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Final Fantasy XI Fan Fest 2007 gallery, from cosplay to concert
While we enjoyed speaking with the Final Fantasy XI dev team regarding the MMO and its latest expansion, Wings of the Goddess, that was certainly not all that took place during the Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival 2007 in Anaheim, CA. From seeing planner Kenichi Iwao in a samurai helmet to rubbing elbows with more cosplayers than I care to admit, this past weekend's event was certainly a memorable experience, and we have the pictures here to prove it. Our thanks to event attendee Johnathan Perkins for the above pose, which had us rolling.Mithra tail-grabbing antics aside, other highlights include a costume contest that saw an attendee dressed as the venerable Cid taking first prize, as well as an eclectic concert featuring both North American video game cover band The Smash Bros. and The Star Onion's own Kumi Tanioka. Click through to feel as if you were there, one frame at a time.%Gallery-10466%
Get out of Zebes! Prime Samus Aran cosplay
It's not often you'll find us complimenting the quality of an individual's cosplay, so when we do it's sort of a big deal. Not "I just won the lottery" big, but more "Sweet, the vending machine gave me two sodas for the price of one" big. Anyway, you get the picture. Jenni, playing the part of Metroid's Samus Aran, captures the essence of the character thanks to a fairly accurate costume, and fantastic setting. The complete set features 15 different photos, and outside of the shots where she dons the helmet, they're really worthy of praise. Keep up the good work, Jenni! [Thanks, Jesse.]
No More Heroes PLAYSYLVIA cosplay: week 1
Yuzuki Aikawa is the first model to be featured as a Sylvia Christel cosplayer on the No More Heroes website, and you can see the results here. The site is, of course, brimming with pictures, all presented in the same playing-card motíf.What's infinitely funnier than pictures of a girl in clothes are the captions on the cards. "Cool & Sexy," the one to the right reads. Others read "Knockdown," "Sexy Cat," and "Kyun (heart)," the latter apparently a Japanese psychomime word for "a heart aching with warm emotion." Check next week for more kyun-inducing girls in platinum blonde wigs. We may throw in some more Japanese linguistics, since we know that's what really gets your attention!
No More Heroes: More Sylvias on the way
An announcement on the No More Heroes website says that during November and December, a Sylvia Christel cosplay event called "PLAYSYLVIA" will be featured. In the "web cosplay event," gravure idols will dress up as Sylvia and then do what they do best -- be photographed. If you like to see girls who look sort of like fictional characters, you will no doubt be pleased with this. Could this be inspired by the amazing Travis Touchdown cosplay we featured yesterday? Probably not! It takes more than a few hours to plan an inititative like that and hire models and photographers and stuff. Also Grasshopper Manufacture seems to be pretty in tune with their target audience (otaku) and having pretty girls dress up as one of the characters is basic marketing for otaku stuff.Check after the break for this week's new No More Heroes videos! They are comical, and also (as usual) very short.
Homemade No More Heroes beam katana contradicts the game's title
Is it a good idea to make a costume and custom-built beam katana prop based on an unreleased game that may not turn out to be any good? Not at all! Is it an awesome idea? HOLY CRAP YES. This No More Heroes Travis Touchdown costume from .ed is the antidote to yesterday's WarioWare cosplay. The jacket and shirt and drawn-on sideburns are great, but the real draw is the homemade beam katana accessory, which, using science, lights up with a blue glow. It looks just like the Blood Berry beam katana that we've only seen in tiny pictures!The costume is so good that it even got the attention of a Grasshopper Manufacture employee named Naoko, who emailed him and said " I've just checked your pictures. It looks great. I really like it. I hope people recognized what you made for."
