I Reviewed EVERY Backyard Sports Game (1997 - 2015): A Humongous Entertainment Retrospective

More than 50 different Backyard Sports games have been made since the first game was released in 1997, and I've just reviewed every single one of them. Guess I'm just that crazy, huh? Days upon days of my life have been poured into recording and editing this video, WEEKS of preparation as I played these games and wrote my scripts. This video has literally been more than one year in the making... and now I'm glad it's done lol.
At first I thought it was going to feel great knowing that I'm the first person in the history of mankind to ever make this video, but now that it's done I see why nobody else ever bothered to do this before me: Making this video was torture. Ah well, the video is finished and out there in the world for people to enjoy, and that's what matters most at the end of the day. Honestly I'm just glad this project isn't bottlenecking me anymore and I can move on to working on other things. When I set out to make this Humongous Entertainment retrospective series, I had no idea what rabbit hole the Backyard Sports series would lead me down, and if I knew back then what I know now, I never would've agreed to do this.
But hey, I did it and now I can relax knowing my work with this subject matter is done. I don't expect this video to get as much attention as I would like it to (in fact I expect it to completely flop), but I hope those of you that do read this description enjoyed it well enough. Anyways, I'm gonna go work on some ranking videos now.
Video Chapters:
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~~~Classic Era~~~
00:00 - Introduction
02:46 - Backyard Baseball (PC)
21:35 - Backyard Soccer (PC)
30:38 - Backyard Football (PC)
41:28 - Backyard Baseball 2001 (PC)
46:16 - Backyard Soccer MLS Edition (PC) & Backyard Soccer (PS1)
49:31 - Backyard Football 2002 (PC)
54:05 - Backyard Basketball (PC)
1:00:05 - Backyard Baseball 2003 (PC & GBA)
~~~Neo Sports Era~~~
1:06:30 - Backyard Football 2003 (GCN & GBA)
1:17:28 - Backyard Hockey (PC & GBA)
1:24:39 - Backyard Soccer 2004 (PC)
1:27:25 - Backyard Baseball 2004 (GCN)
1:33:20 - Backyard Baseball 2005 (PS2 & PC) & 2006 (GBA)
1:42:00 - Backyard Football 2004 (PC)
1:47:25 - Backyard Basketball 2004 (PC & PS2) & 2005 (GBA)
1:55:57 - Backyard Hockey 2005 (PC)
2:00:00 - Backyard Skateboarding (PC & GBA) & GOTY Edition (PC)
2:14:24 - Backyard Football 2006 (PC, PS2 & GBA)
~~~Dark Era~~~
2:22:53 - Backyard Baseball 2007 (PS2)
2:33:16 - Backyard Baseball/Football/Basketball 2007 (GBA)
2:39:32 - Backyard Basketball 2007 (PS2 & DS)
2:47:47 - Backyard Hockey 2007 (DS)
2:51:58 - Backyard Football 2008 (Wii & DS)
3:06:18 - Backyard Baseball 2009 (Wii & DS)
3:15:41 - Backyard Football 2009 (Wii & DS)
3:22:18 - Backyard Baseball 2010 (Wii & DS) & Backyard Football 2010 (Wii)
~~~Identity Crisis Era~~~
3:28:35 - Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers (360, Wii, & DS)
3:38:49 - Backyard Sports: Rookie Rush (360, Wii, & DS)
3:44:51 - Backyard Sports: Basketball 2015 & Baseball 2015 (Android, iOS)
3:49:05 - Conclusion
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SOCIAL MEDIA
============
Be sure to follow me on Twitter for all the latest updates on videos and other various posts: / ashadowstreak
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Wanna hang with me and other fans? Join my Public Discord Server: / discord
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VIDEO CREDITS
=============
Introduction by SwearingTaylor & Yours Truly:
/ swearingtaylor
Credits Music by Archie:
• Archie - Chasing The S...
================

[@ShermTank7272]

Shoutouts to Pablo, always the MVP

[@Reds3DPrinting]

Pissed me off when my bro used him

[@shiffpup2529]

Honestly, it's insane how there were 29 Backyard Sports games in the 9 years Humongous Entertainment was making them.

[@konradfun]

They're just updates but disguised as full release titles. It's nothing new from what sports games are doing now.

[@KaitouKaiju]

Most of them were copy paste

[@Chickenwingleaf]

Do you know how to get the game

[@Jac735]

​@@konradfunthe earlier backyard games were the best especially with the 99/00 football with the same NFL players on the same team and AI computer creative players thought that was dope

[@DingoTheDemon]

​@@Chickenwingleafyou can get a bunch of Humongous Entertainment games via Steam these days

[@LeoFan93]

Something I wanted to bring attention to in the first round of rereleases were the inclusion of "good days" and "bad days". When you first move into a new game of league play, your players have a chance of having a "good day" or a "bad day" which affects their stats for that particular game only. Then you can gain the system by using certain combinations of players and teams to get permanent stat boosts. For example, putting any pair of siblings on the same team will typically boost their stats. (minus Ronny Dobbs. NEVER put him on the same team as Sally.) Other times a certain Backyard kid's trait will clue you in on how to give them a permanent stat boost. Animal-lover Annie Frazier will have her stats boosted if the team's name and/or logo includes an animal, for example. Probably the most infamous of these is with Maria Luna. If your team uniform has ANY pink on it, she becomes a FREAKING POWERHOUSE.

