno $200 video. Anyway, built this completely out of cardboard and painted it with a glossy acrylic paint so it would have a nice smooth and shiny sheen. Last year, I was Carl and my friend was Lenny and at a party, I was the Black Jackal (or Blackal) from ScrewAttack's Life in a Game. The year before I was Solid Snake. This year I am Mr. Destructoid!

It was my plans to wear this to school, especially since this was my senior year. Unfortunately, I have to go to a theater conference that Friday, so instead of getting to wear this around all my close friends, I get to go out and confuse strangers. Win some lose some, ey? But there's also a Halloween party during lunch Thursday, and I plan on wearing this. We can only hope that it's a rave-like atmosphere. I also wanted to try and get my hands on a Niero-esque white suit, but I have yet t find one, so I will simply suit up with a jacket and tie, it still works.

Here are some photos I took as Mr. Destructoid at school. You can find better shots of the helmet after the break.

While Columbia Pictures' Shadow of the Colossus film will probably feature elaborate computer-generated colossi, we have a suggestion -- the film's producer should just call up cosplayer Isaac Jones.

Jones designed the amazing costume you see above, modeled after the third colossus in Team ICO's already-classic PlayStation 2 title. According to the designer, it took over 100 hours to make, made up of faux fur, basketballs, cushion foam and... well, a whole bunch of stuff. It even features a glowing weak spot, powered by a couple of AA batteries.

Along with some clever photography, this may be one of the most impressive bits of cosplay I've ever seen. Isaac, if you're reading this, be prepared for a call from Columbia Pictures -- you'll have 15 more of these things to make, buddy.

[via Meagan VanBurkleo's Game Informer blog]

[Editor's note: craineum is at it again with his Halloween costumes. Last year, he made his kids Mega Man and Kid Icarus outfits. This year, his kids are dressing up as Yoshi and Mario. Sweet! -- CTZ]

I really like doing themed costumes for my family. Last year we went as members of the Captain N: The Game Master television show. While that was fun and very successful, I wanted to let my oldest pick who he wanted to be this year.

He started off saying that he wanted to dress up as Mega Man again. I talked with him about how much fun we had building the Mega Man costume, trying it on and seeing it become this really cool suit. Then I explained to him we could build something new so we get to have all that fun over again. He was sold.

We did some research trying to work in the themed idea. We got it down to two options: Yoshi or Astroboy. It really wasn't much of a competition, Yoshi was his choice. I was hoping that he would choose Astroboy since it would be pretty similar to the Mega Man costume, but in hindsight I am glad he didn't.

With Yoshi we were going to make his little brother be Baby Mario. Actually, my oldest wanted his little brother to be Luigi (I am guessing because the little one has a Luigi plushie while he has a Mario), but the little one really liked the idea of being Mario.

I wanted to dress up as something, but didn't think I would have the time to do Bowser, which seemed the obvious choice. I also didn't want to take away from the kids. So this year I will go without.

With the costumes decided I went to work on design. Baby Mario would be pretty easy, so my main concern was Yoshi. I wanted to build Yoshi to scale, ie Yoshi's head is about the same size as his body. My 4-year-old is the perfect size and strength to be able to pull this off. I hadn't seen a costume like this out there, and thought it would be really fun to do.

From there I started working. I failed hard with the first attempted Yoshi head. But my sons words of wisdom kept me focused. We finished up everything just in time and you can check out how both costumes were made after the break. 

YouTuber petemander1 is going to be the talk of his Halloween party as he's going to have the best Halloween costume of the night. petemander1 is working on a Covenant Elite costume based on the Halo games. The thing that makes his costume stand out from others' though, is that it incorporates animatronics and the eyes and mandibles are all remote-controllable.

The video above and after the jump shows off what petemander1 has created so far. It looks great, yet it also looks pretty scary. I don't know about petemander1, but if this was my project, I'd use it to run around scaring little children in order to steal their candy ...

Man ... I'm a jerk.

[via Joystiq]

Atlanta Cutlery has announced that its partnered with Ubisoft to produce high-end props and collectible costumes based around the Assassin's Creed universe. 

Just in time for Halloween and the November release of Assassin's Creed II, comes a line of props based around... the first Assassin's Creed. Those props -- including an Altair costume, an Altair hidden blade and sword, a Crusaders tunic and a priest robe -- are said to be available now. However, neither of Atlanta Cutlery's Web sites are offering them at the time of writing. 

Products for the sequel are set to ship beginning of Q2 2010, and all of the items are said to "have been meticulously researched with Ubisoft personnel for absolute realism." Well, it better have been, damn it. If the threading is wrong on the Altair costume, I'm going with with my back up plan this Halloween -- 8-bit Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th game. 

I don't make it a habit of posting cosplay here, because there's lots of good game-related cosplay out there, and after all there's Japanator if you want to look at cosplay. The thing is though, I was browsing through my RSS feed and saw these photos posted over at Danny Choo, and it took me about 5 seconds before I realized that these photos were not in-game renders and instead of a real human being. WHAT THE HELL JAPANESE PEOPLE? HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

For those interested, this cosplayer's name is Kaname and he has done many insane costumes. He's actually a judge in the Anime Festival Asia Regional Cosplay Championship 2009. This could be a good thing because at least you don't have to compete against him if you enter. On the other hand, a guy that can pull of this costume is going to judge you. Yeah, you're screwed. Anyway, enjoy the gallery!

