Between new and old generations, the shared love for games from their childhood has remained the same. Older generations yearn for the nostalgia of games they would play in their past, and newer generations love the aesthetics of the slightly older games and their style. With many fans back when it was released in 1979, Backyard Sports and its fans have only grown since then. After nearly a decade of hiatus from the franchise, Backyard Sports are coming back.
Backyard Sports is a sports video game franchise that starred in the late 1970s to the early 2000s, beginning with baseball. They then went on to add more sports, including most of the popular sports from that time: you could now make a team for a game of hockey, football, and soccer, and you now had a number of different settings to play in. The games first began with the iconic “Backyard Kids” characters, including Pablo Sanchez, Pete Wheeler, Stephanie Morgan, Kenny Kawaguchi, and more. There are now many kids to choose to put on your team, each with their own special description and stats, along with their own animations for when they walk up, swing, and strike out. Each character has a couple, and each matches their personality. For example, Amir Khan, who admires his brother, also a character in the game, Achmed Khan, attempts to copy his rockstar walkup, only to hilariously fail and drop his bat.
Although popular in its prime, the game lost fans once they aged out and there was a switch in animation to 3D. Along with this, they also lost fans to more realistic sports games. They also switched to mobile-only for some of the games, causing them to lose older fans, and not earning as many younger fans as they had hoped. Despite this, the sports franchise has officially announced its return through an animated video of the classic characters gearing up for a game of ball posted on their official Instagram account.
In an interview, Playground Productions’, the developer of the new game to come, CEO stated that they are honoring the past by beginning from the start with Backyard Baseball, and then continuing with the rest of the sports. It will be released on October 10th of this year, another nostalgic remembrance from the team as that was when it had originally come out on Steam. Although, on the Backyard Sports official Instagram, they state that they are “just getting started”, hinting that the game will perhaps come out on other platforms soon. The game will include all the original characters and settings to play in. On top of that, securing a spot on the top of the Global Leaderboard for the game on Steam rewards you with a chance to be “back-yardified”, or drawn with the classic style of the characters.
With its growing popularity, it’s no surprise that there are many fans waiting eagerly for the game to be released. If you can relate, the official Instagram page has released numerous updates, along with a link for the preorder. There are also tons of other resources online with extra information. All in all, keep your eyes peeled for October 10th and the return of this classic sports game!