[@tiablue9106]

oh yeah I believe in backyard baseball 2003, sidney and ashley webber get stat boosts when on a team together. also angela delvecchio gets a stat boost when on a team opposing her brother tony (don't remember if he gets a boost too in this case)

[@LateNightTableCo]

Players could also gain boosts or power ups based off what position they played in baseball, for example. The Webber Twins received a drop in stats if they were made to play in the outfield and other players got boosts if they were on their home fields (Ernie Steele and Kimmy Eckman, for example.) oh, and for football, don’t put Brett Favre on the Vikings. The game was made back when we thought he’d be a Packer for life

[@sams5780]

Sally Dobbs gets a major boost to pitching and defense when she's on the same team as Ronnie.

[@sams5780]

Amir becomes a clone of his brother when they're on the same team. Edit: not quite a clone but Amir becomes more like his brother.

[@user-Tod-The-Toadster]

@@LateNightTableCo Don't the webber twins get a boost in the outfield, y'know like their card says?

[@BigSleepy985]

Fun fact: In Basketball 2001, if you name your custom character “Barry Dee Jay” you can play as him. He has completely maxed out stats and is the best character in the game

[@ecstasycalculus]

Same with Thor Herring if you use the name "Lemon Boy"

[@LateNightTableCo]

You can also get “Buddy Cheque”, “Beverly Backstop” and another maxed out player in Backyard Hockey. Oh, and you can unlock Yeti’s as custom characters somehow too

[@superstar64]

Even better than THE Pablo Sanchez?

[@Jac735]

​@@superstar64yeah Thor Hearing is actually better than pablo in basketball 🏀 😢sadly

[@TheHeroOfTomorrow]

It's clear to me that Infogrames wanted this series to be their EA Sports franchise. Kinda sad to see it happen like this.

[@Tang-qi6zw]

Though, unlike EA Sports franchises, this one could work better. Have a few different teams, and release 1 backyard sports game a year. Baseball, then Soccer, then Football, then Basketball, then Hockey, then repeat. 5 years is enough for some kind of big change to happen, or at least new hardware requirements with tweaks to how the game feels. So easily justifiable. This would just require treating All of backyard sports as a single annual franchise, instead of each sport separately.

[@angelriverasantana7755]

@@Tang-qi6zw that and go for a few change-ups with skateboarding and maybe even Lacrosse, if one were to go deeper

[@ITalk69]

I grew up with Backyard Football 2002, absolutely adored it as a kid. The reason why the person scoring the touchdowns run towards the middle is because they do the celebration dance in 2002 and the kids would always be positioned in the center in the animations, however, maybe they just never changed that even though the celebrations were long removed then.

[@MM221]

hi nick 😆😆😆😆

[@RafaTheBeat]

Wait a minute. 2015? You're telling me these games kept being made well into mid 2010's!?

[@TiroDvD]

Yup. Observing as a teacher, that is when all the kids started to switch from 3/NDS, PSP, & Vitas to just smartphones and tablets. Actual kids video game market has dried up and been replaced with stupid mobile Skinner boxes.

[@chasesheridan3109]

well, there was a big pause between 2011 and 2015 because the ip went through a bunch of new owners until it found a resting place for once until they shit all over it with baseball and basketball 2015

[@13StJimmy]

Unironically Humongous Entertainment is one of the most prolific game studios of all time. Not all the games are bangers but the ones that hit have been great for almost 30 years at this point. When I have kids they will be playing those games

[@BigDaddy9754]

58:31 That caught my off guard. Didn't think I would see Mikey Thomas dunk from half-court

[@LHSMeleeClub]

LOL tripped me out also

[@balloneyblows]

Backyard Baseball 2001 was MY JAM growing up. It was so popular in my house that in middle school we got a goldfish and named him after the GOAT himself, Pablo Sanchez. He lived to be 8 years old. RIP Pablo

[@Retrotude]

Something that doesn't get mentioned very often is that there were multiple attempts made to import this series to European markets. The original Backyard Soccer had a rare UK release that changed instances of the word Soccer to Football and very clumsily edited the dialogue of the kids to not say the word soccer. Afaik the only new dialogue for that version was of Sunny Day and Earl Gray's rerecorded intros which audibly have a lower recording quality than the rest of their dialogue. Later they attempted to bring the PS1 version of Soccer to Europe at large and even went to the trouble of translating and recording dialogue in French and German (though strangely the UK version kept all audible references to Soccer). That version went under the name Junior Sports Football. Finally the PS2 version of Basketball 2004 was localized as Junior Sports Basketball, which is notable for being a version that not only localized the majority of players with new names and voices in all languages including English, but completely removed pro players and teams. Also Pablo is Portugese and named Pelinho.

[@TheSeaOtterPooper]

Honestly, (About PAL BBK2004) the biggest crime they've commited was doing FREAKING ETHNIC WASHES on some of the kids. (e.g. making Gretchen Irish)

[@WaddleDee105]

Just started watching but wow, this is nostalgic. I haven't thought about these games in a long time. Funnily enough, I remember Achmed, Kenny, and Pablo being my favorites as well.

[@MrMuppetLover]

A note on Backyard Baseball 2001, Vinnie the Gooch also gives little tidbits of information about the MLB teams in the games that they appear. Also Backyard Baseball 2003 was the first game to introduce the concept of the postseason stadiums being unlockable.

[@satin8683]

Congratulations pal, ya finally reached to the very end! I honestly miss the company and despite It's ups and downs, there not much studios that captures the same nostalgia or spirit of the original source It was based on but always glad to revisit them for old time sake and there's not much of a studio who just like'em these days. But hwy, at least we get some fan-games made by the fans themselves these days If ya lucky to find one of them!

