Backyard Sports

Backyard Sports (originally branded as Junior Sports)^[1][2] is a video game series released for consoles, computers and mobile devices. 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, Clint Mathis, Kevin Garnett, Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Joe Thornton and Andy Macdonald. The Backyard Sports series is licensed by the major professional U.S. sports leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS).

Backyard Sports
Series Logo
Genre(s)	Sports
Developer(s)	Humongous Entertainment (1997–2005) Day6 Sports Group (2015)
Publisher(s)	Humongous Entertainment Infogrames Atari The Evergreen Group Day6 Sports Group
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Android, Game Boy
First release	Backyard Baseball 1997
Latest release	Backyard Sports: Baseball 2015 and Backyard Sports: Basketball 2015 2015

The series includes Backyard Baseball, Backyard Basketball, Backyard Football (American football), Backyard Soccer (association football), 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. Gamers can "Create-A-Player", starting in Backyard Football (1999). Another aspect of the games is the use of Power-Ups, allowing players to gain "Super-abilities". For instance, "Super Dunk" allows a basketball player to make a 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 distracted for a brief period.

Some of these games are playable with ScummVM.^[3]

History

The series began in late 1997 when Humongous Entertainment, owned by GT Interactive, created the first game in the franchise: Backyard Baseball.^[4] Later, GT Interactive was purchased by Infogrames.^[5] Infogrames allowed Humongous Entertainment to expand the series, and Humongous developed more titles such as Backyard Soccer, Backyard Football, Backyard Basketball, Backyard Hockey, and Backyard Skateboarding. Following the buyout by Infogrames, these titles from the Backyard series were released for game consoles, including the GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and Wii. Infogrames in North America eventually changed its name to Atari Interactive.

In July 2013, private equity firm The Evergreen Group bought the Backyard Sports franchise during the Atari bankruptcy proceedings for its portfolio company Epic Gear LLC.^[6] It was later sold by Epic Gear to Day6 Sports Group.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2014, Day6 Sports Group began to relaunch the Backyard Sports series with Backyard Sports NBA Basketball for smartphones and tablets, with Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry as the cover athlete.^{[citation needed]}

In 2016, Day6 Sports Group was acquired by a European investment group.^[7] The company later went out of business in 2020.^[8]

In April 2019, Humongous Entertainment tweeted an image of the original Junior Sports logo, hinting at a possible re-release of the original games and/or the developer having re-secured the rights to the series proper.^[9][1][2] However a week prior, Humongous replied to a Twitter post saying they didn't own the rights to the franchise.

The franchise regained media attention in 2024 when NFL player Jason Kelce, in an episode of his and his brother Travis's podcast New Heights, reminisced about playing Backyard Football and Backyard Baseball and stated his desire to purchase the rights to the brand to develop a new game in the series.^[10][11][8]

