Key Points
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Video game costumes are popular for themed parties and conventions throughout the year.
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Halo is a powerful source of inspiration for cosplayers.
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Some of the most prominent IPs have extensive video game costume ideas.
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Costumes don't have to be complex; HaloHype has a few costume recommendations if you want something quick and easy.
Video game costumes are among the most popular choices for Halloween, themed parties, and conventions year-round and worldwide. Whether you’re in the UK, the Americas, Asia, or Africa, costumes are accessible and inspired by video games and those who designed them.
Developers and community managers promote video game costumes and their creators, bustling around convention centers and themed parties on every continent. Millions of interactions happen right on your cell phone through social media and forums. Cosplay and costuming help shape how developers interact with their players and fans.
The cosplay community and Halo's history are closely connected. The world’s spaceships, the Spartan Armor, and iconic weapons – like the Energy Sword and the Battle Rifle – continue to inspire independent artists and fans globally. Imaginative minds have channeled their inner Master Chief to design genuinely creative costumes.
The Armory: A Treatise of Halo’s Armor and Cosplay
Three major elements compose Halo’s stylistic identity: its music and audio design, story experiences — Campaign, multiplayer, and esports experiences — and visual language. Even though your grandmother couldn't name Master Chief, she surely knows that the Mark VI helmet and military green armor belong to “the Halo guy.”
A dedicated art and design team built this iconic identity from the ground up, creating an art style that has resonated with fans everywhere. Master Chief’s armor is legendary, routinely showcased front and center on every box, poster, and advertisement. The armor makes Halo merchandise instantly recognizable.
Rolling Thunder: Mjolnir Armor
Halo’s Mjolnir armor separates itself in a medium saturated with mech suits and flashy LED armor. Mjolnir is only usable by the Spartan super soldiers, as it weighs literally half a ton. It also functions as an exoskeleton to improve its wearer's strength and physical prowess, just as it empowers the Norse God of Thunder, Thor, to vanquish his foes.
The Mjolnir armor has been a major objective of Halo players since 2007’s Halo 3 when multiplayer armor customization began to open up; new helmets, shoulders, and chest pieces became available to unlock through in-game challenges.
When players encountered other avatars wearing any piece of the Hayabusa set, they understood that that player had found all the hidden skulls in Campaign. Adding the katana to the arsenal proved that the player also had finished most of the game's achievements.
Halo’s armor is the expression of the player themselves as an Elite or Spartan, showing off for other players in social and competitive modes. It remains a source of joy, envy, and motivation to flex on your friends and opponents. Getting flashy with your armor and weapon combinations while playing is almost irresistible. Halo remains one of the best visual looks in first-person shooter games, even after two decades of service.
Passion and Power
Halo’s space opera world has epic scaling and design inspiration for fans, artists, and designers worldwide. As players and fans envision themselves as marines and Spartans and craft their individual armors, others build Elite, Covenant, and Banished costumes and props for conventions, content, and streaming.
Cosplayers have drawn inspiration from the Master Chief since the first Halo showcase at Macworld 1999. At the 2022 Halo Championship Series (HCS) World Championship in Seattle, the first ever HCS-hosted Cosplay contest offered a $5,000 grand prize, which went to WexyLex for a stunning Halo: Reach Skirmisher costume.
Painstaking craftsmanship went into WexyLex’s Skirmisher piece, and the paint job alone composes over 6,800 hexagon stickers for detailing.
WexyLex’s first costumes were Spartan power armor, but after creating a to-scale Halo 4 Hunter, she pivoted to monster suit work. Collaborating with other cosplay artists, she created a Brute costume measuring nine feet tall!
WexyLex advises those interested in cosplaying to join online communities where you can befriend and learn from other cosplayers.
“Find communities that accept you and don’t feel obligated to stick around with others that don’t. You don’t belong to any one group once you’ve joined,” WexyLex says in this October feature.
“Even if you feel ‘out of their league’ when you have questions, it doesn’t hurt to reach out to people and ask. Most people will have FAQs, videos, or posts that answer a lot of your questions about their processes.”
As with any skill, designing your own costumes and cosplay are learned little by little, one step at a time. Fan creation is all in the details, but most importantly, your passion will carry your work over any last hill. With enough time, patience, and practice, you may even create a legendary costume like WexyLex!
Halo Hype’s Top 10 Video Game Costumes for 2023
In 2022, the internet saw plenty of passionate game fans dress up throughout the year. The following titles — in no particular order — were the most popular:
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Super Mario
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Fallout 4
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Five Nights at Freddy’s
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Halo
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Kingdom Hearts
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The Legend of Zelda
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Fortnite
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Pokémon
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Minecraft
With the imaginative, bold worlds and characters created by talented writers, artists, and developers, there is no shortage of the fantastic and artisanal looks these interactive experiences provide.
If Tetris and Pong can inspire costumes, bet your favorite games have features to adapt into something amazing for your Halloween work party, birthday party, or other themed events.
Quick and Easy Video Game Costumes
Whether you’re looking for a fancy costume or a meme-worthy option, there are various routes that you can take to turn heads or get some laughs. The following costumes are simple, easy, and accessible through Amazon and other major retailers.
2B: Nier Automata
The female combat android 2B – a character from Square Enix’s Nier Automata – debuted in 2017. Automata is a hack-and-slash action role-playing game set in a cyberpunk open world and has amassed a cult following. While this character is popular, searching for a costume on a shared computer may not be wise. This Amazon link is safe to view anywhere.
Mario: Super Mario
The Patron of Platformers, the Plumbing Extraordinaire of Mushroom Kingdom, and the King of Video Games, Super Mario is one of the most popular costumes every year. Mario could always use a Player Two, though, and it’s common for couples to pair a Mario look with a Luigi, Bowser, Peach, or Donkey Kong costume. As the star of over 200 video games, Mario's creativity is not in short supply.
Ezio: Assassin’s Creed II
The Assassin’s Creed series has sold over 200 million copies, and Assassin’s Creed II is vastly considered the best game of the batch. The game’s veneer is primarily due to its protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, his look, and his progression through several games.
His overall aesthetics, with the hooded white robes flanked by a silk red and brown cloak, leather boots, and concealed wrist knives, delivers a costume that is simultaneously Renaissance vintage and dope. As such, it’s proven popular and provided plenty of premade options and cosplay passion.
Ash Ketchum: Pokémon Series
The recent news that Ash Ketchum’s 25-year run as the protagonist of the Pokémon anime is coming to a close resulted in an uptick in Ash costume searches. With hundreds of Pokémon trainers and Pokémon to draw inspiration from, the series has many fun couples’ costume options. Ash’s iconic hat, vest, and backpack have inspired every generation, from 10-year-olds to adults, to gear up, get outside, and catch some pocket monsters.
Heavy Armor Inbound
There’s a special connection between cosplayers and gaming. Video games are the most interactive medium ever created to inhabit the world and the characters it truly presents. You become Master Chief, the last line of defense for humanity. You become the Arbiter, unraveling the lies of your creed to discover the truth. You are the Spartan who holds the Oddball and is the key to victory.
A certain combination of fun and immersion makes a high-quality costume. Costumes that allow the character’s grittiness to translate into the physical world are always well-received. Alternatively, it’s also a lot of fun to show up to your block party dressed as a tie-wearing gorilla.
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