[@Lilbuckets2]

Where are the fam games?

[@JacaboBlanco]

The fact that they never figured out they should return to the classic art style baffles me.

[@TheDXJC56]

Earl Grey and Chuck Downfield are pretty solid, but Barry Dejay is EASILY the most clever play on words of the three

[@EBTheOriginalMaster]

That one kid saying “knucklehead” in the Backyard Football 2002 segment of the video got a small chuckle out of me

[@googamp32]

I had no idea "Backyard Sports" was as big as it is! This was a fun journey through the history of one of the biggest gaming companies of my childhood. While Humongous Entertainment may be a shell of its former self, I can't help but think that there is still a bright future for the company. With the games being ported to modern consoles and Steam, and Ron Gilbert making new point and click adventure games like "Thimbleweed Park" and "Return To Monkey Island", we could very well see the return of Pajama Sam, Putt-Putt, Spy Fox, Freddi and Luthor, and maybe even the Brightlys and Fatty Bear. BUT NOT BUZZY! That flying blue prick knows what he did!

[@DigitalZed]

The OG Backyard Soccer game was phenomenal and one of my favorite games to play growing up. RIP the Blue Bombers champions every single season lol. Loved whenever you got to the "Indoor soccer" part of the season. As that was always my favorite type of soccer to play irl.

[@11platupus]

I never played the soccer but I'm sure it was amazing as I grew up with back yard baseball an I feel like if I played it now it still be kinda fun

[@soren1803]

Blue bombers squad unite

[@Jac735]

​@@11platupusI never played ⚾️ for some reason since I never really got into that sport just playing fun pick up games football 99/00 was my favorite though MLS edition was fun bit it was too easy though the computer wasn't really challenging and football 99/00 was good but it was all the same teams and seasons while the newer football 2002 changed it a little but the 99/00 graphics were alot better in my opinion

[@SolidSnake684]

These games mean so much to me! I grew up playing nearly all of them up until around 2006. Whenever I'd go to Costco or garage sales with my mom, I'd always end up finding one of these games. Baseball 2003 and Football were my absolute favorites (I didn't have 2001 until I was an adult). Backyard Baseball 2005 and Skateboarding were the last ones I played. I liked them both back then, especially Baseball, but you could tell that was the last time they had a bit of spark. To this day I still go back and play Backyard Baseball 01, 03, and the original Football, to this day. (Btw, Football with the keyboard controls is way more fun. You can throw offscreen, and never accidentally throw when you mean to run). They're super fun, and no game matches their atmosphere and overall feeling. I still wish with all my heart someone would swoop in and make a new Backyard Baseball in the same vein as the original run. Seeing a cartoon Ohtani, Judge and Acuna would be such a treat! Btw, I did make it through the entire video. Thanks for making this giant endeavor so my curiosity of what these games were like after I stopped buying them could be satiated. What a ride.

[@missoli]

i had no idea there were this many backyard sports games!

[@JudgeTyBurns]

Ah, yes, I absolutely love absurdly long deep-dives into media I’ve never interacted with. See you again in a few days when I finish this video, it’s going to take me a few sessions.

[@fruitymario3742]

"I want tall kids, I want short kids, I want fat, I want thin, I want all these different physicalities." -Quotes that require context to not seem creepy.

[@greedlings]

I owe this game when I was young for not making me feel weird about other kids who had disabilities due to kenny. Kenny taught me that wheelchairs are cool as heck

[@PeacefulZealot]

“Oatmeal, are you crazy?” I am so happy to hear this though it has been years. What a blast from the past 🎉

[@ShadowStreak]

I'm glad somebody appreciated that haha!

[@PeacefulZealot]

Yeah, I was immediately like "That is Pinkie Pie. I know *exactly* who that is!" Excellent work on your vid, by the way! Just watched the whole thing with my wife and had a blast ^_^ Keep up the good work! @@ShadowStreak

[@SuperSimputer]

I find it funny how Jack Fowler is a great analogy for Baseball ‘09 in general: functional and much better than what came right before him, but still having no personality compared to the old games.

