| Backyard Soccer | |
| Developer: | Humongous Entertainment |
| Publisher: | Humongous Entertainment |
| Engine: | SCUMM |
| Series: | Backyard Sports |
| Released: | PCPlayStationiOS |
| Genre: | Sports |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Platforms: | Windows, Macintosh, PlayStation, iOS |
Backyard Soccer, known in Europe as Backyard Football (PC)[1] or Junior Sports Football (PlayStation) and in Australia as Junior Sports Soccer, is a children's association football video game developed and published by Humongous Entertainment; Infogrames published the PlayStation version. It is the second game in the Backyard Sports series, following Backyard Baseball. It was first released on September 26, 1998, for Macintosh and Microsoft Windows,[2] in 2001 for the PlayStation, and in 2008 for iOS. The PC and PlayStation versions of the game, alongside the PlayStation 2 version of Backyard Basketball, were the only Backyard Sports titles released in Europe.
The game spawned two sequels, both of which would include players from Major League Soccer and the USWNT; the sequels were Backyard Soccer MLS Edition, released in 2000[3] and Backyard Soccer 2004, released in 2003.[4]
Backyard Soccer is a 6-a-side soccer video game with hybrid youth and professional soccer rules.[2] The game has three modes: "Pick-Up Game", "Friendly Match" and "League Play".
In league play, the player takes a managerial role by selecting 8 players from a pool of 30 Backyard Kids. The team enters the "Backyard Soccer League", aiming to win promotion from the B Division, to the A and then Premier Division. If in the top four by mid-season in any division, the player's team will be invited to the Off-The-Wall Indoor Invitational, an indoor soccer tournament. After winning the Premier Division, the player's team will be invited to represent the United States in the Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cups Tournament (a spoof of the FIFA World Cup). Regardless of the tournament's outcome, the player's team will be placed back in the Premier Division for another chance at the Cup.
There are several power-ups that a team can use. To activate a power-up, the player has to click on the opponent's goal:
Backyard Soccer received moderate reviews. Its gameplay was criticized for the hard-to-use controls for the PC version and long loading time, while its graphics were praised on all platforms. Brad Cook of Allgame was critical to the controls for PC version. PSX Nation gave the game a score of 49 out of 100.[5]