Pepsiman

Pepsiman is a PlayStation action game developed and published by KID (Kindle Imagine Develop) and released in Japan on March 4, 1999. Built around Pepsi Japan's silver-suited superhero mascot, it turns a licensed advertising character into a third-person obstacle course. The Japanese release, catalogued as SLPS-01762, remained exclusive to Japan, although its spoken and on-screen presentation is largely in English with Japanese subtitles for dialogue.

Each of Pepsiman's four stages sends its hero on an urgent delivery: someone needs a Pepsi, and the route is packed with hazards. Pepsiman runs forward automatically, so the player's job is to react to the route ahead rather than steer through an open world. Inputs are used to make him jump, slide or otherwise evade threats, while dashing and a higher jump expand the ways he can clear barriers. A collision costs health, and checkpoints allow a restart from the latest marked point when too many mistakes end a run.

The stages are split into shorter sections and present changing perspectives and set pieces. Their settings begin with stylised takes on San Francisco, New York City, and Texas before the game moves to the fictional Pepsi City. Cars, construction equipment, pedestrians, damaged streets, and branded objects can all block the path. Some sections add special situations, including travel by skateboard and a sequence in which Pepsiman is trapped in a metal bin, changing how movement must be handled. Stage finales turn the escape into a chase, with an oversized object such as a huge Pepsi can racing behind him.

Pepsi cans placed along the route reward careful movement and provide an additional reason to revisit sections. The design combines memorising approaching obstacles with quick responses to sudden changes in the course, making progress depend on learning each segment's rhythm as well as preserving health. Between stages, live-action intermissions show a man watching Pepsiman and consuming Pepsi alongside snacks, while the game also uses animated scenes. This mixture of 3D running action, short comedic inserts, and overt branding gives the PlayStation game a presentation closely tied to the mascot's Japanese advertising campaign.

Pepsiman came from the version of the character created for Pepsi in Japan, where the mascot had already appeared in commercials and other promotions. KID produced the game on a modest budget, and future visual-novel writer Kotaro Uchikoshi contributed 2D modelling work during its development. It has no Western retail release or contemporary console port to confuse with the original: this is the 1999 Japanese PlayStation game, a self-contained single-player action title centered on Pepsiman's nonstop rescue runs.