WarioWare costume makes cosplay not fun anymore
Theresa Murphy's intentions were well-meaning when she planned out this costume, dressing up as Kat, half of the WarioWare series' ninja-sister duo. There must have been some misstep during the creation process, however, some supernatural treachery, that produced this absolutely creepy paper mache head. Our best guess is that a dying killer snuck into Theresa's house and performed a voodoo ritual to imbue the mask with his evil soul, all while she was distracted by a Geico TV commercial.Gone are our memories of Kat as a cute minigame ninja. In their place, we see a black and white scene of Kat pulling herself out of a well, her fingertips crusted with blackened blood and her skin sallow. She tramps toward us, and the only thing we can hear is the smack of her wet, sock-covered feet on hard ground. Our eyes are wide with horror, screaming, but we cannot move.
Another real life fan video, only funny this time
Although the real life Smash Brothers video had its moments, it didn't impress us too much. Mega64's enactment of Super Mario Bros. 3's kuribo shoe, however, tickled us in the right places. The kuribo shoe was probably one of the most exciting parts of the game (which says a lot, since the whole thing was awesome). In real life though, it just looks exhausting. And hilarious. Or maybe we're just fickle like that.
The DS Life: DS Brothers
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.There's a right way and a wrong way to start off your day. This is the right way.
Cosplaying Brit reviews Phantom Hourglass
As we've proven many times over, what with our posts on cowboy pigs and mutant cats, we have a penchant for the non traditional. Take Play Digital's Phantom Hourglass review, for example -- it completely reinvents the standard video review conducted by some dude, updating the formula with a video review conducted by some, uh, dudette. Alright, so female gamers are nothing new (we happen to have a couple of them on our staff, so I'm told), but the video still stands out for its success at appealing to people with two different, specialized fetishes: girls with British accents and girls who cosplay as Link. Even without those selling points, the review and its cutaway clips are entertaining enough to warrant watching.Katharine, Play Digital's English critic, has put together about a dozen of these videos, her other pieces covering titles like Jam Sessions, Naruto Ninja Council 3, and Sonic Rush Adventure. Before you run to see what furry outfit Katharine suited herself in for that last one, keep in mind that she doesn't usually dress up for these reviews; you'll have to yiff elsewhere.[Via Penny Arcade Forums]
The DS Life: A moustache, a hat, and a duffel bag
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.Is that who we think it is, plopped over there by the steps and playing a DS? You'd think he'd have one of the newer models, right? And doesn't he look a lot "portlier" on TV?
When fanboyism goes too far: Smash Bros Brawl in real life
Hey, we're fanboys. But, sometimes you have to know when to ... well, curb your enthusiasm. If you think it'd be a good idea to go down to your local park, dress up like characters in the game and act out the brawling, you might want to stop and think for a moment. You wouldn't want your video posted on some blog where people might make fun of you.[Via Go Nintendo]
Today's most horrific video: Final Fantasy Cosplay Lip-synching
In honor of the upcoming Halloween Holiday, we bring something cringe-inducing and nausea-causing: namely, cosplayers singing. Well, at least one of them is singing. The other one is lip-synching, complete with backup dancers. The only thing she's missing is a wind machine to toss her hair about in a sultry and sexy manner while she goes through the motions.Well, you at least have to applaud their enthusiasm, and their willingness to make complete fools of themselves on the international internets. Plus, Rude actually looks fairly slick in his outfit, even if his acting skills make Pauly Shore look like Jude Law. And Cloud's sword looks, well ... authentic. We're just sayin'.Anyhow, check out the vid. We hope you were scared because there are more to come as we countdown to Halloween. Don't say you weren't warned.
