Two years ago, Michal Shafrir, a Sonic the Hedgehog superfan and one of the developers on the April Fools’ visual novel The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, cosplayed not as a Sonic character, but as an entire level from Sonic Adventure 2. That was already an incredible concept, complete with the giant truck that chases Sonic at the end of the level as a headpiece. How do you follow that up? By cosplaying another Sonic Adventure 2 stage, but making it actually “playable.”
Shafrir has been documenting the process of making a playable costume based on Pumpkin Hill, one of Knuckles the Echidna’s iconic treasure-hunting segments in the Dreamcast classic, since August, and what started as a visual concept has been fully realized just in time for Halloween on Saturday. At a glance, the costume looks like Pumpkin Hill’s spooky aesthetic simply turned into a dress. The jack-o-lantern shoulderpads frame the corset that bears the level’s orange and purple sky, and the skirt is lined with pieces made to look like the platforms Knuckles glides to in search of pieces of the Master Emerald that are scattered around.
A Knuckles figure sits on Shafrir’s shoulder in most of her photos, and all of this on its own would be enough to make for a great costume. However, Shafrir also wears a necklace made to look like the radar players use to find pieces of the Master Emerald in Knuckles’ levels, and if you hold the Knuckles figure and move it around the dress, you’ll find a Master Emerald inside one of the platforms as the radar tells you if you’re hot or cold.
I was thinking of just dragging my Gustave from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 cosplay out of the closet for this year’s Halloween, and now I’m wishing I’d locked in.