Kotaro Uchikoshi, the longtime visual novel developer who recently co-created 2025's cult hit The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, has a storied career going all the way back to the PS1 days, when he was a 3D modeller on an infamous brand tie-in game called Pepsiman. Now, Pepsi is threatening to create a new video game, and Uchikoshi is offering to put them in contact with the original development team.
"Should we create a Pepsi video game?" the official Pepsi account asked on Twitter last week, in the 'lol so wacky' manner we've all come to expect from brands on social media in 2025. It turned out that this was something of a social media coup, as the post got orders of magnitude more engagement than most of Pepsi's posts – mostly from retro gaming enthusiasts reminding the account of the 1999 release of Pepsiman.
One of the many replies came from Uchikoshi, taking a rare break from his usual social media promotion of Hundred Line and his new AI: The Somnium Files spin-off, No Sleep for Kaname Date. "I was a member of the development team for Pepsiman video game, released in 1999," Uchikoshi said in response to Pepsi's message. "If you'd like, I can reach out to the people who developed that game at the time. Should I do that?" He even retweeted that message to make sure everyone he had a role in bringing Pepsiman to life.
I was a member of the development team for Pepsiman video game, released in 1999. If you'd like, I can reach out to the people who developed that game at the time. Should I do that?August 9, 2025
Alas, it seems Uchikoshi's offer has gone unanswered. But the Pepsi account has at least acknowledged the classics, asking today "What was the first video game you ever played and why was it a guy in a suit running down the street chased by a Pepsi can?"
Uchikoshi served as a 3D modeler at developer KID on Pepsiman. The game stars the company's titular Japanese mascot of the era, rushing to save dehydrated citizens with the healing power of Pepsi in an early example of an endless runner. Crash Bandicoot-style sequences where Pepsiman runs from a big obstacle – such as a giant Pepsi can – and the live-action cutscenes are particular highlights.
The game's bizarre concept, absurd energy, and better-than-you'd-think gameplay made it a cult classic years after its original release, and these days it's the kind of thing that goes for hundreds of dollars on eBay. It was never released outside of Japan, so it probably wasn't "the first video game you ever played" for much of the Pepsi account's audience, but it's become a particularly notable oddity among the PS1's vast library of unusual games.
After Pepsiman, Uchikoshi would go on to work on visual novels like Memories Off and and the Infinity Cure series at KID, and eventually went to Chunsoft where he led the creation of the Zero Escape series. More recently, he collaborated with Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka on visual-novel-meets-tactical-RPG Hundred Line, and amid that game's rave reviews it seems we owe some small debt for its existence to Pepsiman. Here's hoping a Pepsiman 2 with 100 endings of its own isn't out of the question.
Check out our guides to the best RPGs and best visual novels you can play today.
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