WoW Moviewatch: World of Warcraft Raid Bosses
"World of Warcraft Raid Bosses" dramatizes life on the other side of the screen for Arthas, Lady Vashj and Sylvanas Windrunner. Performed live at San Diego Comic Con last August, this WoW skit won the Judge's Choice award. Unfortunately, the video posted on YouTube was shot by someone in the audience and very little of the actors can be heard. I found a clean MP3 of the dialogue, replaced much of the bad audio of the original and reposted the video. My apologies to the original posters, but this play was far too entertaining to be ignored due to audio problems.If you'd like to see more Costume Plays, head to American CosPlay Paradise. For a transcript of the play, click over to this Livejournal entry.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass launch draws cosplayers to Nintendo Store
Click for high-res image. The newest Zelda game, Phantom Hourglass for the DS, launched a day early to the surprise of Nintendo World Store shoppers today in New York City. It's not every day that a new Zelda game graces the Nintendo faithful, and the World Store housed some rare memorabilia from the series' long-running legacy. In addition, cosplayers flocked to the store for a chance to nab the game for free. Excuuuse me, but this Link from the original Saturday morning cartoon wins the cake from us.%Gallery-7996%
Today's one-to-one-scale video: Fan-made Halo helmet
We looked for something unrelated to Halo for our video pick, but eventually just learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. This Spike TV GameHead clip shows Halo fan, Devin White's rough process in creating Master Chief armor. (We'd call it cosplay, but that's like calling G.I. Joe a doll.) White casts molds from his clay sculptures to create plastic, glistening armor and helmets.The race is on to hollow-out the Legendary box into a small, pet-wearable helmet. Watch this fan build a human-wearable one from scratch after the break.
TGS cosplayers gallery
You simply can't barge your way through the throbbing mass of people at the Tokyo Game Show without bumping into video game characters which have somehow manifested in reality. Actually, physically bumping into them isn't recommended, as the ornate headdresses, gargantuan shoulder pads and razor-sharp hair is very likely to cause unexpected injury. With all the Clouds marching about the hallways of the Makuhari Messe center, you're likely to become trapped in a cosplay iron maiden* if you're not careful.*Due to creative cosplay, "maiden" may in truth be "man."%Gallery-7697%
WoW Insider at Dragon*Con - Wrap-up
This year, Elizabeth and I headed off to Atlanta, GA to cover Dragon*Con. In its 20th year, Dragon*Con is the United States' largest Pop Culture themed 4-day geek-fest, to put it mildly. While you won't get official numbers from the organizers past 20,000 participants, we heard whispers of numbers well over 40k in attendance if you counted each membership separately as opposed to combining the single-day passes like they do.For our first year, we primarily set out to spread the WoW Insider love and get to know the community. That said, the reception and excitement we got from the Dragon*Con community at seeing us there overwhelmed both Elizabeth and I. It has ensured that we'll both be back in 2008 to cover all the myriad World of Warcraft goings on for WoW Insider! (As well as ensuring that we'll be back to help run the First Annual Dragon*Con MMO Costume Contest, slated for 2008!)To check out a condensed recap of this year's various events, as well as the two (enormous) photo galleries chock full of various sights from D*C 2007, join me after the jump!%Gallery-6768%%Gallery-6901%
Friday Video: Battle Tetris
This video was just too funny to resist; when it turned up on Boing Boing, we knew we would have to borrow it for this week's video spotlight. What happens when two guys (we assume) dressed as Tetris pieces decide to get into it? See for yourself after the break. Frankly, we think Mr. Blue Piece cheated through the power of his extra block.We should also warn you, there's a little swearing in the beginning, but what else can you expect from Battle Tetris?
Metroid Week: The many faces of Samus Aran
One of the best things about conventions of any kind is seeing all of the people dressing up as their favorite characters from games and manga. And considering PAX just came to a close and what week this is, we figured we could post some of our internet finds on cosplaying Samus Arans. So, for some of the best (and worst) costumes, head past the break.
PAX 07: Objection!! Cosplay is awesome
PAX 07 has already shown to be a place where the costumes come out in full force, but few have been as awesome as this fellow's Phoenix Wright cosplay. Not only do you get an almost pixel perfect blue suit, you get the stylized slicked back hair and even a word balloon-on-a-stick with Wright's famous catchphrase. If they ever turn the DS game into a movie, they desperately need to hire this guy to play the titular lawyer. Objection -- over-ruled.
