Here's a post that you'll read here on E Junkie website that is a little different. I won't be offering you advice on where to find cheap mobile apps, places to download emulators or even the benefits of HDMI type B over type A. Instead, let's take a look at something a little more fun, here are five video game costumes available to buy in most fancy dress, Halloween and party stores that we're willing to bet you never knew existed.

Tetris Costume

It might not seem obvious that you should want to dress as a giant block for Halloween this year but, if you are a fan of older games and can actually remember the original title you may feel a little nostalgic about whiling your childhood away trying to make those piles of squares fit together neatly, impatiently waiting for that elusive single line of boxes to fit nicely in the corner only to put it in the wrong place at the very last second. Personally, I first played Tetris in the early nineties and I find it as addictive today as I did then. If you want to feel especially old, make a note of June 6th 2014 on your iPhone as this will be the 30th anniversary of the original release.

Angry Birds Costume

Let's catapult forward to something a little more modern. Catapulting being a suitable choice of verb. Today, Angry Birds has sold in excess of 12 million copies on Apple's App Store. These are some impressive numbers that have led to generous merchandising royalties and made the talents of Senior Designer Jaakko Iisalo very much in demand in the gaming industry. The Angry Birds costume range includes each of the three angered birds from the original release. There are also King Pig costumes for adults and children.

Space Invaders Costume

Let's go retro again in this look at video game costumes. The original arcade version of Space Invaders was first unleashed around June 1978 and could be found taking up as much room as a vending machine. Perhaps not the first ever fixed shooter, that title debatably goes to Spacewar!, regardless, Space Invaders is easily the best known. Something that I personally like about the Space Invaders costume is how simple it is. Some costumes tend to be quite complicated and have various accessories and make-up that need applying. This outfit goes straight on over your head in seconds and you're ready to go out. It's simple and easy.

Princess Peach Costume

At last, one for the ladies. Super Mario Bros. was released on the NES in1985 and, as Mario you were required to play through the Mushroom Kingdom and rescue Princess Peach Toadstool from Bowser. I'd like to think most video gamers my age already know this, but let's humour the younger gamers that think GTA III is 'classic gaming' released back in the good old days of 2001. The Princess Peach costume would look great on the arm of a Mario which is also available, you'll be happy to read. See, even couples can make the most of video game costumes.

Sub-Zero Costume

Let's finish on something really cool. First off, the 1995 Mortal Kombat film was awful, the best thing about it was Christopher Lambert and he was terrible. Anyway, Mortal Kombat has had no less than 18 video game releases since the inception back in 1992. Debateably, one of the most popular characters is Sub-Zero. The popularity of the character is evident by IGN listing Sub-Zero's first incarnation 85th in their list of the top 100 video game villains. Something I'd like to request to anyone that may don this costume for Halloween, please don’t attempt the 'Spine Rip' fatality at home on a friend, regardless of it being creator Ed Boon's favourite finisher, you'll be left with a rather nasty mess.

Cosplay And Making Your Own Costume

Cosplay seems to be growing as a pastime in the western world after its popularity has exploded in Japan over the last 20 years. If you are unaware cosplay is short for costume play and is heavily influenced by sources such as anime, comic books, video games and films.

So what if you want to go to a costume party, convention or do a little cosplay and the character you want to portray isn't avail to buy from a shop. Quite simply, you need to create your own costume.

Here is a very simple simple system for deciding if it is possible to create an outfit for a character from a video game. See the image below.



This is a guest post by Ian Tomkins.