[@MrEightThreeOne]

Great job on this! I didn't think there would be someone who would know as much as me about this series but you proved me wrong. I will be watching this throughout the weekend most likely as there is no way I can see this whole video in one sitting so I'll make comments as I go throughout it and editing accordingly! Can't wait to tell you what all I think! Soccer 98: Glad to hear someone actually be realistic on Pablo in another game for once, as a lot of people blindly assume he's always the best player with no downsides but that's not always true. Football: Fun fact -- Basketball was actually initially intended to be the third game in the series. If you crawl around on the archived versions of the Humongous site, you can see on the page for the series that Backyard Soccer was advertised as coming shortly while Basketball was planned as next. I guess due to the fact they got the licenses for all major sports except basketball though, Football ended up being pushed to the front and we wouldn't get Basketball for another two years. Also fun fact: Recently, online play has been brought back to life! A friend of mine was able to make a modified version of ScummVM that tricked the game into rerouting into a different server. Search "Backyard football online" on here and you'll be able to find it. Same goes for Baseball 2001! I can't say I completely agree with what you say but your criticisms are totally valid and I get not liking this one. Baseball 2001: Yeah I have to agree. They did add a few nice quality of life improvements to the game (one you didn't mention was that you can get a batting powerup by making a double play, where before the only method was getting a base hit on a pitching powerup; I also appreciated season mode using a home field mechanic instead of just making you play on Parks Department for 14 straight games), but overall I really think the pros ruin a lot of the important game balancing. Not to mention they totally got rid of all the rewards for winning season mode, so you don't get a credit sequence or anything, or any reveal on how to play as Mr. Clanky (meaning the only way to know is either by looking it up on the Internet or if you had already beaten the 97 game). Basketball: And here's where we diverge as well, I can't say I'm a fan of this game. It's a pretty buggy and rushed feeling game and it feels like there's a lack of polish here. But if you liked it, all the more power to you! Baseball 2003: I am absolutely not a fan of this one at *all*. I cannot stand the voice cast in this game, I feel they have absolutely nothing on the original cast and that's the only major change they really made for it so that makes it significantly worse than 2001 for that reason alone to me. And even with the four new fields they introduced, you don't have to look for five seconds to notice they're all reskins of previous fields (The Paveway is especially blatant because it doesn't even try to look different from Cement Gardens). About the only thing I commend this game for is finally making the season-exclusive fields unlockable for the main game. Yeah, this one is definitely a hard pass for me and I'm glad you feel similar. For the second era, I tend to refer to it as the thick-line era, as that's when the characters moved to the thick line designs. It's pretty clear they did that because it worked better for a 3D art direction, but then they backported them to the 2D games and it just was...ehhh? I don't think you have to like Football on PC to know Football on GBA is bad...gosh that looks so dreadful, it's so painful and slow. Yikes. That SpongeBob clip was great, haha. Surprised you didn't mention before that the PC versions prior also had a snowy option! The nighttime option is indeed totally new though to the GCN game. Fun fact: Cactus Gulch and Rocky Vista actually debuted in Football 2002, but exclusive to the Season Mode (however, you could unlock them for normal play if you won a season). YES! You mentioned the rock-paper-scissors replacing fights! I always loved that aspect, it's just so brilliant and totally something the series would do. Never had any clue that Baseball GCN was different from BB2005. I know a lot about this series but that was one thing I sure wasn't aware of. Also never clicked to me that the darts game was in the clubhouse, nor did I ever know of the references to Putt-Putt or Pajama Sam. There were a few cameos you missed in Basketball and Hockey, so your comment wasn't 100% true, but I still love seeing them call back to their roots. I don't know anyone who actually likes Abner Dubbleplay. His voice is absolutely not built to be tolerable for minutes at a time. Geez, Freddi Fish makes a cameo in Aquadome!? How did I not know this!? And they actually crafted a 3D model for her and Luther! I never knew they got official representation that way! Why do I get the idea you'll never hear the word "fifty" the same way after that helicopter mission? Football 2006 always makes me so sad to think of. Like you said it was their swan song, and I wish they could have gone out on a higher note. Also you are such a brave soul for continuing past that, I have never touched the post-Humongous games with a twenty foot pole and this will be my first time ever seeing a good majority of them. Oh boy... Man those 2007 redesigns never get easier to look at. How they heck did they ever think turning the kids into teenagers would be a good way to revitalize the series? The frustrating thing is seeing the kids grown up actually COULD be a perfectly good lure to old fans had they waited until we grew up too, and done it as a "where are they now" type thing instead of just...suddenly aging them up for absolutely no reason at all. I love how Basketball 2007 on GBA was so lazy that the "Basketball" on the title screen was completely unreadable. Turns out shrinking tiny text to a tiny resolution doesn't work very well. Oh gosh those character sprites on Basketball 2007...MAN that's uncanny, they're like floppy and ragdolly. What happened here? Actually looking at your Basketball 2007 footage...were you using a messed up emulator? I think the game *was* running too fast. Look at the timer, one second in the game doesn't match up to one second in the real world. That said all the other complaints seemed completely valid. The way you synced up all three of those touchdowns on Football 2008 DS was so on point. I loved it so much. Kudos? To me? Aww, you shouldn't have! Geez, they just made the same Football game three times in a row? Gosh I knew it was bad I didn't know it was THAT bad. I am so sorry you had to suffer through that. I actually remember when Sandlot Sluggers came out. Atari was trying SO HARD to revitalize the series and make it relevant again and it came off as a desperate plea for help. The most depressing thing is that instead of actually fixing ANYTHING that went wrong over the last three years of the series' life, they just doubled down on it. Gee, wonder why that ended in spectacular failure... ...okay that part where you quit five seconds into the game just killed me for some reason, I don't know why but the timing of it was just hilarious, especially because I thought you were just going to turn off the commentary at first but you took it even further than that. Well I made it to the very end. Fantastic job dude, I am thoroughly impressed you had enough of a drive to see this to the end. And I can safely say I watched the video from start to finish so you know at least one person who saw the fruits of your labor. You did so well on this, I don't know too many people who would willingly look at 50 different games and review them all so great job. Hope you enjoyed my lengthy commentary on it too!

[@peterjarvis7335]

backyard baseball 2001 was my first introduction to the backyard sports games.i'll never forget walking into an office depot back when they still sold computer games and seeing this on sale at the time. i got it, went home, and proceeded to have many fun times playing backyard sports as a kid. i soon after got backyard basketball 2004, backyard football and backyard soccer, and then when backyard skateboarding came out, me being a skateboarding fan, i bought it but i didn't enjoy it as much as the other games. later on i bought backyard hockey which i loved, and still havew fun with today. i wish this series could have survived longer, but for now i will continue to play the original games!

