Backyard Baseball

Many kids who play PC games are very familiar with Humongous�� Backyard franchise (not to be confused with Backyard Wrestling��at all). The series signs a few big-name athletes, cutely kid-ifies them, and has them play alongside other tykes.

Backyard Baseball has some cool things in store for its young audience, but it lacks the polish of a good game. For one thing, the control flat-out sucks. I had a rough time moving my fielders, and I can��t imagine a child who has yet to add a second digit to his age faring better.

The game also doesn��t seem quite arcadey enough. Maybe my hopes were too high for a 21st-century R.B.I. Baseball, but can the more sim-type system of choosing a pitch before throwing it really work? It does as a primer to playing MVP eventually, but I can��t help thinking that a simple ��press Down if you want a fastball/press Up if you want a change-up�� pitching mechanic would be considerably more fun. Humongous does use the R.B.I. baserunning system, though��which is still the best, most intuitive such system ever invented.

Young��uns should enjoy the power-ups for pitching and hitting, and you have to love ballparks such as the Swamp and the Junkyard. Seeing li��l versions of the likes of Nomar Garciaparra, Ichiro Suzuki, Mike Piazza, and Randy Johnson is a hoot, too, but the Backyard Kids have the real personality. As you might imagine, they��re a very eclectic, politically correct group of youngsters (one kid even has a wheelchair), but every now and then, the odd, decidedly non-PC stereotype presents itself. Apparently, Luanne Lui ��has trouble with the letter R.��

Backyard Baseball should please its intended audience. It��s just too bad it can��t please us big kids, too.

Rating:

Pros

Generally fun and lighthearted, easy for most kids to pick up and play, best baserunning of any current baseball game

Cons

Horrible controls, it��s not the second coming of R.B.I. Baseball it should be

Pub. Atari

Dev. Humongous

ESRB Everyone

MSRP $19.99

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine.