Cheap Gaming Costumes For Halloween 2008

Halloween is in two weeks and this past year in gaming has provided a lot of good ideas for costumes. Unfortunately, most Halloween parties are going to be filled with non-gamers who don't give a crap that you spent hundreds of bucks and dozens of hours to create a Master Chief costume. So why bother putting in all that effort when there's much easier ways to express your love for games?

Wii Fit Girl

What you need: Yellow t-shirt, glasses, striped underoos, hula hoop, lack of shame

Why it's a good costume: Ah, Wii Fit Girl, the young lady who works at an ad agency who was "secretly" taped playing Wii Fit in her skivvies by her boyfriend who works at the same ad agency. Naturally, it was then uploaded to YouTube. Ah, so spontaneous and secret. Why not honor this grab for attention by strolling around in PJ's with a hula hoop? Hula hooping to me is about as sexy as the foxtrot but that YouTube got millions of hits. Apparently there's a few hula fetishists out there and if any of them are at your party, you'll be a hit.

SackBoy/SackGirl

What you need:Brown paper bags and/or potato sacks, newspaper stuffing, anything else

Why it's a good costume: The lovable ragdolls of LittleBigPlanet are arguably the most recognizable video game characters of the past year and they have one important strength: they're essentially blank slates for other costume ideas. They're big brown, bag-like dolls with any type of prop imaginable. Just go grab some random crap off the wall of a T.G.I. Friday's and you'll be set. There's one drawback to being a SackBoy/SackGirl, though: if you're at a party with non-gamers, you'll spend the whole night telling them you're not a scarecrow or a hobo.

Niko Bellic

What you need: Jogging pants, boots, fugly fleece, horrible facial hair

Why it's a good costume: Niko Bellic, the Eastern European protagonist of Grand Theft Auto IV, makes for a good costume because you don't have to be the slightest bit attractive. In fact, the more unattractive you are, the more you'll resemble Niko's squirrely ass. A few days worth of no shaving and five dollars worth of thrift store shopping are all you'' need to get this costume together. Even better, it'll give you an excuse to bust out the politically incorrect foreigner accent you haven't used since that year you dressed up as Borat.

The Braid Guy

What you need: Blue blazer, white shirt, red tie, gray pants, red-haired wig

Why it's a good costume: Any guy who has a crappy 9-to-5 job most likely already has the clothes to impersonate the hero of puzzle platformer Xbox Live Arcade Braid. It's a dude in dress clothes. The only difference is that he can control time. However, as comedian Dave Attell noted, drinking alcohol and blacking out for extended periods is a lot like time travel. Plus, vomiting up beer is lot like hitting the rewind button on your drinking, isn't it?