[@carmineknight9123]

I caught that "oatmeal, are you crazy?!" and thank you for that unexpected chuckle xD was not expecting that ref here

[@bballlive9971]

playing backyard football 1999 online with people is really fun and you can put draft limitations to make the teams fairer but if both players are skilled usually whoever picks first wins because they have the better team but its really fun making custom playbooks and defenses to counter playstyles also: we usually play with no powerups and only mouse

[@backyard-sportscenter]

Can't believe the reborn online play wasn't mentioned! Need to get the word out more!

[@alfrankensteinfeldman]

@@backyard-sportscenter how do you go about setting it up?

[@Jac735]

I always wanted to play online with someone how did it work and will it let you use your custom team or you have to choose like 2 player mode

[@shiffpup2529]

2:01:33 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was the groundwork for a LOT of skateboarding video games. Skateboarding games at the time were trying to find the right button layout, and Tony Hawk did that, and was also a well coded game to boot.

[@NuGenMusicGroup]

Pro tip: at the 36:00 mark, you can keep the offense from scoring on the sonic boom play if you pick one of the deep zone defensive plays. The defenders still stay down for a long time, but usually they can get up in enough time to make the tackle. But the offense will usually get a first down.

[@visassess8607]

The main menu alone for the first game is flooding my mind with memories. Such good times with my older brother. I think we only had the first couple.

[@Blargnla]

One of the best 4-hour time sinks I've ever made. Thank you. I've only ever played the OG Baseball and the 2003 version. I think I saw someone with a GBA playing the baseball version at school once? I had NO idea it ever got this far, but I think I'm glad I didn't experience its demise in real time. Absolutely incredible, thorough report. Thank you.

[@metacynical9080]

I always remember spending days and days playing backyard skateboarding. Goodness this was a blast from the past that may have remained better locked in my brain. 🧡

[@chiwara3619]

Thanks for talking about the Dark Age titles. They’re terrible but they were a huge part of my childhood ❤️

[@Mrmoe198]

SUNNY DAY IS CORTANA?!?! My mind is blown...I spent so many hours playing the OG Backyard Football using Randall Cunningham and Pablo Sanchez as my primaries, shoutout to Keisha Phillips for being the best center. The only way to beat a score from the sonic boom is to have two deep safeties and eat the large yardage loss. Man, this is bringing back so many memories. Before the snap I would control each player individually and then release them, which would make them stack at the opposing center and knock them flat for an amazing blitz. Then I'd send Pablo on middle linebacker duty because of his speed. I would get some great interceptions and forced fumbles from that strategy. Memory unlocked! "The offense just used a hocus pocus to make the receiver disappear! Only to reappear wide open downfield!" Love the homage to John Madden that is Chuck Downfield. P.S. I noticed you were playing with the mouse controls. Those were also super clunky for me so I used the keyboard controls instead, which made for a much smoother, controllable, and enjoyable experience. Really appreciate all the effort you put into this, thank you!

[@BugsyFoga]

Definitely a Humungous entertainment franchise I’m not too insanely familiar with, but still pretty curious to hear about it .

[@ryanpittard8987]

For me the original Backyard football games, 99 and 02 were way easier and better to play with using the keyboard, not as clumsy as clicking everywhere, especially trying to run anywhere. Thank you for making the video, I enjoyed the nostalgia trip

[@KeybladeMasterAndy]

This is legendary. And now the series is about 15 hours long altogether.

[@VillainousWarlord]

The ridiculous story of the 2015 titles was the most enjoyable part after we got past the nostalgia from the start of the video. Random old men watching kids play sports and incomprehensibly describe cookie cutter storylines was pretty funny.

[@KeybladeMasterAndy]

That's the 2010 title. In release.

[@sheacorduroy5565]

I’m not sure if this comment will be seen or not, but there’s actually an explanation as to why the 2003 and 05 versions of Backyard Hockey don’t have the shootout. The hockey shootout as it is today was not introduced until the 2005-2006 season. There was no season in 2004-2005 due to a lockout, which makes it really weird to think about a game that was probably released around said lockout.

[@ShadowStreak]

That's news to me, and it explains a lot. Thanks for the insight into that, I didn't even realize it was introduced until 05/06!

[@sheacorduroy5565]

@@ShadowStreak Yeah, although I believe some minor leagues used it prior though, but since it’s an NHL licensed game it probably followed their rules. There was some other actually important stuff that changed during that time that I’m not sure if the games replicated. -The introduction of the shootout also saw the introduction of 3 on 3 overtime. Before that the five minute OT periods prior to ties were 5 on 5. -The blue lines actually moved, albeit by a small amount.

[@itskaiks3469]

“that could of been epic, but it wasn’t” story of my life

[@conradcooper2710]

This is actually a huge shock to me because the only game I played was Rookie Rush and Baseball '10 and I had no idea it had this much history

[@jarotdacarot]

Can you explain in backyard baseball all the hidden stats? Like how siblings do better with or without eachother in a game? I know a few of them but would love a guide!

[@ShinyGaara65]

1:46:37 I haven't thought about that oatmeal joke in ages. Thank you, that was magical. XD

[@Next0gen0]

Aaaaand, Done! Wow, that was one Hell of a Watch. Gotta say, the dedication to making this series has been Astounding. Good job all around, and I can't Wait until the final episode.

[@Rayuzx]

I'm not sure if anyone has told you yet, but the kids from Dark Age are supposed to be aged up into teenagers/Middle Schoolers. Also, you should check out the credits from the first Baseball game in that era, it has some weird character designs I don't think are even in the game.

