8. T-Rex – Need for Speed II
There have been more than 20 mainline Need for Speed games since the series’ inception way back in 1994, and yet one of the most memorable vehicles in the entire series dates back to the second installment released for PC and the original PlayStation. If you input the password “TREXME,” you get…well, not an actual dinosaur, but a model of one sitting on top of a vehicle.
It’s actually more of a novelty than anything. The T-rex isn’t very fast and doesn’t handle very well, but it’s definitely unique. And given the mixed reception the last few Need for Speed games have received, maybe that’s what the series is missing: dinosaur cars.
7. Tofu – Resident Evil 2
The Resident Evil series is known for its scares, gore, relentless action, and also some really odd jokes, the most infamous being Tofu. Unlocking Tofu is no easy feat. You first have to beat the game with either Claire or Leon, then beat their alternative scenario, and after that, you need to get through tough the 4th Survivor minigame featuring HUNK. Finally, after all that, you can now play as a giant piece of Tofu with a knife. Or, you can just buy him as DLC if you’re playing the excellent 2019 remake.
Supposedly, Tofu is based on the polygonal model that Capcom used to test collision detection during development, and then the team kept him in the game as a joke. As out of place as Tofu is in the Resident Evil universe, it’s actually now kind of hard to imagine Resident Evil 2 without the giant piece of soy wandering around Raccoon City.
6. Fred Durst – WWF Smackdown! Just Bring It, WWF Raw, and Fight Club
Believe it or not, there was a brief period of time in the early 2000s when Limp Bizkit was the biggest band in the country, and Fred Durst was the very definition of cool. Thankfully, we all came to our senses pretty quickly, but we’ll never fully escape the horrors of our country’s brief flirtation with nu-metal. Fred Durst, never one to not cash in on an opportunity, used his newfound fame to become a playable character in two WWF (now WWE) games and also the aforementioned abysmal Fight Club fighting game. Yes, you really can play a retail game where Fred Durst fist-fights Abraham Lincoln for some reason.
Apparently, one of Durst’s demands in the 2000s was that he had to appear as a playable character in any game using Limp Bizkit songs on the soundtrack. The Undertaker used “Rollin’” as an entrance song at the time, which explains his inclusion in the WWF games. And putting Limp Bizkit on the soundtrack was just one of Fight Club’s many poor design choices. Anyway, the risk of having to include Fred Durst in their game seems to have dissuaded most developers from including Limp Bizkit in many video games since then.