This article describes the video game. For the underlying sport, see Street football (American).

Backyard Football is a high quality game that works in all major modern web browsers. This online game is part of the Arcade, Sports, Emulator, and GBA gaming categories. Backyard Football has 92 likes from 104 user ratings. If you enjoy this game then also play games Backyard Baseball and Backyard Football 2006.

• Feb 29, 2020 ISO image of the 1999 game Backyard Football, if this violates copyright in anyway, then i'll take it down.
• Backyard Football Scummvm Mac 7/25/2020 ScummVM is a collection of game engines for playing classic graphical RPGs and point-and-click adventure games on modern hardware.

Backyard Football is a series of video games for various systems. The series was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari. It is one of several sub-series in the Backyard Sports series, and is the first to feature professional players as kids, examples being Steve Young and Barry Sanders. The series currently has eleven titles.

Backyard Football attempts to recreate the experience of playing American football as children.

Titles[edit]

Backyard Football[edit]

Backyard Football, the third 'Backyard' game, was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by GT Interactive in 1999. In it, kids and professional football players as kids play football. There are three types of gameplay available in Backyard football. The first one is a single game. At the single game screen, the player can select the field on which they wish to play, the weather (between sunny, where the players are able to run very quickly; rainy, in which the players are slowed somewhat and the ball is difficult to throw; and snowy, where players are slowed considerably), and the level of difficulty (between easy, medium, and hard), among various other minor settings. They then pick their team name, which can be any of the then-31 NFL teams and 10 backyard teams. When the team is chosen, a player would take turns choosing players with the CPU. There are a total of seven players on a team, two of which will be on the bench, while five get to see action. The statistics of a player in single game mode have no effect on a player's statistics in season play.

The second type of gameplay is season mode. The player selects their coach name, settings, and team before the season and drafts all seven of their players before the CPU picks any for the rest of the computer controlled teams in the league. The coach guides their team through a 14-game season, at the end of which if they are to win their division or be picked as the wild card, the team will compete in the playoffs. Eight teams, four from each conference, compete in three rounds of games to determine the winner of the 'Super Colossal Cereal Bowl' (which is a spoof of the Super Bowl in the NFL).

The third type of gameplay is online play. Backyard Football is the only game, along with Backyard Baseball 2001, that offers online play with players across the globe. Online play is hosted through the Junior Sports Network, and is only available for Windows users, since the network system does not support Macintosh. Since www.jrsn.com has been discontinued, no new coach names may be registered to play online. While playing online, the player may make contact with another coach online. They may then chat with each other with only pre-written dialogue, since the network is not being monitored to make sure no inappropriate language is used. Like Backyard Baseball 2001, there are three modes of difficulty: Easy, Medium, and Hard. The harder the difficulty, it becomes less likely that the players out on the field are going to make magnificent plays to 'bail the coach out'.

Backyard Football 2002[edit]

Backyard Football 2002 was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Infogrames in 2001 for Windows and Macintosh. A planned release for the Game Boy Color was cancelled.^[1] In this game, one can play as their favorite NFL stars as kids. Brett Favre and Drew Bledsoe, who both appear in the first Backyard Football, returns in this game. The goal of the game is to lead a team to Cereal Bowl glory. Updated versions of the game were published yearly on various platforms through Backyard Football 2006.

Backyard Sports Football 2007[edit]

Backyard Sports Football 2007 was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance. Like the previous installment in the series, Backyard Sports Football 2007 featured the ability to create your own player, build your own team, play exhibition games or a season mode, and play as a number of NFL players as their childhood lookalikes. It also added 7-on-7 gameplay for the first time.^[2]Backyard Sports Football 2007 received negative reviews, being criticized for its repetitive sound and poor gameplay.^[3] The sound is described was described as 'annoying, repetitious music' by a reviewer at GameZone.^[3] The gameplay was described as poor by the same reviewer due to 'irresponsive controls' and a lack of playbook options.^[3]

Backyard Football '08[edit]

Backyard Football '08 was released on September 26, 2007 for the Wii, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and PC. Humongous Entertainment handled development, with assistance by FarSight Studios and Torus Games. It was published by Atari. The game allows the player to play as child versions of professional football players from all current NFL teams, as well as play entire football seasons as any of the 16 teams.