[@ChaosUnown]

Personally my dealbreakers for the later backyard games were the voices and the character designs. Although the designs of the characters stayed true for a good while until just... generic samey 3D model syndrome took over, the voice acting I feel dipped down a lot faster. From 1997 to 2001 that original cast was charming, memorable and full of enthusiasm, but once they made the change no one ever sounded quite... right? Not only did several characters sound very similar at a time, but there is just a supreme lack of energy that just feels like a gut punch to me. Some of the later games do seem better mechanically, but the lack of charm is what pushed me out of it.

[@justneagle]

We love your crazy willingness to tackle these games head on. Such a staple of the gaming industry over the years. Bravo!

[@rockorotten]

Had no idea there were Backyard Sports games in 2015. I also had no idea that Evergreen sold Backyard Sports to some other company. Whoever owns them now needs to release the OG Backyard Sports games to Steam.

[@lucaschannel1113]

You Are Number 1!!!

[@rockorotten]

@@lucaschannel1113 That honor goes to Stefan Karl Stefansson, not me. In reality, I'm just some random American/Canadian.

[@vincent1935]

This was a great retrospective! You did an amazing job on this! I can’t wait for that Humongous Retrospective finale! It’ll be a great way to finish this retrospective!

[@ericboysen1196]

For anyone looking, the Mr. Clanky description from Backyard Baseball 1997 is a hex-> ascii conversion which translates to: Mr. Clanky says "Stay in school."

[@blistlelo1700]

I love how humorously funny and snarky TCRF can be that gives the writing more personality and attitude! It makes it more relatable and charming as if actual people wrote it rather than some boring serious academic professor or robot wrote the articles like many wiki websites do.

[@FigureFarter]

"The dolphins had it coming." -The regional differences section in Mario World

[@raidpirate4190]

Finally got to see this! This is incredible you went through every game. The series was at its best from the original in 1997 to 2006. My personal favorite is Backyard Hockey 2005 but I also really loved the original Backyard Football and soccer too, but perhaps Backyard Baseball 2001 will have my most fondest memories as its the first one I got and my introduction to the series.

[@matthewmusgrave6673]

So cool to see all these games getting reviewed! I've got to comment on the first 2 Backyard Football games and defend them a bit. 1st tip, the blue line, or line of scrimmage, determines a lot of what your character will do. On defense a player who has been given a "dotted circle" means they won't go after the person with the ball until they've passed that blue line, unless you click on them and make them go wherever you want. On offense if you click before the blue line you'll run, if you click beyond you'll throw. 2nd tip: With catching, timing is really important if turnovers have been turned on. It seems the taller a character is the more likely they'll be to catch it over someone smaller if catching stats are similar, Ernie was great for Hail Mary's while Pablo not so much. But yeah, fumbles are totally random. 3rd tip: Some power ups are OP like Invincible Run, but others like Sonic Boom could be easy to handle on defense as long as your whole team wasn't up on the line of scrimmage. Also, using Spring Loaded to take out the other teams punter was so satisfying. Also the fact that you could pick from tons of plays or MAKE YOUR OWN PLAYS was so cool as a kid. Anyways, if you end up playing one of the older football games again, hopefully you'll find a bit more enjoyment from them.

[@JohnBK34]

Yeah, I feel like he didn't really spend much time on the Backyard Football games to really learn what does and doesn't work. The original and 2002 are amongst my top 3, with 2002 being my favorite of all

[@manoluigisupershow1411]

24:05 He straight up tries to bribe you in Backyard Football "Pick me, and you'll be very well conpensated." 57:47 Truer words have never been spoken 3:28:43 ...Why is it that Joey gets to have a toupee, but not Tony himself? Also, WHERE IS ANGELA

[@LevMass]

Lol. I do get the frustration. But for me, BF 2002 is probably my favorite of the series.. followed closely by BB 2001. It’s got some brokenness to it, but playing on hard mode (which basically just makes the game way faster), you can rack up nearly 400 pts my ball hawking interceptions/getting sacks and using defense breaking custom plays. The fun in it for me is just trying to put together the worst team and beat it on the hardest setting at this point. I also do love the use of getting extra stats through achievements to make your custom player a perfect player.

[@colvertgarcon3538]

Took me a whole day to get through this whole video. Great job being the first to cover all of them! Love all these videos and looking forward to the final one!

[@Starpotion]

Thank you so much for putting this together. You've been very thorough and meticulous with your coverage of Humongous Entertainment and if anyone was going to cap off the project with a Backyard Sports retrospective I'm glad it was you. That being said, knowing the history of HE this was easily the most depressing one. I don't have any nostalgia whatsoever for Backyard Sports as I never played it, but seeing this franchise go from a passion project to this monster of a cash cow was just disgusting. I can only hope that those early scummvm titles are able to join their other HE siblings on Steam someday.

[@MistressDove]

"COME ON, LET'S GET TOGETHER!" now sparks a fight or flight response in me and it's your fault.

[@mrmozzarellasticks4510]

backyard hockey for the ds was my childhood. i remember playing that on car rides and just around the house whenever i was bored. no matter what that game will forever have a special place in my heart.

[@jasonwoodring4479]

I think undoubtedly, the best and most important feature of the Backyard games was the original cast of players. A diverse group of kids of different sexes, heights, weights, body types, ethnicities, appearances, voices, etc. Really reminds me of the Hey Arnold characters in a lot of ways. Once pro players started getting introduced more, it lost some originality. When the bodies all became similar looking blobs later on, all was lost in terms of what the game was really about: the kids. I think would have been interesting if, say, they just decided to add/rotate new kids to the group each new game as well as a couple more features/minigames. It probably would've disappeared at the same time, or even sooner, but I would certainly have respected it more, cause it would have kept the best part about it.

