The Resident Evil 2 Remake Will Let You Play As Tofu, Again

The Resident Evil 2 remake finally shambles onto the scene next week and, when it arrives, players will once again be able to play as the most badass member of S.T.A.R.S.: A block of tofu.

The above tweet comes from the official Resident Evil account, where the developer has revealed that the upcoming remake will include the two additional scenarios included in the original Resident Evil 2. When you finish the game, you'll be able to unlock both "The 4th Survivor" and "The Tofu Survivor," which let you play as Hunk and Tofu, respectively.

Hunk, also known as the Grim Reaper, is an Umbrella operative who took on hordes of monsters with a limited supply of gear. The story is that Hunk was sent in to procure a sample of the G-Virus and then escape the city via helicopter. It was a fun and challenging mode that required rationing items (no near gear could be picked up) and racing the clock. The Tofu Survivor was a trek through the same mode, but your only item was a combat knife. Oh and, also, you were a giant chunk of tofu. That's probably worth mentioning, too.

In case that seems too silly even for Resident Evil standards, there's actually a good reason for "Tofu" existing. When games are in early development, placeholders are frequently used to represent assets that will later be designed, animated and the like. The original tofu model just happened to look like, well, a block of tofu. In reality, though, it was a white, blocky mass that was simply used to track things like hit detection within the game. According to Capcom lore from 1998, the team thought it was kind of humorous to watch the white chunk run around what was supposed to be a scary game, and so they decided to use the model in an unlockable new game mode.

In the original version, Tofu had floating gloves for hands, one of which held his knife. In the new version, the knife (as well as a flashlight) just kind of float in midair. But while his gloves are gone, he now wears the S.T.A.R.S. cap seen in the original mode's menu screen.

If you take a look at Tofu in the promotional image tweeted by Capcom, you can see a few other weapons on the ground nearby. I can make out a chaingun, chopsticks, another knife, a machine gun and, in the background, a rocket launcher. I don't know if this is to represent that Tofu is such a badass that he doesn't need all of those other weapons, or perhaps it's a teaser that the character will have the ability to equip more gear this time around.

Thankfully, we don't have very long to wait in order to get all of our answers. Resident Evil 2 launches for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC next Friday, Jan. 25. And for you vets in the audience, you can look forward to a slightly altered series of events taking place in the game, just to keep you on your toes. Also, in case you're not yet sold, there's already a demo available on all platforms.