Every once in a while a game has such a bizarre premise and overall concept that it's still fun even though it is objectively bad. Pepsiman, a Japanese PS1 exclusive that is a giant ad for Pepsi cola, is one such game. It's freaking crazy that it exists, but also weirdly ambitious and occasionally even fun. We're conflicted. Click to read more and watch gameplay.
Pepsiman is a automatically scrolling platformer where your character, the hero of love and justice and the superior fizzy cola drink, Pepsiman, runs away (or towards it occasionally ...) from the camera and you have to dodge, or slide, or jump around obstacles. The idea is that there is a Pepsi vending machine at the end of this obstacle course and it's Pepsiman's job to stock it.
The gameplay is, honestly, kind of fun. The game even has quite a bit of variety as some levels will have you riding a skateboard or balancing on a rolling barrel of something just to shake things up. As mentioned above, there are also some levels where you run towards the camera while being chased by something. These levels are, uh, not good.
One thing about Pepsiman, though, is that it is freaking brutally difficult. The levels are all pure memorization, and many of them are fairly long, so it becomes a grind when you die repeatedly to the same BS jump or object because you couldn't see it and can't react fast enough. It's strangely charming, however, so you just keep plugging away because you want to see what crazy nonsense is going to pop up on screen next.
In this video I cheated. I'm a dirty cheater. I admit it. And I don't feel bad about it. I wanted to show off the game, so that's what I did. I show off every level. Deal with it.
Also, Pepsi is better than Coca Cola.
