Backyard Sports facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Backyard Sports
Series Logo
Genres	Sports
Developers	Humongous Entertainment
Publishers	Humongous Entertainment Infogrames Atari The Evergreen Group
Platforms	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

Backyard Sports (originally branded as Junior Sports) is a series of video games 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 leading 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).

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. Players can create their own athletes, 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 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.

Some of these games are playable with the ScummVM emulator.

Games in the series

Film

In 2016, it was reported that Cross Creek Pictures and Crystal City Entertainment were developing a film based on Backyard Sports with Brian Oliver and Ari Daniel Pinchot producing.