[@jurassicparklionking]

For backyard football the strategy for offence is to create your own play in which one player runs up the middle and you pass the ball to that player. It works almost every time, and the computer doesn't understand it. For defense the strategy is to again my your own play in which you have two players rushing the quarterback and three covering for pass plays. This also works almost every time.

[@TheAfker]

i only learnt about backyard baseball yestarday after a video of someone playing it popped up in my recommended then today this video popped up, and ive had it playing on and off through out the day. and i got to say man the dedication to go through every game is incredible. it was also strange watching essentially in realtime the slow degredations of a series from much beloved to twisted shadow of itself. one thing for sure, i really want to get back yard baseball (97) and play it for myself

[@scarletrobin]

Baseball was always my favorite sport as a kid and I loved Backyard Baseball but I think I ended up putting the most time into Backyard Soccer; they put so much love into that game. The fact that they included the promotion/relegation system was awesome. 3 different divisions and then a world tournament? It was incredible. And the difficulty would scale up as you progressed to match. It was basically like a dynasty mode crammed into a kids game.

[@brianlevine871]

It took a few breaks, but I just finished watching this video. I gotta admit that the length kind of fits considering how various sporting games last around three to four hours. As I said before, my only experience with this franchise was a demo with the first "Baseball" game, so it was interesting to learn how it lasted over the years. If I were ever given a chance to play any of these games, it'd probably be the "Skateboarding" one. Can't wait for your final ranking video.

[@theghastlygengar]

Seeing this video after Jason Kelce said he wants to buy the rights to this franchise makes me happy

[@stevenioannidis9209]

So glad I came across this video and remember playing so many of these growing up. Lowkey loved baseball 2007 though 😂😂 Awesome video! Congrats on finishing this crazy project.

[@LegoFan9o5]

It's so surreal to be here, watching this video the span of several blockbuster movies on a series I've never so much as sniffed until now. I'd chock it up to your presentation style and dry wit of making the gradual mediocrity of these games relatable even to someone so alien to the series (even if you yourself weren't well engrained as a kid either lol) I think what's going to stick with me from all this is Lisa Crocket. One of the original characters, and probably one of the more emblematic ones as far as the series progressed. From the clearly soft-spoken, I daresay shy but ultimately pleasant character of the first game, we see the eventual dulling of her expression as the series goes on. Much more emotionally inert, the smiling girl with glasses transformed into this hollow, emotionless cypher, with the card descriptions telling of a stickler for the rules that'd you know would make everyone as miserable as she was. The emphasis in her later descriptions of her serious attitude legitimately becomes concerning, culminating with 2:58:37 and the abomination that is "Mad Dog", who I can only best describe as sadistically taking pleasure from the poor souls she was tackling. Also holy shit that character sprite. I must admit I was kinda bummed to hear the Crisis Era didn't keep her around, but a part of me is both relieved and terrified we avoided the scenario of "Mad Dog" appearing in such a hideous style.

[@artemis5151]

I just want to say I really appreciate this series I grew up on these games but left them behind as I got older and it’s been a bit bittersweet to know what happened to the company but watching your series has made me realize just how much these games influenced the game I play today I love playing story driven games especially ones where I get to explore the world around me like Assassins Creed, Uncharted, and Resident Evil and I can’t help but see now how much of an impact Humongous Entertainment had left on me. Sorry this is so long I just enjoy every video in this series and it made me realize just how far I’ve come since I was a kid.

[@SirChumba]

Glad I found this before the season starts, and you’re an absolute madlad for going through every single one. Great video and fly eagles fly 🦅

[@dixienormous4157]

Let’s be real, Pajama Sam will always be the GOAT of humongous entertainment

[@HackieP]

4 hours long?? Mad props Shadow 👏🏻💙💖

[@asaelpolanco8151]

Something that you pretty much forgot on the Backyard Hockey section is that it was Humongous' first game to not use the SCUMM engine. Instead, it was all through Infogrames' YAGA engine, thus explaining the graphics and fast pace. Also, you literally forgot to mention that Backyard Hockey 2005 was the last official Humongous game to use the familiar cursor design that has been in used since the 90's. And as a bonus, a section you forgot was the extremely rare Backyard Sports special that actually aired on TV and it's the closest thing we've literally got for an animated TV series based on a Humongous property. Maybe add that as a bonus section.

[@jasonthorpe7746]

taking me back. I played the absolute hell out of the 2007 GBA versions of Backyard Baseball

[@dillian864]

I'm pretty sure I had the first game growing up! I remember watching over my sibling's shoulder as we all huddled around our bulky PC. Each of us would pick someone to put on the team. Simpler times for sure!

[@donvito4226]

Very impressed with effort that went into this. You've wholeheartedly earned this sub. 👍

[@Whitsoxrule1]

I LOVED Backyard Baseball (2004) on my GameCube as a kid. It was the very first game I can remember playing for actual hours on end. I remember my mom being mad at me for playing it for 6 hours straight. I'm thrilled to see that it held up about as well as any other game from the series. Also, I have to commend you for this tremendous achievement of a video. I can't imagine how long this took you and I assure you that thousands of 90's-00's kids appreciate your retrospective on this staple franchise

[@StarWarsStarTrek42]

Continuous chanting and chatter on the field is a super accurate depiction of being 9 years olds and playing base/softball though

[@TheCrowVarietyShow]

I doubt it will happen, but I'd love to see the original kids and stadiums to make an appearance in MLB The Show when they go public domain. Or better yet and more appropriately, Super Mega Baseball.