Games in the series

Title	Released	Sport	Developer	Publisher	Platforms
Backyard Baseball	October 10, 1997	Baseball	Humongous Entertainment	Humongous Entertainment	Macintosh, Microsoft Windows
Backyard Soccer (Backyard Football in UK)	September 24, 1998 1999 (UK)	Association football	Humongous Entertainment	Humongous Entertainment	Macintosh, Microsoft Windows
Backyard Football	October 28, 1999	American football	Humongous Entertainment	Humongous Entertainment	Macintosh, Microsoft Windows
Backyard Baseball 2001	June 6, 2000	Baseball	Humongous Entertainment	Humongous Entertainment	Macintosh, Microsoft Windows
Backyard Soccer: MLS Edition	October 3, 2000	Association football	Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Football 2002	September 19, 2001	American football	Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Soccer (Junior Sports Football for PAL)	September 28, 2001 (US) November 3, 2001 (PAL)	Association football	Runecraft	Infogrames	PlayStation
Backyard Basketball	October 30, 2001	Basketball	Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	Macintosh, Microsoft Windows
Backyard Baseball	May 30, 2002	Baseball	Game Brains	Infogrames	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Baseball 2003	June 7, 2002	Baseball	Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	Macintosh, Microsoft Windows
Backyard Football	September 25, 2002	American football	Torus Games	Infogrames	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Football	October 10, 2002	American football	Left Field Productions / Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	GameCube
Backyard Hockey	October 18, 2002	Ice hockey	Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Soccer 2004	March 18, 2003	Association football	Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Baseball	March 31, 2003	Baseball	Humongous Entertainment	Infogrames	GameCube
Backyard Football 2004	September 4, 2003	American football	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Basketball 2004	September 4, 2003	Basketball	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Hockey	October 9, 2003	Ice hockey	Mistic Software	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard NBA Basketball (Junior Sports Basketball for PAL)	September 4, 2003 (US) November 19, 2004 (PAL)	Basketball	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	PlayStation 2
Backyard Baseball	March 23, 2004	Baseball	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	PlayStation 2
Backyard Baseball 2005	June 22, 2004	Baseball	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Hockey 2005	September 21, 2004	Ice hockey	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Basketball	September 22, 2004	Basketball	Mistic Software	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Skateboarding	September 27, 2004	Skateboarding	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Baseball 2006	March 16, 2005	Baseball	Game Brains	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Football 2006	September 20, 2005 (Windows) October 4, 2005 (PlayStation 2)	American football	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2
Backyard Skateboarding	October 4, 2005	Skateboarding	Full Fat	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Skateboarding: Game of the Year Edition	October 4, 2005	Skateboarding	Humongous Entertainment	Atari	Microsoft Windows
Backyard Football 2006	October 18, 2005	American football	Torus Games	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Sports: Baseball 2007	June 12, 2006	Baseball	Game Brains	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Sports: Baseball 2007	September 5, 2006 (PlayStation 2) September 11, 2006 (Windows) April 3, 2007 (GameCube)	Baseball	Game Brains	Atari	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, GameCube
Backyard Sports: Football 2007	September 26, 2006	American football	Torus Games	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Sports: Basketball 2007	November 14, 2006	Basketball	Mistic Software	Atari	Game Boy Advance
Backyard Sports: Basketball 2007	February 13, 2007 (PlayStation 2) February 20, 2007 (Windows)	Basketball	Game Brains	Atari	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2
Backyard Basketball	September 25, 2007	Basketball	Mistic Software	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Hockey	October 9, 2007	Ice hockey	Mistic Software	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Football 08 Backyard Football (Wii)	October 16, 2007 (PlayStation 2 and Wii) October 23, 2007 (Windows)	American football	FarSight Studios	Atari	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Wii
Backyard Football	October 23, 2007	American football	Torus Games	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Baseball 09	March 25, 2008 (Windows) June 10, 2008 (PlayStation 2, Wii)	Baseball	FarSight Studios	Atari	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Wii
Backyard Baseball 09	March 25, 2008	Baseball	Mistic Software	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Football 09	October 21, 2008 (PlayStation 2, Wii) October 29, 2008 (Windows)	American football	FarSight Studios	Atari	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Wii
Backyard Football	October 21, 2008	American football	Torus Games	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Baseball 10	March 27, 2009 (Wii) April 28, 2009 (PlayStation 2)	Baseball	FarSight Studios	Atari	Wii, PlayStation 2
Backyard Baseball 10	2009	Baseball	Mistic Software	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Football 10	October 20, 2009	American football	FarSight Studios	Atari	Wii, PlayStation 2
Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers	May 25, 2010	Baseball	HB Studios	Atari	Microsoft Windows, Wii, Xbox 360
Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers	May 25, 2010	Baseball	Powerhead Games	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush	October 20, 2010	American football	HB Studios	Atari	Wii, Xbox 360
Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush	October 20, 2010	American football	Powerhead Games	Atari	Nintendo DS
Backyard Sports: Baseball 2015	February 6, 2015	Baseball	Day 6 Sports Group	Fingerprint Network	iOS, Android
Backyard Sports: Basketball 2015	February 6, 2015	Basketball	Day 6 Sports Group	Fingerprint Network	iOS, Android

Film

In 2016, Cross Creek Pictures and Crystal City Entertainment were reportedly in development of a film based on Backyard Sports with producers Brian Oliver and Ari Daniel Pinchot.^[12]

References

1. Schmidt, Eugene (April 24, 2019). "Humongous Entertainment coming to consoles". Barrelrolled. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
2. Frech, Ricky (April 24, 2019). "Humongous Entertainment is Bringing Their Collection of 90s Classics to Consoles". DualShockers. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
3. "Games Database". Gamesdatabase.org. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
4. "COMPANY NEWS;GT INTERACTIVE ACQUIRES HUMONGOUS ENTERTAINMENT (Published 1996)". The New York Times. 1996-07-11. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
5. "History of Infogrames Entertainment S.A." Fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
6. "The Evergreen Group Has Agreed to Acquire Backyard Sports Video Game Franchise". Businesswire.com. 24 July 2013.
7. Kram, Zach (2017-10-10). "How 'Backyard Baseball' Became a Cult Classic". The Ringer. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
8. Yarwood, Jack (February 2, 2024). "The NFL's Jason Kelce Is Interested In Reviving Backyard Sports". Time Extension. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
9. Humongous [@HumongousEnt] (April 19, 2019). "[Image-only tweet; image shows a red exclamation point on a transparent background overlaid with the words "It's Junior Sports" in blue.]" (Tweet). Retrieved May 17, 2019 – via Twitter.
10. Lyles, Taylor (February 1, 2024). "NFL Star Jason Kelce Wants to Bring Back Backyard Football and Baseball". IGN. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
11. Mercante, Alyssa (February 1, 2024). "NFL's Kelce Brothers Want To Bring Back Your Fave Childhood Game". Kotaku. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
12. Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 30, 2016). "'Backyard Sports' Video Game In Movie Deal With Cross Creek & Crystal City". Deadline.

External links

• (2007 archive on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine)
• Backyard Sports series at MobyGames