IGN rated the Wii version of the game a 6/10 and criticized it for having controls that may be hard for a younger audience to understand, while praising its commentary for being funny.^[6]

Backyard Football '09[edit]

Backyard Football '09 was developed and published by the same studios as the previous installment, and released on the same systems on October 31, 2008. The game includes all 22 backyard kids and 15 professional players as kids. Professional players include Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Tony Romo, LaDainian Tomlinson, Brian Urlacher, Reggie Bush, Chris Cooley and Frank Gore and more.^[10] Along with the NFL players, most of the classic backyard kids are in the game including Pete Wheeler, Pablo Sanchez, and Ernie Steele. Both of the commentators, Chuck Downfield and Sunny Day, are also from previous games of the series.

Backyard Football '09 was said to be 'repetitive with its commentary' and 'made too simple and easy' from many reviews. The reviews state that the game targets more of a pre-teen audience.^[11][12][13]

Backyard Football '10[edit]

Backyard Baseball 2001 Demo - Free Download

Backyard Football '10 was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari on October 20, 2009 for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 2. The game features 'Single Player,' 'Season,' 'Tournament,' and 'All Pro' modes, along with the multiplayer modes of co-op play and two-on-two contests.^[18]

The game received mixed reviews for the Xbox 360 and Wii versions, but negative reviews for the PS2 version.^[14][15][16] For the Xbox 360 version, ZTGameDomain said that the game is 'simple, easy to pick up and really well designed'.^[17]

Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush[edit]

Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari on October 26, 2010 for the Xbox 360, Wii, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo DS. This title features the previously created 'Pick-up Games', 'Season Mode', and 'Tournament', and introduces two new styles of gameplay, 'Story Mode' and 'Mini-Games'.^[19]

Common Sense Media gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.^[20] The game received 2 out of 5 stars from AllGame.^[21]

References[edit]

1. ^'Backyard Football 2001'. IGN. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
2. ^'Backyard Sports Football video game - NFL - video games for kids from Humungous, Inc'. Humungous Inc. Archived from the original on 14 July 2006. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
3. ^ ^abc'Backyard Football 2007 - GBA - Review'. GameZone. 2 October 2006. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
4. ^'Backyard Football for Wii'. GameRankings. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
5. ^'Backyard Football for DS'. GameRankings. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
6. ^ ^abThomas, Lucas M. (7 January 2008). 'Backyard Football 2008 Review'. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
7. ^Adams, Chris (18 October 2007). 'Backyard Football 2008 Review'. IGN. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
8. ^'Backyard Football '09 for Wii'. GameRankings. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
9. ^'Backyard Football '09 - WII - Review'. GameZone. 14 December 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
10. ^'Backyard Football '09 Pro Roster'. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
11. ^'Backyard Football '09 Review'. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
12. ^'Backyard Football '09 Super Bowl review'. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
13. ^'Hands On: Backyard Football 09'. 12 September 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
14. ^ ^ab'Backyard Football '10 for Xbox 360 - GameRankings'. GameRankings. October 20, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
15. ^ ^ab'Backyard Football '10 for Wii - GameRankings'. GameRankings. October 20, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
16. ^ ^ab'Backyard Football '10 for PlayStation 2 - GameRankings'. GameRankings. October 20, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
17. ^ ^abMcKown, Ken (October 20, 2009). 'Backyard Football 2010 – ZTGD'. ZTGameDomain. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
18. ^'Backyard Football '10 - Overview - allgame'. Allgame. October 20, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
19. ^'Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush Arrives Oct. 26'. StreetCorner Media. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
20. ^'Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush Game Review'. Common Sense Media. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
21. ^Alan Scott, Marriott. 'Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush Overview'. AllGame. Retrieved 7 April 2014.

External links[edit]

AGI Demo (DOS Gold Rush!, Manhunter: ...

• Create New

Backyard Sports, formerly called Junior Sports, is a sports video game series originally made by Humongous Entertainment, which was later bought by Atari. It is the only game series that has licensing from all the major professional sports leagues in the USA: the MLB, MLS, NFL, NBA, and NHL.