[As originally posted on Japanator]

Despite the fact that I've done my own Persona 4 cosplay, I still felt as if I hadn't had the incredible experience of doing it with a full group -- something I still hope to do. This morning fellow Japanator writer Eva Duenas shared a link with me to a Persona 4 group shoot that literally blew my mind -- it may the best one I have ever seen, and let me tell you, I've seen a LOT of Persona cosplay.

You can head here to see the rest of the shoot, which also boasts the best Teddie I've ever seen. To me it looks as if this entire group paid fastidious attention to detail -- in my humble opinion, always the key to making cosplay photoshoots perfect. What do you think of this group?

BioShock is one of those games that will always live on in our memories not simply because it was a memorable game, but because its characters have become so popular in the cosplay scene.

Harrison Krix, the guy behind the new and improved Destructoid helmet, is at it again. His latest project is much more substantial than our mascot's shiny green head, and you can tell an indescribable amount of love went into creating the costume.

To truly appreciate the Big Daddy outfit, you need to check out Harrison's blog, where he has put up a walkthrough of the entire creation process with plenty of detailed pictures along the way. So, what do you guys think? Is this a great BioShock costume or the greatest?

[Image: RJDaae]

The software side of Gen Con 2009 is lacking this year. It’s depressing to see so few videogames lining the West side of the convention floor. With crushed spirits early in the morning, I turned my attention to the costumed peoples roaming the Indianapolis Convention Center for a temporary but cheerful lift. The gallery below is an excellent representation of what I’m seeing at the event. There are a few costumed and scantily clad booth babes, more than a few pirate wenches, an angry Twi’lek, togas, Solid Snake, and much more.

There’s a reason the girl in Twi’lek garb and paint (in the gallery) isn’t the happiest camper. She arrived roughly an hour before the show floor officially opened to attendees. As I debated walking to the other entrace, she rushed into my vision and frantically started trying to open the doors. The people around me instantly whipped out their cameras and asked for pictures. She obliged, of course, but obviously had somewhere to go fast. After about two minutes -- more and more people started snapping images -- her face twisted from complacency to anger.

Eventually, she clicked off the lightsaber and hurried the other way. I hope she got to where she needed to go without being hassled too much. As she bolted, a guy on my periphery exclaimed, “Run Twi’lek, run!” Poor girl.

You think you're making a cool cosplay music video, and then Square Enix slaps you with a lawsuit, and you're forced to pay $325,000 for paying tribute (*cough*) to one of their properties.

That's exactly what happened to Korean producer “Phantom Productions.” It seems that they used unauthorized bits and pieces of the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children film in their video. That was f-up number one. The other, of course, was that they used the video for commercial purposes. Korean courts sided with Square Enix, and the makers were ordered to pay 400,000,000 won ($325,000) settlement for copyright violation, says Sankaku Complex.

Those with a Nico Nico Douga account (Japanese) can watch the video here. The rest can check it out at Sankaku. If you can read Japanese, the viewers are laughing heartily, especially at the mid-video dance sequence. 

If I was Square Enix and saw this piece of sh*t, I'd sue too.

[Update: English-language press release was just sent out on this suit over “Sonata of Temptation” by popular Korean pop singer IVY. Check out the full release after the jump.]

While the age-old question of "Who would win a fight: Batman or a Left 4 Dead Tank?" may never get answered, at least we can see what that might look like. 

Thanks to three months of hard work from Nerdfellowship.com's Rob Heath, one of a few Left 4 Dead Tanks roamed the floors of San Diego Comic-Con. The 35-pound monster costume was made from a combination of foam, fleece, and latex, with built-in forearm crutches to nail this creature's gorilla-like size.

Pulling it all together were built-in speakers which played the Tank's theme music, as well as a series of roars and grunts, grabbed directly from the PC game. 

As for our guesses as to who would win in a fight, The Tank (Rob Heath) sent us an email letting us know about his costume. As for Batman, we haven't heard from him at all; we can only conclude he's dead.

Batman: 0, Tank: 1.

Cosplay pictures. It's what you do at these things. Sure, there's games and comics and movies and celebrities, but you have to do the cosplay photo collection sometime. We've put together a gallery for you featuring some of the better ones we've come across so far, with help from our friend Flynn De Marco.

There's not as much game-related stuff as I hoped there would be, but what can you do? What we have seen is fantastic, but they're beat out by the comic and anime/manga stuff. Naturally, G.I. Joe is huge this weekend, as is Batman. Of course, there's always Star Wars and Superman stuff. I saw the hottest Supergirl yesterday. For the time, a picture would not have been appropriate. I'll see what I can do.

Mind you that the weekend is still young, and that the best stuff happens on Saturday. Look for more photos throughout the weekend here on Destructoid as well as on Japanator.

It's really no surprise, when you think about it, that people are already hard at work on BioShock 2 cosplay before the game itself is even released. After all, the games in the series tend to boast some cool design, and the new Big Sister from BioShock 2 is no exception.

Flickr user Deficientatlife uploaded these pics from a recent con called Fanime 2009, where she attended in her full Big Sister cosplay. You can see more pics and even a short video in the complete set, which can be found here. Somebody ought to whip out some Andrew Ryan cosplay, although, now that I think about it, I am sure someone already has and I just missed it.

