Game news 25 years ago, this video game which was nothing more than a giant advertisement entered the history of the PlayStation. It is now playable for free
Advertisements have been invading our game consoles for several years. Whether it’s an insert on our interfaces or a product placement in our latest “AAA”, like Monster Energy drinks in Death Stranding, the ads are there. But some big brands have gone so far as to create real video games in their honor. In the 1990s, the junk food and soda giants were desperate to make us eat snakes. And the Pepsi-KID duo, on March 4, 1999, released a title that strangely made history.
Summary
- Pub culture
- You have to drink it to believe it
- The wind at your back
Pub culture
The intrusion of advertisements in our video games is not new. From the very beginning of the 1990s, brands have invested in this virtual playground that children and adolescents around the world love to better ingrain into their little brains products that they can find in surrounding stores. It is therefore not surprising to find advertisements for sweets, drinks, or even junk food in certain video games of the time, even though this would not seem very moral..
In 1990, it was Domino’s which imposed its pizzas in the game Yo! Noid, which is actually an adaptation of a Japanese game called Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru in which pepperoni was added everywhere. Two years later, Chupa Chups lollipops appeared in the game Zool, while McDonald joined forces with Virgin Interactive to bring the big yellow “M” to the circuits of Nintendo consoles, with McDonaldLand, and SEGA, with Global Gladiators . Although different in what they offer, the two titles have one thing in common: they require you to recover the McDonald’s logos hidden in the levels to move from one level to another. You understand the hidden message, don’t you? In 1993, the hamburger-selling clown attacked the Mega Drive with McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure, a software developed by the talented team at Treasure, a legendary video game studio known for gems such as Radiant. Silvergun or even Ikaruga. This Ronald is not kidding!
As you surely imagine, other junk food giants subsequently rushed into the breach. Taco Bell will release Tasty Temple Challenge in 2000, a 3D game in first person view where the player faces scorpions using hot sauce while consuming Taco Bell dishes to regain health. As for Burger King, it will feed the Xbox/Xbox 360 in 2006 and will ask players to infiltrate different locations in order to deliver Burger King menus to hungry people. The behemoths of savory and sweet confectionery will not be left out with Cheetos, Smarties or even M&M’s video games.
You have to drink it to believe it
What about the big soda brands? Well, they too are riding the gasy and syrupy wave of video-advertising games! In 1993, the famous lemon-flavored soft drink 7-Up did what it could to make little darlings around the world remember its logo. Indeed, Spot, the hero of the platformer Cool Spot, is none other than the small red dot which serves as the logo for the brand’s bottles. The American drink is also clearly visible in the title screen of the software, at least in the versions that are not European. The game will have a sequel titled Spot Goes to Hollywood on Mega Drive, PlayStation and Saturn.
The war between Pepsi and Coca Cola, then at its height in the media, could only be exported to this new playing field discovered by large industrial groups. The targeted consumers – young people – no longer let go of their controllers: video games are gaining market share and everyone wants their piece of the cake (sweet and fatty). In 1994, Coca Cola first released its official software, with Coca Cola Kid, a platform game published by SEGA for its Game Gear which landed exclusively in Japan. The answer from its eternal rival arrives five years later, on the console that (almost) all players own. It was in 1999 that Pepsi catapulted its hero Pepsi Man onto the first PlayStation. Developed by KID, the title allows you to embody the mascot of the famous soda brand in order to travel through a city looking for residents to save by delivering them… bottles of Pepsi, of course!
The wind at your back
Also released exclusively in Japan, Pepsiman takes the form of a runner where the Pepsi mascot races at full speed through the streets of a bustling city in search of Pepsi cans and Pepsi dispensers. With a camera located on the back of a hero who advances automatically, the player must avoid the multiple obstacles that stand in his way (by running, performing a dash, jumping and doing super-jumps). At certain times, events modify the gameplay, just to vary the pleasures throughout the (short) epic.
The adventure is punctuated by FMV cutscenes that are more crazy than truly humorous, where we see a man in a t-shirt/shorts/cap (played by Mike Butters) drinking Pepsi in front of his television and reciting the brand’s slogans. Because… why not? Rated 25/40 by Famitsu, KID’s software is regularly described as a little arcade game quickly played, quickly forgotten. “It’s fun and unpretentious, especially for 140 balls. But it’s a downright scam with 300 more balls in a French import store” concludes Joypad, after giving it a score of 2/10. “If you have a taste for the weird, or just want a little addictive game to occupy your time, call your local import store and ask for Pepsiman. If they don’t think it’s a joke and hang up, you’re probably lucky” has fun IGN.
Normally, everyone should have forgotten about Pepsiman, but the path followed by this funny game is definitely full of surprises. As strange as it may seem, over time, both players and the press rehabilitate him. In 2011, Destructoid evoked “a gloriously twisted and charming spectacle”, explaining his “pure madness” as being an irresistible point. On the forums, players keep repeating that for a vulgar interactive ad, the product is incredibly nice.
We do not dare write that it has become a classic of Sony’s 32-bits, but the absurdity of its scenario and the effectiveness of its gameplay for a production which was only supposed to be a giant advertisement make it a game definitely apart. In retrospect, we can even see Pepsiman as a precursor of runners, the genre that invaded smartphones from 2011 with games such as Temple Run or Agent Dash. If you want to make up your own mind, know that rather than spending hundreds of euros to get your hands on a copy, a version playable directly on the browser is available from Archive.org. The joys of running away are yours, with a giant can on your back! A few days late, happy 25th birthday, Pepsiman.