It was released in Japan on March 4, 1999, and is based on the eponymous Japanese superhero mascot for the American carbonated soft drink Pepsi.

The game was made on a low budget, prompting the decision to make videos in-between stages that show a man drinking Pepsi, as they were cheap to produce.

Reviewers frequently compared Pepsiman to other games, including Crash Bandicoot, and commented on its simplicity and its price, which was thought to be low.

According to Uchikoshi, the game did not sell well, but it eventually emerged as a cult classic over a decade after its original release due to appreciation for its absurd premise along with the Pepsiman character.

[6] In some stages, Pepsiman's head becomes stuck inside a steel drum, which inverts the controls, and in some, he rides on a skateboard, which requires the player to avoid all obstacles.

[6] In between stages, the player is shown videos of an American man (played by Mike Butters) drinking Pepsi and eating chips and pizza as he watches Pepsiman.

It was made on a low budget, which led to the decision to make the low-cost video scenes of actor Mike Butters drinking Pepsi.

[9][10] The game also uses 3D event scenes, which were modeled by Kotaro Uchikoshi, who would later be a scenario writer for visual novels at KID.

A reviewer for IGN also compared it to Crash Bandicoot, described the gameplay as "simplistic [and] route memorization-based", and said that the thing the game would be remembered for was its "extremely bizarre premise".

[17] In 2011, Allistair Pinsof at Destructoid reviewed the game, calling it a mix between Paperboy and Muscle March in terms of the complexity and pace, and compared the gameplay to Crash Bandicoot.