[00:01] athletes put in to be the best at their craft. Those training montages and truth to them. You can't stay stagnant if you want to improve. Sometimes things click and all those hours bear fruit. Others it just doesn't, and the changes
[00:14] end up doing more harm than good. The new Backyard Baseball is the latter. While this series reboot from developer Megaat Studios retains the nostalgic charm of those classic kids sports games, the rest of it falls victim to
[00:26] its own progress. The simplicity of pitching, hitting, and fielding has been needlessly refreshed. In their place are optimized versions that just don't work >> Tries it right up the middle. >> So, while this new backyard baseball
[00:38] might pass the eye test, it falls short of home plate on the things that really matter. >> Three strikes your route. It's rockstar drummer Amir Khan stepping up to bat. >> Amir will do anything to be as cool as
[00:53] many of the tweaks here don't feel like they're able to round the bases because most of the actual hits I've gotten while batting have either been home runs or line drive singles. Now, I'm not tooting my own horn here or anything.
[01:06] defense are set up. >> I got it. I got it. >> And that ball is out of here. >> Hitting in particular is easier than ever, at least compared to how it was in the backyard baseball 97 re-release from
[01:19] 2024, which isn't exactly a good thing. The swing spot assist was less specific back then. It would show you a large circle within the strike zone where the guess where exactly to swing the bat. Here though, you always know the exact
[01:32] course, the old method led to whiffs, but at least the hits you earned were more satisfying and less routine. Hitting does at least get tougher once option, Backyard Legend. That's mainly because the opposing pitches fly at you
[01:47] faster. And since I initially played with a controller on PC, I would move the reticle a hair too slow to account for the increased throw velocity. But keyboard, it's like the difficulty change never happened, and I started
[01:59] >> Where'd the ball go? >> The only way to make batting not be a complete cakewalk is to turn off the swing spot assist entirely. But that presents its own problems. It's nearly impossible to hit a breaking ball
[02:12] because it's so difficult to tell where it'll land in the strike zone. I suppose the only options are extremes. Make things too easy with swing assist or unnecessarily hard without it. There is
[02:24] no middle ground. You're either Babe Ruth or a dazed Wreck League player who just got caught looking at three consecutive right hooks.
[02:36] >> Pitching can go unchecked, too. So much so that anyone I put on the mound starts to look like Greg Maddox reincarnated. At first, I thought this side of the the other team could get a hit off, no matter the type of throw I chose. They
[02:49] still can, don't get me wrong, but it became less frequent after I got the hang of the new pitch release timing system. That's when the blowouts really began. I'm talking about multiple games ending either shutouts or landslide
[03:01] ending either shutouts or landslide winds. 26 to0, 19 to3, you name it. It's one-dimensional position into one that requires a tad more skill, but you can requires a tad more skill, but you can reach the ceiling of it far too quickly.
[03:14] >> It can get so out of hand that once I reach a double- digit lead, I usually start to purposely hit grounders into opposing players just to end the game Baseball still doesn't have a mercy rule to account for this. Do you really want
[03:28] to see little Billy Gene Blackwood curled up in the outfield while Kesha Phillips hits another home run to put her team up 33 to 5? You'd have to the stands yelling at the umpire to end the misery. Fielding feels even worse.
[03:42] If it was anything like it was in 9701, or even the GameCube version from 2003, I wouldn't be as disappointed. In those games, you could at least throw a rocket from right field to first base to try to
[03:54] get an out. Now, it's like your players don't even try. Sure, you can turn off errors to try and minimize mistakes, but even that can't make up for all the slow defensive throws that seem to be embedded in every character. What's even
[04:06] more frustrating is that for some reason you can't make your players run after line drives or pop flies, even though you can force them to sprint and slide when they're base running. Look, I get it. It's more exciting to rack up runs
[04:18] a lot is only enjoyable the first few times. Over the course of a season in league play, it becomes monotonous. Where are the defensive highlights? I'd turning a double play as there is in hitting a walk-off homer. Sadly, it's
[04:34] hard to know because you can't even make those types of runs stopping plays. Here, offense is king and defense is just a silly court gesture everyone tries to ignore. >> Flings it. First base is occupied.
[04:47] >> All of these issues are made glaring because the CPU can't seem to adjust or against your friends in local multiplayer can at least help keep things competitive, but that isn't an option in the seasonl long solo mode
[05:00] that's supposed to be the main attraction here. An online PvP mode was delayed just before release. And these problems might not feel as bad if it against real players could help keep
[05:12] thinking until it arrives. >> A swing and a miss. Two strikes. the most important quality a player should have is. And one trait they'll
[05:25] probably always mention are good fundamentals. Unfortunately, right now, this game's issues are foundational, influencing the rest of its performance in play. Take the wiggle ball mode for example. Apart from the improved art and
[05:38] up from the originals, this is one of the most significant additions to this remake. It's a very different option from the usual 9v9 matches you can find in pickup and league play, instead putting you into a 4v4 game where you
[05:53] have to toss and hit a slippery whiffle ball. a decent option if you don't want to worry about lineup management or pushing through an entire season. But again, the problematic changes to hitting and pitching make it so that the
[06:05] result of each match is pretty much predictable before they begin. >> What a rip. Better take a picture now because that ball is out of here and it >> There are at least some things that these fundamental problems don't affect.
[06:19] No, not the tutorial or the batting only modes. I'm talking about a pretty neat addition called the card shop. It's where you can buy and open three different packs that contain various cards of different characters, items,
[06:31] and offensive moves. Don't worry, there aren't any real money microtransactions even in this version of Backyard Baseball. Instead, you can use tokens you earn by playing through season or quickplay games to purchase them. With
[06:43] the tears of so many defeated children turning the soil of backyard baseball's field into salted earth, The Card Shop is like a patch of freshwater, flushing out some of that grief. Even though it occupies such a small plot, taking a dip
[06:57] every now and then was refreshing, especially because of the remix cards, feature unique character artwork were created by several excellent artists. throughout the series are back, I'll admit I may have taken too much time
[07:13] looking through each one. And yes, you heard me right. You can choose from all 30, I repeat, 30 original backyard baseball kids as soon as you start a team. In addition to the always popular main stays like Pablo Sanchez and
[07:27] Joseinda Smith, you can also pick a few of the generic players from 97 such as Leo Wayne and Chico Papas along with a handful of MLB legends like Vlad >> Ready to take the field. >> Although it isn't quite at the same
[07:42] level of Backyard Baseball01's roster, these familiar names are always welcome and round out an impressive list. >> We have Pete Wheeler stepping up to the plate. Rumor has it that Pete once ran so fast that his shoes fell off.
[07:55] >> It's always pleasant to see familiar faces from your childhood. Even more so if you spend countless hours playing matches and winning championships with them. But with this latest edition of Backyard Baseball, nostalgia is skin
[08:08] deep, lasting as long as a seventh inning stretch. This reboot capitalizes on that affection instead of paying full respect to why it was earned in the first place. The simple joy present in those classic games has been replaced by
[08:20] an unrewarding lopsided easiness in this one. Almost effortless hitting and improved but overpowered pitching turn each match into uncontested near defenseless blowouts that no amount of big names or attractive artwork can
[08:34] paper over. The result is an incomplete onfield experience like a prospect that can't round the bases. And at this point, I'm ready to do what it can't and call this ball game early. For more on this year's sports games, check out our
[08:47] reviews of NBA The Run or EA Sports UFC 6. And for everything else, stick with 6. And for everything else, stick with IGN. Strike three.