[@scottpeltier3977]

Moral of the story. Dont fuck with Pablo if you value being on the winning team. Noted

[@yuki3056]

Thank you for this blast of nostalgia. I played so many of these games growing up.

[@coolmanjack1995]

I love that Backyard hockey 2005 has Jumbo Joe Thornton on the front he's still in the league to this day and had significant playing time last year

[@DrippinginSarcasm]

Man, I didn’t even know about all these different versions. I had the 97 baseball, 04 soccer, and I can’t remember what year of football or hockey. And don’t forget skateboarding. Loved them all.

[@bigradwolf735]

This unlocked so many memories lol, I played the hell out of these games with my cousins as a kid

[@foxincrocs]

I'm overjoyed to learn that Sunny Day's voice actress is in such major roles after this series

[@TwoTailedCaperer]

The OG Backyard Baseball is SOOO nostalgic to me! I remember always splitting up the two twins so they'd have to be bitter rivals. I always picked the little girl with the teddy bear, and there was this exploit during fielding where you can throw the ball back and forth over and over, which would bait the computer player on base to run to the next one and let you score easy outs 😂

[@ispringer1996]

I was so excited for you to talk about GBA Backyard Football 2006 only to have you rip it a new one lol, but it is probably deserved, I have no other backyard football experience to compare it to. I do remember being able to abuse the plays and the AI defense pretty easily. It has a great song for the title screen though.

[@kendallmonge649]

As someone who grew up playing MANY of these games, wow. I absolutely loved this video. It was so nostalgic, and such an objective view of a series that was once so great in my eyes. I honestly had no idea they had such a massive downfall, but I stopped playing after the 2006 games; even as an 8-year-old, I found the newer character models uncanny and ugly, and I could feel the series losing its personality. (For the record, I spent most of my time with Football 2002, Soccer 2004, Baseball 2005, and Skateboarding; I legit spent hundreds of hours on those four.) I never knew they made mobile games, and I never knew how awful things got once they started making what basically feels like Wii shovelware. And I never knew so much about the history of Humongous Entertainment, or why they shoveled out so many sports games and stopped making their other games. Kudos to you for spending so much time with these games for the sake of nostalgia, even though I know some of them were aggressively boring. It's rare but always a treat to find videos with this level of depth, history, and fantastic editing and humor. You've earned a subscriber.

[@moperry8399]

Watched this whole thing yesterday, and I just remembered that there are actually more that you didn't cover. There's at least one Backyard Sports combo plug-n-play game. Mine has Soccer (for sure) and I think baseball. I don't remember either one having any pro players in them, so I'm pretty sure each game is the first version of the sport in question. I don't remember liking them much, but I was coming from the PC releases, so that was beyond a losing battle.

[@LifeintheHammerLane]

I wanted to come back after I finished and comment because this was absolutely worth it. This was really informative and you did a lot of research. It was a very interesting story. I owned the original baseball and football releases on the GBA and had a lot of fun with them. It's such a shame what happened to the original developers. Idk how I would be able to see something I put love and creativity into like this get completely desecrated.

[@GurahkWeavile]

Oh man the nostalgia. I really miss these games and I would love to see them come back. Just as long as they don't do what they did in the later years...

[@DictatorAtWill]

There's something horrifying about seeing those kids holding the bat behind their backs...

[@WaddleDee105]

What's horrifying about it?

[@davidpasterchek7454]

Great video man worth the hard worked brought back lots of memories thanks

[@kaylemathewcomendador6964]

Wow, that’s a lot of time and dedication you put into this Humongous game series alone. That’s really impressive, especially with how it looked like it got kind of tiring for you near the end. No wonder it took longer than expected. You got quite thorough with them. I think the only one I can think of that you missed are a few plug n play ports. All I can note about those games is that they have quite the limitations, especially when it comes to the sprites. Like there are some players that share bodies, and they look pretty off putting. Dimitri shares Pablo’s body with him in the port of Backyard Baseball there, and I have a hard time unseeing that. Did you also notice the TV special called “Backyard Basics”? It basically looks like the only TV related Humongous product that came to fruition. It looks like a standard football educational video with football pros, but with the occasional animated segments with the Backyard kids. I feel like they could have done more with the animated segments with the kids, as most of them don’t really do much in the special. It’s mostly pros teaching football, with Sunny and Chuck occasionally stepping in. I’m curious to see what you think about it, as I didn’t notice you mention it here or in your Humongous history video. And yeah, I really don’t see how someone could make a movie with this series. What could it even be about? A Pablo Sanchez origin story? At most, I can see the Backyard kids in slice of life “Peanuts” like TV special or series. Excellent video overall. Hope you have a good time with your ranking video.

[@seankim8908]

I just read the description, but more than one year in the making??? You sure are dedicated!

[@logicallgaming]

The original Backyard basketball game was my first Backyard Sports game and I absolutely fell in love. Then I begun collecting them.

[@guyonyoutube3850]

It's honestley depressing to see the art just get worse as the series goes on

[@drewbarton196]

Viewer: Shadow Streak, what are you doing? Shadow Streak: Making a video about Backyard Sports. V: It’s nearly 4 hours long. Why on earth are you making a video about Backyard Sports? SS: Because I lost control of my life.