Backyard Baseball

Backyard Baseball
The current Backyard Baseball logo.
Developer(s)	Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Atari
Series	Backyard Sports
Platform(s)	Current platforms: Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii, Microsoft Windows Past platforms: Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Macintosh
Release	1997-present
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single player

Backyard Baseball is a series of kid's video games for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii 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 six Backyard Sports games.

The original game consisted of 30 neighborhood kids. Over the years, the idea of "Pro players as kids" became popular, and the original stats and looks of the players changed. Some pros include Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Eric Gagne, Ichiro, Sammy Sosa, Jim Thome, Albert Pujols, Nomar Garciaparra, Kenny Lofton, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., Curt Schilling, and Barry Bonds. Some unlockable pros include Randy Johnson, Derek Jeter, Greg Maddux and Mike Piazza.

Managers cannot create players, but instead choose from a roster of characters to form teams. In the latest version of the game, a player could play an exhibition game or a 16 or 32 game season (previously 14) followed by the "BBL playoffs," which contains both the AL and NL divisional series, the AL and NL championship series and finally the "Backyard Baseball World Series". The game includes many modes, and they are Single Game, Batting Practice, Spectator, and Season Game.

Backyard Baseball attempts to recreate the experience of playing baseball as children.

Power-Ups

Sometimes accompanying the four standard batting modes (Power, Line Drive, Grounder and Bunt), some beneficial power-ups appear. In the original Backyard Baseball, these batting power ups appeared when the player got a hit when the computer used a "crazy pitch" (see below). Starting from Backyard Baseball 2001, the power ups were awarded after a hit off a "crazy pitch" and when the player turned a double play or triple play on defense.

• Aluminum Power: is the rarest and most valued of power-ups and can disappear after one or no tries when in use. Players use an aluminum bat to hit a guaranteed home run, even with poor contact.
• Screaming Line Drive: can last at least two uses and appears more frequently. Players hit a fast line drive to the wall and allows the batter to run more or all bases. If the line drive does come across an opposing fielder, the fielder is nocked down, instead of catching it.
• Under Grounder: can last at least two uses. Players hit a ground ball that goes into the ground, causing the ball to appear in any random area of the field, sometimes close enough to the fence that it will fly over for a double.
• Crazy Bunt: can disappear after one or no tries when in use, although sometimes it will last for up to four uses when used sparingly. The ball hit will roll around the field erratically as fielders just barely miss catching it. It is effective in securing runs, doubles or triples and in exhausting the opposing team, and is favorable by most hitters, being a bunt, it is hard not to hit with.

In addition to these batting power-ups, pitching power-ups, or "crazy pitches," also progressively appear, though they are much more frequent and in number, occurring whenever the player strikes an opponent out. Pitching power-ups include the Big Freeze, Elevator, Crazyball, Corkscrew, Slomo, Spitball and Fireball pitches. These pitches consume much more energy and causes the strike zone to expand, so most of the pitches given are never used consecutively. In addition to the "crazy pitches," a strikeout may also award the player "More Juice," a full energy recharge for the pitcher that can be used when the player sees fit.

Installments

Title	Year	Platforms
Backyard Baseball	1997	Macintosh, Windows
Backyard Baseball 2001	2000	Macintosh, Windows
Backyard Baseball	2002	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Baseball 2003	2002	Macintosh, Windows
Backyard Baseball	2003	GameCube
Backyard Baseball	2004	PlayStation 2
Backyard Baseball 2005	2004	Windows
Backyard Baseball 2006	2005	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Baseball 2007	2006	Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Windows
Backyard Baseball '09	2008	Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Wii, Windows

External links

• Backyard Baseball at MobyGames
• Backyard Baseball 2001 at MobyGames
• Backyard Baseball 2003 at MobyGames