This weekend, I headed to one among my favourite locations on Earth: A pop-up Halloween retailer. It’s a convention that my spouse and I each love. This 12 months, we needed to re-locate the closest Spirit because it had moved into a brand new carcass of a previous retailer. I believe it used to promote footwear and sports activities gear. Now it sells Halloween costumes and decorations. And a surprising quantity of what’s on the market is Fortnite-related.
This weekend’s go to to the closest Spirit Halloween—the biggest Halloween costume retailer chain within the nation—was not my first go to this 12 months. I are likely to cease by at the very least two or thrice all through the spooky season to see what new stuff is obtainable, in addition to to look at children timidly stroll as much as giant animatronic monsters arrange in the midst of the shop. (The leaping spider this 12 months is a favourite because it scares the shit out of children and fogeys alike!)
However this 12 months I had a mission: To doc what video game-related costumes have been obtainable for Halloween 2022.
After all, you may nonetheless discover all of the stuff you’d probably anticipate. Rounding a nook, I found an entire part devoted to Mario and all his varied buddies and enemies. This space of the shop was principally picked over, although there have been plenty of Luigi masks left for all you participant twos on the market.
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Not distant, I noticed some Zelda-related outfits and gadgets. This part was additionally a bit picked over. My native retailer didn’t have any Pokémon costumes or gear on the market, however these gadgets can be found on Spirit’s web site.
Nonetheless, in 2022, it appears very clear which online game model is dominating Halloween, and it ain’t Name of Obligation or Minecraft. It’s the free-to-play, multiplatform tremendous hit Fortnite. It’s not even shut. I’d say near a 3rd of my retailer was Fortnite stuff, unfold out throughout Spirit’s totally different sections. Each few aisles I handed I’d spot extra Fortnite. Pickaxes, weapons, grenades, costumes, backpacks, wigs, and even Fortnite-themed Funko Pops.
On the one hand, I shouldn’t be stunned. My previous Spirit visits over the previous couple of years have been full of Fortnite gadgets and outfits. However this 12 months it felt just like the dam had fully damaged. In every single place I seemed I noticed Fortnite. Youngsters crowded aisles to seize outfits. Confused mother and father have been holding neon-colored llamas and hammers. Individuals ran round in Tomato masks and generic sci-fi soldier helmets which might be truly items from common Fortnite skins. It hit me final weekend that Fortnite has actually taken over Halloween. And I’m unhappy about it.
Don’t get me incorrect, I like Fortnite. It’s plenty of enjoyable! I’m at the moment digging the brand new Halloween-themed occasion happening within the sport this month. However watching my favourite vacation rework from being a enjoyable kaleidoscope of popular culture and traditional horror icons right into a live-action model of Fortnite each October has made me sadder than I anticipated. I even discovered a Batman-branded Fortnite pores and skin. What was as soon as a traditional Halloween costume is now consumed—like so many different issues—by Epic’s uber-popular battle royale.
In the end, Halloween remains to be cool and remains to be my favourite time of 12 months. And naturally, children will nonetheless have a good time. It’s an evening the place you get to exit, be scary, and get free sweet. That’s nonetheless superior to 7-year-olds and 77-year-olds alike. However I’ll miss the horrible Sonic outfits and bizarre knock-off Marios operating round my avenue each Halloween evening, begging for sweet. At the very least with these costumes, I didn’t have to clarify what the youngsters have been dressed as to everybody else after they left with their chocolate bars and lollipops.