[Thanks, John]

The real highlight of our time at Anime Expo was the cosplay. We covered panels here and there, but what all the readers on Japanator really reacted to, and what you guys did when we put up our first round of photos, was the cosplay. And so, with Anime Expo now over, and the Japanator team looking ahead to Otakon in just under two weeks, it's time to share the rest of that videogame cosplay with you.

Thanks again to our amazing photographer Ace0fClub5, we got some truly stunning shots that you can check out in our gallery. We've also got a ton of other cosplay photos over on Japanator that you need to check out. Like this cosplayer from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

While Anime Expo was a poor event for news and exciting updates, it sure provided for some great eye-candy.

Wow. Just... wow. That's a picture of a group of LARP (Live Action Role Play) gamers in Russia. Polish gaming site Polygamia has a huge gallery featuring this group of players from a LARP group called "Albion" playing in a fan-created Fallout story called "Nothing Personal." The game session drew some 300 participants and is expected to continue for several months of sessions.

From what I've been able to grasp using the limited skills in Polish that Google Translate is able to provide, the game they are playing takes place about twenty years before the events of Fallout 3 and focus on the series' west-coast roots in California. Familiar locations such as New Reno and Mariposa have been recreated in an old military base.

This is what happens when you get cosplay dorks and RPG nerds together. As incredibly geeky as LARPing is, I would consider playing in a Fallout LARP. Sadly, I can't even seem to muster the time or energy to run a game of the pen and paper version so I can't imagine trying to pull something like this off. Great work, you crazy Russians! 

Dale, Tim Sheehy, and I are here at Anime Expo in Los Angeles. Here at America's largest anime convention, with well over 30,000 people attending, there are plenty of opportunities for some amazing cosplay -- and it doesn't hurt to have Ace0fClub5, one of our community members, taking his professional-grade photography (as he has done in the past).

So what we've got here for you is a teaser of some of the cosplay photos that we've got over on Japanator, with plenty more to come over the next three days. Seeing these Street Fighter cosplayers together (they planned it out as a group, naturally) was really impressive -- there's a lot of attention to detail there that really comes out in these photos. Sirs, I applaud you.

It's a little early to tell which cosplay is going to be overplayed at the con, but right now it's looking like Pyramid Head is itching to be the overplayed costume of the year -- although people are still being inventive with the outfit, so who knows. Anyways, enjoy even more photos over on Japanator!

[Editor's note: This is so awesome! snotrocket teased us awhile ago and now we get to see how amazing the Castle Crashers costumes turned out! Fantastic work! -- CTZ]

Finally! They're complete! All the costumes came out wonderful! We have all four knights, three princesses (because the blue one bailed on us), the nurse from the animal ark, barbarian and the evil wizard. You can see from my other blog how the knights were made. The tunics were sewed together and made into shoe covers. The weapons besides the light saber were all made by hand as well. The big ass sword with holes (red knight), to the fire sword (orange knight), to the candle stick which I'm holding (green knight).

The ladies all bought or had prom dresses which matched great and used the extra fabric from the hem to make their hats. The barbarian sewed his hairy sh*t together. I wish I had a picture of the amazing job he did on the door with spikes that you can see kind of hanging on his back. The wizard sewed his sh*t together and put in two LEDs for his eyes.

We made and wore them this past weekend to Anime Next in New Jersey. So if you're from the area and went, I hope you saw us!

Check the attached photos to see everything!

G4's Dana Vinson got to hang out with Sega as they were searching for a Bayonetta model for E3. Dana talks to a bunch of Bayonetta potentials and grills the girls on what kind of games they like and what they think of Sonic the Hedgehog.

We don't get to see which model will become Bayonetta in the video after the jump, so we'll just have to wait until E3 to find out. I will be roaming the entire show floor next week and I'm going to make sure to get photos of every single booth babe for you, Dtoiders. 

Also, I completely forgot that there are going to be booth babes at E3 again this year. Giggity.

If for some reason you're not at a barbecue today, remembering war heroes by stuffing your face with undercooked hotdogs, you'll notice that it's a slow and boring day in the world of videogame news. Luckily, we're here to provide you with things you won't ever need to know or see, like a video of some Dynasty Warriors 6 cosplayers, parading around and acting camper than Christmas. 

This past weekend saw the regular London MCM Expo, otherwise known as Britain's biggest geek fest. Koei always has a strong presence at the event, and had a "Dynasty Warriors cosplay masquerade" this time around. You can hit the jump for a video of the event, but be warned that you could feel embarrassed just by watching it. Yes, it is indeed a slow news day.

Pyramid Head usually steals the show when it comes to Silent Hill cosplay. In this case however, the Nurse easily outshines Pyramid Head.

The outfit, the veins, and the way the Nurse moves; all of it is beautifully captured by photographer Judith Stephens. The photo shoot took place during Anime Central 2009 last weekend, where for the most part, the cosplay at Anime Central was pretty lame, as evidence by these photos from Japanator.

Check Judith's Flickr page for more photos of the Silent Hill cosplay as well as a nice collection of other cosplay photoshoots.

[Via GameSetWatch]

I am literally livid with myself for not knowing that these existed before today. Evidently Nintendo was giving away pink Punch-Out!! hoodies just like Little Mac wears at the Nintendo World Store in New York yesterday. Now I live in DC, but had I known they were doing this I would have driven all the way up and back in one day to secure one. I didn't know awesome was a fabric until I saw this.