There have been over 30 games published in the series, the first few of which are regarded as quite good and the last few of which are regarded as awful. There are six main brands associated with the series: Backyard Baseball, Backyard Soccer, Backyard Football, Backyard Basketball, Backyard Hockey, and Backyard Skateboarding (which has only produced one game and its Game of the Year Edition). The series has spawned a TV special (NFL Backyard Basics: Football Tips from the Pros) and a few books, as well as a Comic Book Adaptation (a Prequel to the game Sandlot Sluggers) which can be read here.

The series was originally only Competitive Multiplayer, but starting with Backyard Football '10, Co-Op Multiplayer is also in the games.

A demo version of Baseball 2001 can be downloaded ^{[dead link]} from Infogrames, and a trial version of Sandlot Sluggers can be downloaded from Atari.

• Anachronism Stew: The pros being kids in modern times, and all being around the same age.
  • NFL Backyard Basics handles this by having the present-day pros turn into kids while they're in the Clubhouse.
• Cash Cow Franchise: This franchise was the cause of Humongous Entertainment making a profit.
• Celebrity Power: The pros, who are always better than the neighborhood kids. Justified if you think about it, since the pros specialize in their respective sports while the neighborhood kids play many different sports.
• Celebrity Star: The pros.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: 13 characters.
• Commuting on a Bus: Amir, Gretchen, and Stephanie in Backyard Baseball 2007.
• Conspicuous CG: When the player sprites were changed to pre-rendered images, the spectators in the background were still 2D drawings. Likewise, when the camera zooms in on the game (i.e., when someone's at bat or doing penalty kicks), the players look like cartoons again.
• Cousin Oliver: Joey, Samantha, and Arthur.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Most boys are voiced by women.
• Desk Jockey: Many of the announcers.
• Dummied Out: Area 51½/A Nameless Field from the Soccer series.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Most characters have these.
• Geographic Flexibility: The Neighborhood changes in every game.
• Holiday Mode: Some games have a dynamic menu that changes with the season. However, in all games, playing the game on a kid's birthday will buff their stats for the day.
• In-Series Nickname: Every playable character has one.
• Jack of All Stats: Meta-example--the neighborhood kids are always overshadowed by the pros because the pros specialize in their respective sports, while the neighborhood kids play many different sports. Each specific game also has their own general Jack of All Stats. In Baseball, it's Jorge Garcia, while in the 2001/03 versions it was Sally Dobbs.
• Lampshade Hanging: The announcers often do this.
• Leitmotif: Every playable character has one.
  • When the games went 3D, each character got a new leitmotif... except Pablo.
• Lighter and Softer: The series became this over time, despite attempts to make it Darker and Edgier.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: 30 main characters plus countless others.
• Long Runner: The series started in 1997 and put out installments every year through 2010.
• Mad Libs Dialogue: Sunny Day. Her partners avert this, however (as does Sunny herself in NFL Backyard Basics).
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Humongous had no intention of this series outselling their Junior Adventures, especially since Backyard Baseball performed poorly in its first year.
• Market-Based Title: The series is sometimes called Junior Sports, its original title, in Europe.
• Not Quite Starring: Obviously, the pros do not do their own voices (except in NFL Backyard Basics).
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The custom players, due to technical limitations.
• Only Six Faces: There are only a few enemy player faces available.
• The Other Darrin: The series has had many different voice casts.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The kids, by the pros.
• Parental Bonus: The references to 1980s culture.
• Product Placement: Parodied with 110% Juice.
• Punny Name: The announcers and certain unlockable players and coaches.
• Race Lift: The generic season kids have a different appearance in every game.
• Secret Character: There have been many, Mr. Clanky being the most common.
• Sequelphobic: This was IGN's reaction to the series.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: The pros, again.
  • As of Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers, they are now gone.
• Stealth Pun: Sunny Day's name is a nod to the name of Humongous Entertainment's co-founder Shelley Day.
• Team Shot: In every game except Backyard Skateboarding.
• Tie-in Novel: The Backyard Books.
• Took a Level in Badass: The kids' stats vary between sports, causing kids with awful stats in one sport to suddenly become very good in another. Some also invert this trope, going from being good to awful.
• Unnamed Parent: No kid's parents have names.
• Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Upon winning a championship, photos of your team's players celebrating their victory are usually shown alongside the credits. How they celebrate depends on the game.
• A Worldwide Punomenon: Most team names are puns, as are those of most of the announcers.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Many characters in the later games have weird hair colors.

