Backyard Sports series
Encyclopedia
Backyard Sports is a series of video games that play on both consoles
and computer
s. The series is best known for starring kid-sized versions of popular professional sports stars, such as Albert Pujols
, Paul Pierce
, Barry Bonds
, Tim Duncan
, Kevin Garnett
, Tom Brady
, Alex Rodriguez
, Joe Thornton
and Andy Macdonald
. The Backyard Sports series is the only game brand licensed by all the leading professional US sports leagues (MLB
, NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLS
).
The series includes Backyard Baseball
, Backyard Basketball, Backyard Football
(American football
), Backyard Soccer
, Backyard Hockey
(Ice hockey
), and Backyard Skateboarding. In the games, players form a team consisting of Backyard Kids
and pro players, which they take through a "Backyard League" season, attempting to become the champions.
The games evoke or supplant childhood memories for its players by recreating the types of sports fields seen in suburban parks and recreational areas.
Players can create their own athletes, starting in Backyard Baseball
(1997). Players choose from silly nicknames such as "Sparkles" or "Spaz," customize physical attributes such as hair color and height, and then distribute skill points as desired. However, since the game cannot pronounce the names of the player, the player's crazy nickname will instead be said.
Another aspect of the games is the imaginative use of Power-Ups, allowing players to gain wacky "super-abilities." For instance, "Super Dunk" allows a basketball player to make an incredible dunk from nearly anywhere on the court, "Leap Frog" allows a football player to jump over the entire defensive line, and "Ice Cream Truck" causes the other team to be completely distracted for a brief period of time.
All of the Backyard Sports games take place in the Junior Sports Neighborhood, with the exception of Backyard Baseball 2001 (which takes place on an unnamed island) and parts of Backyard Skateboarding, Backyard Hockey 2005, and Backyard Skateboarding: Game of the Year Edition.
Backyard games are produced by Humongous Entertainment.
Some of these games are playable with ScummVM
emulator.
Following the buyout by Infogrames
various games from the Backyard series have been released in 1998 for game consoles, including: Nintendo GameCube
, Game Boy Advance
, and the PlayStation 2
.
The year 1999 saw updated versions of the most recent Backyard Football
(NFL
). In 2001, a new game, Backyard Basketball, was released, and it featured Kevin Garnett
and Lisa Leslie
.
With the release of Backyard Hockey
, the new character designs for each of the Backyard Kids was introduced, with older and edgier kids along with improved graphics. The series has changed radically over time, which evokes resentment from the people who grew up with the series, as the art design has become drastically different and some of the key characters are no longer in the series.
In 2004 Atari
announced it was creating a fresh new look and gameplay experience for the franchise with the release of Backyard Skateboarding and featured Andy MacDonald
. They stated that it is a completely new take on a longtime favorite franchise with all-new features, updated graphics, enhanced gameplay, and extensive options that will keep players and gamers alike enthusiastically entertained. The game was released at the end of May 2010 and received favourable reviews on family oriented websites. Common Sense Media gave the game five stars and GeekDad on the Wired
website called it a lot of fun.
Select your team name and colors as well as its mascot, and then choose your starting line-up. Among the colorful cast of characters are ace pitcher Angela Delvecchio and top slugger Achmed Khan. Every kid is rated in running, batting, fielding, and pitching and has personality quirks that may affect the team. For example, Maria Luna is an average player whose skills explode if she's placed on a team whose uniforms are pink, her favorite color. Once you're done with that, you choose the batting order and the players' spots on the field. To get ready for the season, you can play some batting practice or exhibition contests to get warmed up. There are ten fields to choose from. Sunny Day and Vinnie "The Gooch" provide play-by-play commentary for each game as you march through the season and get ready for the playoffs. Power-ups are awarded if you strike out a batter or get a hit off a tough pitcher; they will boost your bats and pitchers' arms and can be used anytime during the game. On defense, there are 12 pitches to choose from, including the wacky change-up the Big Freeze, which blazes through the air before freezing when it reaches the plate, and the Crazy Ball, which moves in any direction but straight as it barrels toward the batter. You can track and print statistics during the 14-game season and into the playoffs. Player baseball cards, team photos, schedules, and trophies can also be printed.
Once they have their team assembled, they can customize it with a name of their own and uniforms of their choosing. If they want to practice, they can head out on the field to try their hand at attempting or defending penalty kicks. Once that's finished, they can head out on the field for a friendly match or sit back and watch the computer play out a game in Spectator mode. If they think they're up to it, they can then enter league play by clicking on the bulletin board in the clubhouse screen. This will take them to a set-up area where they can decide on their team's strategy, take a look at the schedule, check out the latest league statistics, and even glance through their trophy case. Once they're finished, it's time to head out on the field in their quest for the Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cups. The journey begins in the first season, during which their team may be invited to the Off the Wall Indoor Invitational if they're good enough. If they finish as one of the top two teams in the league, they move on to the A Division. From there they can jump to the Premiere Division, where, if they're good enough, they make get the chance to compete in the Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cups World Tournament. Along the way they can earn trophies for the case in the clubhouse, and at any time they can save the action and return to it later. This game is for one player only.