The hoodies went out to winners of the Punch-Out!! challenge at the New York store and if I ever see someone wearing it on the street I'm going to rip it off their backs shouting like a mad man. At the moment the only person I know of who has one is Brian Crecente, meaning he'll need to watch his back at E3. 

To all those naysayers out there who don't think men should wear pink I offer you this: Little Mac knocked out Mike Tyson and every cultural stereotype known to man. Little Mac wears pink. Nuff said. 

The greatest videogame series of all time, Dynasty Warriors, is having its very own day in London on Saturday, April 18. Packed full of cosplayers, things to buy and Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce playgroups, it's literally the only place to be this weekend. If you live in London and aren't attending, you are actually gay. Gordon Brown said so.

The bulk of the event will be held in the famous Tokyo Toys at the Trocodero. However, in an act that is sure to bear witness to multiple stabbings, the cosplayers will be parading around other parts of the city as well. Sounds like a fun day out, although I think Koei should go one step further and make it an international holiday. People should also be forced, with whips, to play the games. All of them. One after another. 

They should be thankful for it, too.

The crew at Night Zero love zombies. They have a graphic novel series where they use real actors to tell their zombie horror story. I've gone through a few pages and like it so far.

Recently, they took a small break from their comic to come up with this tribute to Left 4 Dead, called Left 5 Dead. Night Zero found real people that look like the four heroes from the game and dressed them up as the characters to create this fantastic photo shoot. Some Photoshop was used as well to help give the pictures the Left 4 Dead feel. 

In some of the photos on the Flickr page, there is an additional member (hence the name of the shoot). His name is Jack and he looks like a pirate. Not sure why he's in the shoot, but I wouldn't turn him away if I was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse ... even if he is a dirty stinking pirate. 

Check out Night Zero for behind-the-scenes pictures from the shoot and keep an eye on the site as they promise to have more Left 5 Dead pictures going up in the near future.

[Via The Awesomer]

At the top of the week, we ran a story called "Team Rocket is real and wants to corrupt your Pokemans." The story concerned a malevolent prankster who was distributing a hacked Pokemans at the Nintendo World Store in New York, dressed like a Team Rocket member. Today we received a statement from a "real" Team Rocket cosplay group, who wanted to make it clear that this was a rogue trickster that did not reflect the true intentions of real-life Team Rocket members. Seriously.

"I represent a Team Rocket cosplay group which works within and with Pokémon Organized Play (POP) in Oregon to make Pokémon fun for kids," stated a spokesman, who emailed our tips line. "I am registered as a Professor in POP, which means I am qualified to judge and organize ranked TCG tournaments, and I work in conjunction with other POP Professors to run a side-event Diamond/Pearl (now Platinum also) DS tournament at the POP TCG tournaments.

"In the course of doing so I often distribute unofficial, unhacked Pokémon; for example, I am capable of distributing the recent Toys 'R Us Regigigas, as well as other Toys 'R Us downloadables: Darkrai, Shaymin, and Manaphy; and other promo download Pokémon such as the GameStop Deoxys. We disqualify players from our tournaments who we find to be hacking their cartridge, we do not hack our own cartidges, and we actively discourage any kind of hacking."

Destructoid of course apologizes to Team Rocket for any stress caused to its legitimate members following our story, and warn players that they should always ask to see qualifications from any Pokemans distributor, to make sure you are dealing with an official POP Professor. Accept no substitute!

This is the greatest retraction in the history of retractions. Hit the jump for the full email we received.

Want to know how a real pro does it? Don't ask me. The original Mr. Destructoid helmet, while awesome in its own homeless way, was built using a bunch of air conditioner sheet metal bolted and duct-taped together (kinda like our web design code! harrrr!). I had a lot of fun making it and it certainly got the job done, but each time I came home, I'd have to rebuild it with new air ducts because it would bend, dent, and fall on children each time I'd stop to admire a passing bald eagle. It was lethal, too! I'd always travel with bandages and I tried very hard not to slash anyone's face off with it. Luckily, all fatalities were minor and usually settled with beer. But an upgrade was clearly overdue.

As you saw in Rey's video, we commemorated three years of Destructoid by hiring a pro to build us an even bigger helmet with working LED eyeballs and in the right color -- and man, I can't believe what a fantastic job he did. Harrison Krix of Volpin Props blogged the entire construction process, and you won't believe all the work that goes into making these things. Give him some love in his comments if you dig his handiwork, won't ya?

Oh, one more thing. HEY GAMING PR DOODS, NEED A PROP OR COSTUME?  THIS GUY IS FOR HIRE! SMOTHER HIM WITH PROJECTS, MONEY AND HOOKERS!

I actually have a lot of respect for cosplayers. The dedication it takes to fashion an outfit based on your favorite videogame, comic book, or American Idol contestant is astounding. Truly, we've seen some amazing displays of skill and attention to detail. But sometimes, the complete lack of shame is well ... a bit unnerving, to say the least.

Gameist's recent feature, "The 9 Levels of Cosplay Hell," breaks down the reasons why I try not to leave the house. What if I happen to run into someone -- or something -- dressed up like Yuna from Final Fantasy? And worse yet, what if I can't forget what I've seen? 

You've probably seen a lot of this stuff before; the "Tron Guy," for instance, is a classic example of ... OK, I don't really know what the hell is going on there. But it's nice to have some of this stuff in one place, if only to get it out of your system and move on. 