Certain installments of the series provide examples of:

AGI Demo (DOS 3-D Helicopter Sim, Space ...

• All Deserts Have Cacti: Cactus Gulch in Backyard Football.
• Always Night: Humongous Memorial Stadium in Backyard Baseball.
• Area 51: Area 51½ (also known as A Nameless Field) from the Soccer series.
• Artificial Stupidity: The Mul-T-Puk air hockey minigame in Backyard Hockey has exceptionally stupid AI. This video says it all.
• Awesome Music: Invoked and lampshaded in Backyard Baseball 2001/Soccer: MLS Edition/Soccer 2004; one of the Credits Gags is 'Click here to listen to the awesome credits song. Oh, and see the Smarty Pants who made this game.'
• A Winner Is You:
  • The GBA games, except Football, which has no ending.
  • Backyard Baseball 2001 and Soccer: MLS Edition removed the rewards for winning, besides getting a picture in the Hall of Fame.
  • In the Football games on the PC, beating the game as Mr. Clanky's Tackling Dummies gives you a simple victory photo. Justified as this team only consists of robots who probably aren't programmed to ride rides at an amusement park.
• Battle in the Rain: The opening cutscene in Backyard Football 2002.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: There is a Yeti team in Backyard Hockey 2005.
• Continuity Nod: from Baseball 2005; in Starlite Orchards, you can see the intro movie from Football playing on the big screen.
  • Also, Buddy Cheque (the Hockey commentator) makes an offhand reference to Vinnie the Gooch, the original commentator for the Baseball games.
• Continuity Reboot: Arguably, Backyard Baseball 2007.
• Covers Always Lie: Although Soccer 2004 was the last game to feature the kids' original designs, the box art depicted their then-new appearances.
• Credits Gag: If you simply hover the mouse over the credits button in Backyard Baseball 2001, Backyard Soccer: MLS Edition and Backyard Soccer 2004, you get some humorous messages at the bottom of the screen.
• Deadly Gas: A powerup in Backyard Football 2006.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Football 2002 has the NFL license, and thus the Miami Dolphins are a playable team. However, one custom team name is the Orcas, which are a species of dolphins.
• Drive-In Theater: Starlite Orchards Drive-In in Backyard Baseball 2005.
• Easier Than Easy: T-Ball mode in Backyard Baseball.
• Easter Egg: All your base are belong to Humongous.
• Feelies: Earlier installments came with promotional cards of the Backyard kids and pros. The ones that came with Baseball were an Obvious Beta, however, as some kids' clothes are differently colored, and their pitching and fielding stats are inaccurate and labeled as 'Throwing' and 'Catching'.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Powerups in Baseball are based off all three, along with water (the spitball).
• Follow the Leader: The 3D Football games are similar to Madden, while Skateboarding copied the gameplay of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, right down to the control scheme.
• Flying Saucer: In Wheeler Acres in Backyard Baseball 2005.
• Friendly Local Chinatown: A stage in Backyard Football 2004.
• Ghibli Hills: The forest in Football 2006.
• Glorious Mother Russia: The Cagey Bees team in Backyard Soccer.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Juice heals you in Baseball and Basketball.
• It's Always Spring: Averted in Football 2004, where the climate changes with real-world climate.
• Jet Pack: Backyard Football has the Rocket Boots powerups.
• Joke Item: The powerup The Fang in Baseball. It will always be a ball even if it is thrown in the strike zone.
  • Lethal Joke Item: It's designed to trick the batter into swinging (if they do, they'll always miss).
  • Actually you can get it in the corner of the strike zone if the player's strike zone is big enough.
• Kung Fu Sonic Boom: The Sonic Boom powerup in Football.
• Limit Break: Hot Hand and Dunk in Basketball.
• Loading Screen: In Football 2006.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: The Screaming Line Drive in Baseball.
• Meaningful Name: In Backyard Hockey, Beverly Backstop is the best goalie in the game...because she stops the puck.