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
and computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s. The series is best known for starring kid-sized versions of popular professional sports stars, such as Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara , better known as Albert Pujols , is a Dominican-American professional baseball player, who is currently a free agent...
, Paul Pierce
Paul Pierce
Paul Anthony Pierce , nicknamed The Truth, is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the NBA. He earned First Team All-America honors in his junior year at Kansas, and has been a starter every season since being selected by the Celtics with the 10th overall pick in the...
, Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds
Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds...
, Tim Duncan
Tim Duncan
Timothy Theodore "Tim" Duncan is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association . The 6-foot 11-inch , 255-pound power forward/center is a four-time NBA champion, two-time NBA MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and NBA Rookie of the Year...
, Kevin Garnett
Kevin Garnett
Kevin Maurice Garnett is an American professional basketball player who currently plays power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association . After a high school basketball career at Farragut Career Academy which included winning a national player of the year award, he...
, Tom Brady
Tom Brady
Thomas Edward Patrick "Tom" Brady, Jr. is an American football quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League . After playing college football at Michigan, Brady was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.He has played in four Super Bowls,...
, Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.Rodriguez is considered one of the best...
, Joe Thornton
Joe Thornton
Joseph Eric Thornton is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League . He was selected first overall by the Boston Bruins in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft and went on to play seven seasons with the club, five as its Captain. During the...
and Andy Macdonald
Andy Macdonald
Andy Macdonald is an American professional skateboarder. Macdonald is one of the best-known professional vert skateboarders today, holding the record for the most X Games medals, and winning the World Cup Skateboarding competition eight times...
. The Backyard Sports series is the only game brand licensed by all the leading professional US sports leagues (MLB
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLS
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
).
The series includes Backyard Baseball
Backyard Baseball
Backyard Baseball is a series of children's games for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii, iOS, and the PC. It is the original game in the Backyard Sports series. Currently all the games in the series have been developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari. It is one of...
, Backyard Basketball, Backyard Football
Backyard Football
Backyard Football is a series of video games for various systems. Currently all the games in the series have been developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari...
(American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
), Backyard Soccer
Backyard Soccer
Backyard Soccer, known in Europe as Junior Sports Football, is a video game in the Backyard Sports franchise, developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Infogrames. It was first released in 1998 for the Mac and PC, was released for the PlayStation in 2001, and the iOS in...
, Backyard Hockey
Backyard Hockey
list of pros: Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney CrosbyBackyard Hockey is a sports game released on October 2, 2007. This is the fourth iteration of the Backyard Hockey game from the Backyard Sports series. The cover athlete for the game is Nicklas Lidström of the Detroit Red Wings....
(Ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
), and Backyard Skateboarding. In the games, players form a team consisting of Backyard Kids
Backyard Kids
The Backyard Kids are fictional characters in Humongous Entertainment's Backyard Sports series of video games, ranging from 7 to 12 years of age. They live in the Junior Sports Neighborhood, as stated in the first five Backyard Sports games...
and pro players, which they take through a "Backyard League" season, attempting to become the champions.
The games evoke or supplant childhood memories for its players by recreating the types of sports fields seen in suburban parks and recreational areas.
Players can create their own athletes, starting in Backyard Baseball
Backyard Baseball
Backyard Baseball is a series of children's games for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii, iOS, and the PC. It is the original game in the Backyard Sports series. Currently all the games in the series have been developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari. It is one of...
(1997). Players choose from silly nicknames such as "Sparkles" or "Spaz," customize physical attributes such as hair color and height, and then distribute skill points as desired. However, since the game cannot pronounce the names of the player, the player's crazy nickname will instead be said.
Another aspect of the games is the imaginative use of Power-Ups, allowing players to gain wacky "super-abilities." For instance, "Super Dunk" allows a basketball player to make an incredible dunk from nearly anywhere on the court, "Leap Frog" allows a football player to jump over the entire defensive line, and "Ice Cream Truck" causes the other team to be completely distracted for a brief period of time.
All of the Backyard Sports games take place in the Junior Sports Neighborhood, with the exception of Backyard Baseball 2001 (which takes place on an unnamed island) and parts of Backyard Skateboarding, Backyard Hockey 2005, and Backyard Skateboarding: Game of the Year Edition.
Backyard games are produced by Humongous Entertainment.
Some of these games are playable with ScummVM
ScummVM
ScummVM is a collection of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system , it now also supports a variety of non-SCUMM games by companies like Revolution Software and Adventure Soft. It was originally written by Ludvig Strigeus...
emulator.
History (Specific games)
The series began in the late 1990's, with Backyard Baseball and Backyard Soccer. Neither game had players from the MLB or MLS, respectively, but were pretty successful in their time.Following the buyout by Infogrames
Infogrames
Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...
various games from the Backyard series have been released in 1998 for game consoles, including: Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
, Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
, and the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
.