OK, now that we've been subjected to this, somebody please -- salvage my weekend and show me example of some amazing cosplay.

[Thanks, darkair!]

Wondercon was packed full of convention goers and people that didn't like to shower yesterday. It was actually great seeing how packed the show was as the show floor was almost half the size that it was last year. Most likely due to the fact that the economy sucks and that GDC took place during the same week as Wondercon last year. Still, the comic nerds came out in full force! 

The only major game companies at the show were Capcom, EA, Telltale and Nintendo. Nintendo's booth was just showing off Fire Emblem DS. Telltale had a couple of stations with Strong Pool Bad, Sam & Max and Wallace & Gromit at their booth. EA had a living room-like booth with Burnout Paradise in 3D setup on a big screen with a few smaller displays with Burnout Paradise and Mirror's Edge. And you already saw Capcom's booth yesterday. 

Like any convention, there was plenty of people cosplaying as their favorite characters. Check out the images in the gallery and hit the break to see a more detailed look at some of the cosplayers.

When I prepare to make a costume, I always have to sit and look at it first to figure out what I can personally accomplish and what I can't. For instance, I can't accomplish dressing up as a persona without someone to help me make the elaborate stuff. On the other hand, some people seem to come with built-in skills to accomplish such things, and Harrison Krix is one of them.

You may remember Harrison as the guy that created the coolest gift for his girlfriend ever in the form of the gun from Portal. Not satisfied with just rocking her world, he showed off his newest creation recently, a pitch-perfect replica of the syringes the Little Sisters carry in BioShock. Now if I could only shrink a few feet to cosplay one of them properly...

Speaking of proper, I heard a rumor that Krix might be working on a new super-secret project that may be very relevant to Destructoid readers interests. I wonder what in the world that could be?

[Via Volpinprops]

Those little and mid-sized anime conventions are...well, I'll be nice. Let's just say that they're not for me. You'll always see those same vendors that travel the country selling their too-often handled wares. You'll see those same washed-out, self-important voice actors prancing the halls every time. Oh, and there's always that guy who looks like or actually is a child abductor. 

The big anime events? Oh, those are way better. Big parties with open bars (and invites for me!). Half naked girls that are not jailbait. Stores that sell retro games and cool people that run them.

But Ohio's Ohayocon (I see what you did there) did have at least one interesting moment. Check out this guy's functional Game Boy cosplay, with buttons and d-pad and all. I know that it'll be hard to resist wanting to punch in the head of the player, but you'll have to struggle through.

Check out my favorite YouTube comment on this video below the jump.

D3 threw a party called the Dorks, Dealers and Double-Ds a couple of nights ago in San Francisco. They were showing off Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, Texas Cheat ‘Em (preview coming on the 29th) Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers for the Wii and the crazy Onechanbara movie.

I already previewed the Wii (and Xbox 360) versions back in October and, well, there’s nothing new to say about the game. Onechanbara is a stupidly mindless fun game with eye candy galore. Honestly, this post is more or less an excuse to post a couple of pictures of the hot Onechanbara cosplayers that were at the Dorks, Dealers and Double-Ds event. Damn they’re fine.

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad for the Xbox 360 will run for $39.99 and Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers (the sequel) will go for $29.99. Both games will be out on February 10, just in time for Valentines Day.

Just yesterday, that Wii-loving bad boy Brad Nicholson posted some hot news on an interview with Capcom stating that Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop will have more outfits that the original. Sad thing is, the interview doesn't say exactly what those outfits will be. The 360 original featured a full Mega Man X costume (complete with Mega-Buster), as well as a creepy-cute Servebot mask that pretty much sold me on the game upon first sight.

Looks like Capcom is at that sort of in-game self-promotion again, but this time they're using Dead Rising to promote a game that's yet to be released. According to these scans, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop will be the first game by Capcom where you can play as a dreadlocks-sporting tough guy with a bionic arm. It's a weird move, especially seeing as no "next-gen" version of Bionic Commando is coming to the Wii.

Is Capcom hoping that people who buy Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop will love it so much that they not only buy a PS3/360 afterward, but Bionic Commando as well? Or even weirder, do they think that PS3/360 owners who currently don't want Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop will see this outfit, and be so overcome with excitement for Bionic Commando that they'll buy Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop anyway, just to virtual cosplay as Radd Spencer?

Ah, who cares! Just let me re-murder zombies by shaking a giant golden bell at them while wearing a oversized red pirate hat, and I promise this game will be a hit.

[Via GoNintendo]

Mirror's Edge cosplay was inevitable -- it's not too tough to replicate Faith's outfit, and a black wig is all you need to make the transformation complete. However, the last thing in the world I can say I expected to see is Italian models dressing up as her, but that's just what happened at a launch event for the game held in Milan, Italy last week.

Head over to MTV Multiplayer to see more images of this model and a second one, both of who I think did a fine job considering neither of them are actually Eurasian. Still, no complaints about hot girls dressing up as videogame characters, really. Send one dressed as Lucca over to make me breakfast and show me how to build a time machine and I'll be quite happy.

Jesus Christ. The above picture is quite possibly everything that is wrong in the world condensed into one horrific, shameless sea of yellow. Dear readers, I bring you Pikabellechu -- a 32-year-old Pikachu obsessive who has secured her membership in the Guinness World Records. Now try and even SEE her in that image, camouflaged as she is by her own absurdity.