• Multi Mook Melee: In Baseball 2005, the Fielders' Challenge is against an endless team of dummies.
• No Animals Were Harmed: From the original Baseball 's credits: 'No hot dogs were consumed in the making of this game. Okay, maybe a few.'
• No Communities Were Harmed: Tokyo Field in Baseball 2007 is an obvious replica of Tokyo Dome.
• No Ending: Football on the GBA has no ending at all. You don't even get a trophy for winning the Cereal Bowl.
• Non-Indicative Name: Hockey does not take place in a backyard.
• Nostalgia Level: Steele Stadium in Baseball 2005, looking exactly as it did in the original (except it is in 3D).
• Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Backyard Soccer: MLS Edition is the only one to not be named after a year, up until Sandlot Sluggers.
• Old Save Bonus: Having a BasketballPlayStation 2 save file unlocks Barry Dejay in BaseballPlayStation 2.
• One Stat to Rule Them All: Batting in Baseball.
• One Steve Limit: Happens in the original Baseball and Soccer. Averted in the later games, due to the pros.
• Palmtree Panic: The Boardwalk in Baseball 2005.
• Patchwork Map: The island in Football 2006.
• Power-Up Letdown: The Chameleon play in Football, which turns your team uniforms into the offense uniforms. It really backfires, as it's still easy to tell what players are yours, and it's impossible to fool the computer. 2-player mode doesn't do any better; you can't highlight the pass icon over the defense, so the power up becomes worthless.
• Product Placement: In Soccer 2004, Carlos Valderrama mentions that his favorite TV program is Blue's Clues (which counts as one of Humongous' self-promotions, as they made many of Blue's Clues'Licensed Games).
• Recycled in Space: Football 2006 is Football... ON AN ISLAND!
• Retraux: Babe Ruth in Backyard Baseball 2009 is done in a retro style.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: NFL Backyard Basics.
• Save Scumming: The six save slots in the original Baseball were probably meant for this.
• Self-Insert Fic: Typing in certain names for your coach in Hockey gave you three different teams featuring the game's art staff, producers, and programmers as kids.
  • As well, in Football 2004, Rhett Mathis, the original games' music composer, can be seen as an NPC kid on Season Mode teams
• Silliness Switch: Cheat codes in Basketball for the PlayStation 2 make really big and small heads.
  • Even more so in Football 2006, where cheats can give characters big/small heads, big/small hands, etc; even different footballs-- from a watermelon to a chocolate eclair to a banana slug.
• Single Pallette Town: Cyan Lane (which is, well, cyan) in Football 2006.
• Slippery Skid: A powerup in Hockey causes this to happen.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The pros in Soccer: MLS Edition did have unique themes, but they can't be heard in the 'Meet the Kids' screen. Instead, the menu song/previous kid's theme keeps playing, resulting in things like a lot of pros using Billy Jean Blackwood's cajun leitmotif.
• Spinning Paper: Whenever you unlock something in Baseball 2005.
• Sprint Meter: The juice meter in Baseball.
• Sprint Shoes: There are sprint skates in Hockey.
• Stealth Pun: There are a few examples, such as Duksana Pond in Hockey.
  • In some of the pros' endings, they are checking out something related to their team name.
• Stop Poking Me: One of Kiesha Phillips' quotes in Basketball is 'Stop that clicking, man! It tickles!'
• Stuff Blowing Up: The Bomb Ball in Soccer.
• Super Mode: There is an invincibility powerup in Hockey.
• Super Speed: A powerup in Basketball, Hockey, and Skateboarding.
• Talking to Himself: Lani Minella plays both announcers in Baseball 2003 and Soccer 2004.
• Tomorrowland: Quantum Field in Baseball 2005.
• The Trope Without a Title: A Nameless Field (also known as Area 51½) from the Soccer series.
• Under the Sea: The Aquadome in Baseball 2005.
• The Voice: The mother calling for dinner in Dobbaguchi Arena in Basketball.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Aluminum Power in Baseball.

Cached

Backyard Football Demo