Pepsiman (PS1) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

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Published 2017-09-17
A playthrough of KID's 1999 Japan-only action/racing game for the Sony PlayStation, Pepsiman.

Played through on the normal difficulty level. The entire game is also in English, making it nice and import-friendly.

Pepsiman (ペプシマン) is yet another one of those completely bizarre games that we never received in the West. It features Pepsiman, the Japanese Pepsi superhero mascot, coming to the rescue of helpless, parched Pepsi-loving victims of circumstance. A delivery truck breaks down and people are waiting? Oh no! People are trapped in a burning building and emergency services can't get to them? Ahh! These scenarios and more await our intrepid capitalistic champion of high fructose corn syrup. It's pretty surreal.

It plays likes Temple Run except that it's not endless, and each level has cans that you can collect to unlock features like different costumes and the expert mode. It plays surprisingly well - there are no problems at all with the controls, but God is this game difficult. I really practiced a ton before recording this: the last two stages are absolutely brutal. Like NES-era hard. It's all pretty enjoyable though once you take a break from raging.

The graphics are really nice and sharp - surprisingly so for a PS1 game - and the music is quite the novelty. Granted, every tune is a remix of the mascot's theme song, but you get it in all sorts of styles. I'm a big fan of the boss stage dubstep/rave mix. The lyrics... or lyric, to be more exact, is pretty hysterical. Every five seconds you'll hear it singing, "Pepsiman!" That's about it, really.

I don't particularly like the video clips though. That man that is (I guess) representing America is pretty thoroughly offputting. He reinforces loads of hilarious stereotypes, but he just makes me cringe in an, "Ugh, that's nauseating," kind of way. His Japanese-friendly English lines are pretty damned funny though. Pepsi for Pizza! and Pepsi for TV game! Made me laugh. And his shirt had me in stitches every time I saw it. He's reminds me of Roseanne Barr in that he's funny, but he's also a thoroughly embarrassing ambassador for a nation of over 300 million people.

So, it's not just a completely odd advertising vehicle, but Pepsiman is legitimately a pretty good game.
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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All Comments (21)
  • @Buguese
    The fact that AVGN got THIS SAME GUY to make his appearance on his Pepsi man episode was fucking awesome
  • Pepsiman is yet another thoroughly odd, Japanese-only WTF type of experience, but with some of the best story scenes and music ever in a video game. My personal favorite bit is when they sing "Pepsiman"! ;)
  • Let me handle the story. 1st Stage: It first starts with people buying beverage, the one known as Pepsi, in the vending machine. But then it runs out of Pepsi, and people then are like crazy that they are actually going on a riot because of that. So the truck goes to bring more Pepsi, but the tires popped out. Therefore, Pepsiman comes out to help and bring more Pepsi. Luckily, he was able to reach where people are chanting the word "Pepsi," right next to an empty vending machine. Later, the truck accidentally hit Pepsiman, launching him over the large can of Pepsi, leaving Pepsiman to run from that large can. 2nd Stage: After Pepsiman escaped from the large can, he approach the firefighter, who tells him that there is a fire coming out of the building. And the rest of the firefighters came to stop the fire. But then the firefighter said that people are dehydrated of their throat (I don't know; I'm just saying that) and needed something to drink. Responding to this, Pepsiman reaches on top of the building, jumping far from that, and uses his power to spread the Pepsi around to people before falling off the building. He then landed on the pizza truck and, for unknown reasons, the truck begin to run over Pepsiman. But he succeeded by running before the truck goes away, suddenly hitting the boxes of Pepsi. (Kind of weird if you tell me) 3rd Stage: The next morning, the airplane suddenly stops and landed on the desert. Luckily, nobody was hurt or killed, (I actually don't know how they survived in that airplane) but they are exhausted and needed to drink. So Pepsiman came to help because the helicopters that the navigator called but will take some time to arrive. Throughout the desert and through the mine, he found people near the airplane, and uses the same power like he did in the beginning. (Read 1st Stage for more information) Suddenly, out of nowhere, the bisons hit Pepsiman, where he landed on the logs, therefore it begins to roll forward. And then Pepsiman ran off from the logs before it hits the wall, destroying the stack of logs. (Kind of weird of you asked me for those logs sticking together) 4th and Final Stage: When Pepsiman returns home, which is the Pepsi City, (Most likely due to the town having ads and merchandise about Pepsi) the computer suddenly went out of control, causing the havoc of dehydration, spreading to other computers, exhaustion, lack of Pepsi, fires rarely seen but once at the time, more riots, and one serious problems that will affect the whole world: Destruction. (That is WAAAAYYYY too cruel, literally) Pepsiman soon becomes so brave to go through the city, into the factory, reaching the programming room to uses his power one final time to get the computer to normal condition, saving the whole company and the world! But that doesn't stop there, as the another large can fall off the marble to roll over Pepsiman, after he exits the factory, but then hits the wall, ending Pepsiman's adventure as more people begins to celebrate, thanks to this heroic mascot that gave everyone (Well not me actually) Pepsi.
  • @mariusamber3237
    Man, good old 90s with their advertising techniques... I recall there also was a Coca Cola Kid game for the Game Gear, which incidentally only came out in Japan as well. That one had some cutscenes in Japanese, but it was fan-translated ages ago.
  • @Stealthborn
    Strangely loved this game. The melodic charm followed by the gameplay are what drag me in. If only all Japanese import games were this easy to understand! Learning Japanese is challenging enough.
  • @fatcatbat6357
    Pepsi maaaa......aaaan! That part always made me laugh.
  • @tacotoosday42
    Pepsiman Pepsiman does whatever a man drinking Pepsi can. Got diabetes? Your not alone. He has a 20 pound kidney stone
  • @OswaldMiyake35
    This game needed to be on America and the Rest of the World.
  • @hanchiman
    I remember this game from a friend of mine who have a modded PS1 to play pirated Playstation games, among his pile of game he have was this one. I always wondered who that pepsi drinking guy was.
  • Pepsimaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!! I'll be singing that the rest of the day now
  • @McAllen07
    I actually have a physical copy of this. Bought it at Anime Expo 2000. The Completionist even did an episode for it, though if it was within the first 120 episodes you might not see it back for a while. ... I'm guessing the line at the end should have been "Pepsi: My Only Choice" but that it didn't jive with Japanese word order.
  • I'm always amazed when these product tie-in games are sold and not given away, especially one like this that is such blatant advertising, lol.
  • @retrorun
    Crazy and fun game. Ive played it these days. The only "little" problem is the song repeating all the game, and if you play enough it will sticks in your head and soul!
  • @CanalFellahsbyX
    The best gameplay of Pepsiman!!! Perfect Perfect Perfect Perfect! 100% ;D