The self-confessed "Pikaholic" owns over 8,000 Pikachu-themed items, has a yellow car named the Pikabug and has a copyrighted line of Disney princes/Pokémon mash up costumes known as PokéWomon Princess Creations. F*cking Hell!

"I attend many anime conventions, car shows and do lots of events for children," explains Pikabellechu. "Official Pokémon Events, Birthday parties, School events and so on mostly as the Pokémon Character Ash cause I can do his voice dead on ... I am also a cartoonist and paint many murals around my town and teach children art classes at a local craft store."

As I write this, I have been sick into a little bag roughly eight times. I've seen some God damned creepy sh*t in my time on the Internet, and this definitely ranks among the top seventy. But you know, her heart's in the right place and she clearly makes children very happy.

I just wouldn't let her near my children.

Oh, you sexy, sexy Dtoiders.  Attached is a gallery of all the hot sweaty and distinctive boothies (that's a word, really) meandering the show floor yesterday. You'll surely spot some industry faces and community members you may know, Fallout burn victims, ninjas, pirates, aliens, cosplayers, pro gamers, cockteasing princesses, soldiers, and ... Waldo. We totally found him! Check out the gallery for some lulz.

Comiket is the mecca for otaku. It's nothing like we've seen before at Otakon or at E3. The mainstay of the con isn't announcements or hands-on -- it's doujinshi. Comiket is a chance for doujinshi circles to show off their latest projects, and for artists like Hiroki Otsuka to get discovered.

Oh, and then there's the cosplayers. The sexy, sexy cosplayers.

Now, I don't usually get the chance to fly out to Tokyo, wait in the gigantic lines, and take ridiculously high-quality photos, when not being turned away because I'm a scary foreigner. So, I rely on some of the fine folks over in Japan to supply us with some cosplay photos.

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby... Oops, wrong game. I don't know any of the music in Persona 4 yet. The US launch date of December 9th can't come soon enough.

To hold you over until then, I guess you could dress up as Persona 4 character Chie in this new jacket from Cospa. Jacket, or "jersey." The Japanese call anything that looks sporty and zips up a jersey for some reason.

The "jersey" even comes with the three pins that Chie wears in P4, though you'll have to wear a skirt to have the full costume down. They will be available next month from the Japanese Cospa Web page. You'd really have to be a Persona fan to pay the 9,800 yen ($88) asking price, though.

I guess the major downside is that only a Persona fan would know that you're cosplaying.

We already told you how Baltimore's Otakon isn't your typical anime convention, and how videogaming has a pretty good presence there. This also carries over into the costume play. While we couldn't give exact numbers, I'd guess that about half of Otakon 2008's attendees were also cosplaying. Of those cosplayers, I'd say that about half of them were dressed as videogame characters.

We've put together a picture gallery, a small sampling of the game cosplayers in attendance this year. Of course, we've cut out (most) of the crap for you. Crap, you ask? In one very unfortunate instance, I managed to look up at the wrong time to see an upskirt shot of a grossly overweight Bridget cosplayer. You could say pics or it didn't happen, but trust me on this one, you don't want a picture of what I saw.

Highlights include Yoshi being raped, a sad ghost, Jesus, and superheroes posing with beef jerky. Special thanks goes out to Destructoid community member and Japanator reader RHibiki for the photo help.

Sexy, disturbing, alluring and disgusting: I'm hot and bothered for She-Pyramid Head. Can you imagine what that scene in Silent Hill 2 might of been like if there was a role reversal? As slutty heiress once said ... "That's hot!"

Yasumicon, held annually in Florida International University, an anime convention organized by the campus film group Anything Goes Anime. Destructoid barely arrived alive with Comic-Con AIDS to snap a few pics of the cosplayers, give a panel on video game blogging, and eat everything that EpicSugarworks had to offer. Also featured in this gallery are the handsome ruffians the Mega Man-inspired music group Arm Cannon which brought the house down Saturday night.

Hit the gallery and experience all the wonderful geekery that Southwest Miami has to offer. See, its not just old people and alligators!

Come for the comics, stay for the ladies!

This year's Comic-con gallery is all about variety: Mr. Destructoid brings you back mementos of bodybuilders, punks, babes and PMS clan bombshells to boot. You'll find a few familiar faces from the Dtoid community as well if you see through their clever disguises. Check out the gallery ... and feel free to abandon a few hotties for your unsuspecting co-workers on the corporate printer with no explanation whatsoever.

Yes. That is a man, actually.

Destructoid proudly presents an epic gallery of men dressed as women, game characters, mutants, robots, and other vagina-repelling accoutrements from this year's Comic-Con convention in San Diego. Obviously, I love cosplayers to death. Like me, most of them are quiet everyday geeks that come out of their shell when in the company of other geeks -- and man there ever an epic overload of geekery at this fine venue.  

Among the distinguished men of Comic-Con you'll find Seth Killian from Capcom, the legendary Maddox (wearing a crown), the guy from Halo Wars who's photo is blurry which prevented me from cheating and reading his name tag, a few faces from our community, and Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore ... who is probably dead by the time you're reading this. Check out the sausagefest gallery for a few laughs.

Next up: Breasts attached to women, both unfortunately surrounded by clothing!