The year 1999 saw updated versions of the most recent Backyard Football
Backyard Football
Backyard Football is a series of video games for various systems. Currently all the games in the series have been developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari...
(NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
). In 2001, a new game, Backyard Basketball, was released, and it featured Kevin Garnett
Kevin Garnett
Kevin Maurice Garnett is an American professional basketball player who currently plays power forward for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association . After a high school basketball career at Farragut Career Academy which included winning a national player of the year award, he...
and Lisa Leslie
Lisa Leslie
Lisa Deshaun Leslie-Lockwood is a former American professional women's basketball player in the WNBA. She is a three-time WNBA MVP and a four-time Olympic gold medal winner...
.
With the release of Backyard Hockey
Backyard Hockey
list of pros: Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney CrosbyBackyard Hockey is a sports game released on October 2, 2007. This is the fourth iteration of the Backyard Hockey game from the Backyard Sports series. The cover athlete for the game is Nicklas Lidström of the Detroit Red Wings....
, the new character designs for each of the Backyard Kids was introduced, with older and edgier kids along with improved graphics. The series has changed radically over time, which evokes resentment from the people who grew up with the series, as the art design has become drastically different and some of the key characters are no longer in the series.
In 2004 Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
announced it was creating a fresh new look and gameplay experience for the franchise with the release of Backyard Skateboarding and featured Andy MacDonald
Andy Macdonald
Andy Macdonald is an American professional skateboarder. Macdonald is one of the best-known professional vert skateboarders today, holding the record for the most X Games medals, and winning the World Cup Skateboarding competition eight times...
. They stated that it is a completely new take on a longtime favorite franchise with all-new features, updated graphics, enhanced gameplay, and extensive options that will keep players and gamers alike enthusiastically entertained. The game was released at the end of May 2010 and received favourable reviews on family oriented websites. Common Sense Media gave the game five stars and GeekDad on the Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
website called it a lot of fun.
List of games
Some games, notably console versions have completely distinct gameplay than Windows/Mac version with same title, thus they're listed separately.Backyard Baseball
Grab your mitt and a bat and head out to a dusty sandlot for a game of old-fashioned pick-up baseball in Humongous Entertainment's Backyard Baseball. Aimed at the five-to-ten-year-old crowd, this game features 30 kids as players to choose from as you assemble the ultimate neighborhood club and try for the Ultra Grand Championship of the Universe.Select your team name and colors as well as its mascot, and then choose your starting line-up. Among the colorful cast of characters are ace pitcher Angela Delvecchio and top slugger Achmed Khan. Every kid is rated in running, batting, fielding, and pitching and has personality quirks that may affect the team. For example, Maria Luna is an average player whose skills explode if she's placed on a team whose uniforms are pink, her favorite color. Once you're done with that, you choose the batting order and the players' spots on the field. To get ready for the season, you can play some batting practice or exhibition contests to get warmed up. There are ten fields to choose from. Sunny Day and Vinnie "The Gooch" provide play-by-play commentary for each game as you march through the season and get ready for the playoffs. Power-ups are awarded if you strike out a batter or get a hit off a tough pitcher; they will boost your bats and pitchers' arms and can be used anytime during the game. On defense, there are 12 pitches to choose from, including the wacky change-up the Big Freeze, which blazes through the air before freezing when it reaches the plate, and the Crazy Ball, which moves in any direction but straight as it barrels toward the batter. You can track and print statistics during the 14-game season and into the playoffs. Player baseball cards, team photos, schedules, and trophies can also be printed.
Backyard Soccer
Now kids can play soccer on their own level in Humongous Entertainment's Backyard Soccer. They can select from 30 different characters to populate their team and play on one of 20 unique fields in one of three skill levels using nothing more than a mouse to control the action, which is announced by Earl Grey and Sunny Day.Once they have their team assembled, they can customize it with a name of their own and uniforms of their choosing. If they want to practice, they can head out on the field to try their hand at attempting or defending penalty kicks. Once that's finished, they can head out on the field for a friendly match or sit back and watch the computer play out a game in Spectator mode. If they think they're up to it, they can then enter league play by clicking on the bulletin board in the clubhouse screen. This will take them to a set-up area where they can decide on their team's strategy, take a look at the schedule, check out the latest league statistics, and even glance through their trophy case. Once they're finished, it's time to head out on the field in their quest for the Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cups. The journey begins in the first season, during which their team may be invited to the Off the Wall Indoor Invitational if they're good enough. If they finish as one of the top two teams in the league, they move on to the A Division. From there they can jump to the Premiere Division, where, if they're good enough, they make get the chance to compete in the Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cups World Tournament. Along the way they can earn trophies for the case in the clubhouse, and at any time they can save the action and return to it later. This game is for one player only.
External links
- http://www.backyardsports.com/ - Hosts the NFL Kids Backyard Awards and gives updates on upcoming games.
- Humongous Releases Backyard Baseball 2007