The burlesque ladies of Hamlet 2, ladies and gentlemen. Perhaps the most disturbing thing that I must note -- and there are plenty to choose from -- is that I sort of look like the fourth Jesus-hooker on the right. Unfortunately this is as sexy as this gallery gets -- the pickings were slim. Hopefully the embargo on slutty costumes expires at midnight. Let's see some skin, San Diego! Nevertheless, hit the gallery for sightings of Resident Evil henchmen, the companion cube on a budget, the guy from ASS CREED, Colette Cutswoman, and a lovable huggable giant mexican donut.

Mmmm. Donut. 

There is tons more of this where this came from: We anticipate a maelstrom of video game characters descending to the convention center tomorrow for photo ops and the famous Masquerade ball begins tomorrow night at 8:30. If you're at the convention center tomorrow look for the guy in the white suit with the helmet for free Aids!

Are you worried that your under-prepared cosplay outfit this year will spawn laughter and ridicule by other nearby immaculate Storm Trooper and Sailor Moon chubby male/female sluts? Stuff those thongs into the secret memory box that you keep so that you can show your future children someday that you weren't lame and get your hair done as Astroboy! We just received the world's last surving Wordperfect 5.2 for OS/2 press release about it (note the gallery for posterity) inviting everyone awesome to attend booth #3530 between 11 AM and 4 PM on Saturday, July 26, for an "ASTRO BOY Hair Makeover.” Fans will be transformed by getting the superhero’s iconic, black pointed-hair look!

In related news, Tazar literally handed me the GBA cart on our train ride at some point "so that he would not crush AsianJoe's to pieces", reportedly due to the insane but satisfying difficulty. More on Tazar's descent into madness later in the week. For now, continue reading for more details such as how to get a bag bigger than Sasquatch and deets on the tie-in movie, starring Nicolas Cage of all people. No, seriously!

Yes, I know. You're not so much for the anime. You leave that to the guys next door at Japanator. But you don't mind the videogame cosplay so much, right? We've put together a large gallery of the (mostly) videogame-based cosplay at this past weekend's Anime Expo 2008 for your viewing enjoyment.

Also worked into the collection are snapshots of AX 2008's 24-hour arcade, which was pretty great by even gamer's standards. In it, everything from air hockey tables to the latest Capcom fighters helped congoers fill in their down time. Of course, this being an anime convention, the dancing games and the Initial D racing cabinets got the most attention. Well, the most attention after the scantily clad cosplayers.

Enjoy, and if you dig this sort of thing, be sure to check out Japanator's coverage of the event.

Sister site Japanator recently ran the story that Project A-Kon, America's oldest anime convention, set out to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for the "Most Video Game Costumes in One Place." We knew it wouldn't be a problem, as the previous record was set by 80 British Marios. But we showed up anyway to cover the Dallas, Texas event.

While final totals aren't in yet, I think it's pretty safe to say that A-Kon 19 demolished the previous record. The forms and entries are still being tallied by officials, but it is estimated that over 600 cosplayers contributed to this new record.

When we arrived at the designated meeting place for these record breakers, queues of cosplayers were already so backed up that even the elevators had lines. Three judges, including Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, were present to oversee the procession of videogame-costumed attendees. 

The convention did not expect this big of a turnout. It was only a matter of time before fire marshalls were called in, as the meeting ballroom was well past capacity. Even then, more continued to file in. Eventually, the whole thing was moved to another room.

Check out the gallery below to see how it all went down, as well as several other cosplay pictures from A-Kon 19. The costumes ranged from incredibly sexy to terribly horrible. We were going to categorize them, but we'll let you be the judge. There are plenty of gems in the mix.

Special thanks goes out to Japanator's photograher, Chris Serani, for his outstanding work. For those interested in the rest of A-Kon 19, be sure to check out Japanator's coverage, which includes a super sexy Naruto and crotch shots!

Hit the jump for our scavenger hunt list!

Once a year in the good city of San Francisco, the main streets shut down and surrender themselves to throngs of residents for the epic Bay to Breakers marathon. While the brave few run the track from the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the many walk behind in greater numbers to follow a course of costume wearing, debauchery, and general dancing in the streets.

While the event itself is by far one of the best West coast holidays of the year, stumbling across drunken videogame cosplays yesterday amidst the brilliant chaos was the frosting on the cake. Mario Kart seemed to be the cosplay of choice amidst many attendees, but the Donkey Kong float that doubled as a traveling beer keg certainly wins the prize, in my opinion.

Take a look at the gallery to see a dancing NES controller, some promenading Katamari folks, and other cosplays to make you wish you were there. I also heard a rumor that Dyson was dressed up like Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes, so please post any photos in the comments that may confirm this phenomenon.

Available in Japan since last year, Capcom's Wii exclusive title We Love Golf! is nearly ready for release in North America. Today, Capcom has revealed the two new characters -- Stephanie and Mark -- as well as their alternate costumes.

Fans were given the choice to select the exclusive alternate outfits, from a list of awesome Capcom classic characters like Dead Rising's Frank West and Guy from Final Fight. But in the end, Ken from Street Fighter's red gi for Mark, and Morrigan from Darkstalker's outfit for Stephanie were chosen in the end. 

I was hoping we'd get "King Shriek" from Trojan, so this is a bit disappointing. Any classic or obscure Capcom characters you thinks should have made it into We Love Golf!?

By now you may have obtained your very own copy of the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, but Guinness is still busy celebrating. At least, they were busy yesterday in London, where over 80 cosplayers gathered at the Millenium Bridge to commemorate the launch of the book. They set their own record, in fact, by assembling the largest gathering of game-related characters in one place, which Guinness busily documented for what will hopefully be the 2009 Gamer's Edition.

I have to say this would have been a really cool event to be present at, just to see so many enthusiasts together at one time. Hit the jump to see a larger photo of the full group and see if you can name everyone. The twenty-four Marios cut down on the variety of characters a little more than I'd like, but regardless there's still plenty of familiar faces that you'll be happy to see.

[Via MTV Multiplayer blog - Thanks, Justin]

Not since that chick that painted herself blue to look like a Mudkip (no I'm not linking to that, find it yourself you pervert) have I been so turned on by ... a chick that painted herself blue. I4U has a monthly hot geek chick that does something close to my precious Nerdcore. This month, they hired a model named Francesca and painted her up to look like Cortana from the Halo series. 

Hot, but their stuff doesn't compare to my awesome Nerdcore ladies. There was a lot of airbrushing and Photoshopping that went into all of these pictures too, which is a bummer. More potentially NSFW photos of Francesca/Cortana over at I4U.

[Via the Girls Entertainment Network] 

At the end of the hectic GDC week and right before the epic San Francisco NARP was Wondercon 2008. I, along with Dyson, Virtualgirl, .tiff, Reverend Anthony, Charlie Suh, Ceark, Dexter345, and Chad Concelmo, all ventured through the sea of nerds and cosplayers. There were tons of comics all around and plenty of delicious looking action figures and toys that we all drooled over.

This experience was a nice change compared to my previous con adventure. The atmosphere was very welcoming and there were a lot of fantastic cosplaying all around. I even broke down and actually bought something for once. Marvel Zombies, by the way, is horribly awesome. That makes perfect sense if you've read the series. 

There was also a nice gaming presence thanks to Ubisoft, Capcom and The Behemoth. Ubisoft was showing off Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 while Capcom had a few games on display including Okami for the Wii. The game of choice for most of us there was of course Castle Crashers. 

They also had a few celebrities signing autographs and doing panels at the event. Timmy from Lassie, Chewbacca from Star Wars, and several others. The original Louis Lane was signing autographs as well. I forget her name, but it broke my heart to see her sitting and waiting for people to come up to her for an autograph. Like seriously, it was the saddest thing I saw all week.  

Check the gallery for what the show floor looked like and all of the awesome cosplayers. Special thanks to Virtualgirl, .tiff and Charlie Suh for the picture takings! 

You all may remember Jenni Källberg, also known as pixel-ninja, as being one of the most
amazing cosplayers ever with her Metroid outfit. Well she just so happens to be a fantastic artist and she's this week's Art Attack artist.

Her art collection is on the small side in comparison to some of the other artists I've featured but what she has ais simply amazing. I mean, she created my perfect image of a girl in this Nerdcore-isc pin-up girl piece. Some of her pieces are pretty funny as well. Such as the Prince of all Cosmos rolling Samus Aran around like a Katamari and the Weapon of Choice piece with the knife, Wiimote and Banana.

Cosplaying is also a form of art and pixelninja shows off tremendous skills with the outfits she has created. The Samus Aran piece will probably be the best Metroid cosplaying ever until someone actually makes an outfit out of metal or plastic (Nightmare Armor style). Other than Samus, she has also done cosplays as Mio & Mayu from Fatal Frame II, Ayame from Tenchu and many more that are all located on her official page.

Square Enix is squaring (horrible pun intended) off against California and four retailers that have been selling replica swords based on the Final Fantasy series. Square has been working with Homeland Security and Customs who have recently seized a crate of swords. The retailers of the swords refused to cooperate with Square Enix which caused them to go file the lawsuit.

In regards to this situation, Square Enix general counsel Yasuhiko Hasegawa stated:

"We are actively pursuing those who commit intellectual property infringement against our company ... While Square Enix appreciates the enthusiasm of its fans, and values its relationship with them, it is also obligated to protect its intellectual property rights or risk weakening or losing the very rights that enable the company to continue to provide its fans with an exciting entertainment experience."

I totally understand where Square is coming from. Last thing anyone would want is for someone to make money off of their property. Of course, this will hurt all future wanna be cosplayers ... which may or may not be a good thing.

Whatever. I used to be a sword guy, but now I'm all about the KNIFE EYE ATTACK!!!  

[Via Wired -- Image via Dr. McNinja] 

My love of sword-swinging Dynasty Warriors may indeed be very strong, but I can't help wondering if purchasing Cosplay Musou, a porno in which young Asian girls wear DW costumes and get stabbed with swords of a fleshier persuasion, might cross the line into creepy territory.

Cosplay Musou stars Aika Miyazaki, Ai Katsuki, Rika Nagasawa and Tomoka Nozawa, all of them ready for you to go medieval on their arses. Thinking about it, this makes perfect sense, as instead of hammering the A button, as in all DW games, we cut out the middle man and just go straight to the hammering. I can't believe that's the best innuendo I can come up with.

So, is buying this taking my Dynasty Warriors love a bit too far? Should I now take the ultimate challenge and become a Dynasty Wanker? I could click this NSFW link here to purchase the sordid shame, or I could just be satisfied that buying Sima Yi toys from Ebay is obsession enough. I fear if I buy this, I'm one step closer to commiting murders in the park at night.

I'll be right back, just getting my credit card.

[Thanks Mr. Satsu. Seriously.]