''Backyard Soccer'', known in Europe as ''Backyard Football'' (PC) or ''Junior Sports Football'' (PlayStation) and in Australia as ''Junior Sports Soccer'', is a children's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

video game developed and published by

Humongous Entertainment Humongous, Inc. (formerly Humongous Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company developed multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt' ...

; 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 Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, in 2001 for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

, and in 2008 for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. The PC and PlayStation versions of the game, alongside the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

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 Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and the USWNT; the sequels were '' Backyard Soccer MLS Edition'', released in 2000 and ''Backyard Soccer 2004'', released in 2003. A remastered version of the game entitled ''Backyard Soccer '98'' was released for Windows via

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

on November 27, 2024, becoming the second remaster in the ''Backyard Sports'' franchise after its 2024 reboot, following '' Backyard Baseball '97'' the previous month and preceding four more remasters.

Gameplay

''Backyard Soccer'' is a 6-a-side soccer video game with hybrid youth and professional soccer rules. The game has five modes: "

Pick-Up Game In sports and video games, a pick-up game (also known as a ''scratch game'' or ''PUG'') is a game that has been spontaneously started by a group of players. Players are generally invited to show up beforehand, but unlike exhibition games, there ...

", "Friendly Match", "Practice Penalty Kicks", "Spectator" and "League Play". The

version also includes an additional "Beach Tournament" mode. 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 Indoor soccer or arena soccer is a form of five-a-side football, five-a-side or six-a-side version of minifootball. It is derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arenas. It differs from the FIFA, FIFA ...

tournament. After winning the Premier Division, the player's team will be invited to represent the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cups Tournament (a spoof of the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

). 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: * Cannon - the player launches a fast and powerful shot. * Underground - the ball goes underground and pops up in a random place. * Bowling Ball - the ball transforms into a giant

bowling ball A bowling ball is a hard spherical ball used to knock down bowling pins in the sport of bowling. Balls used in ten-pin bowling and American nine-pin bowling traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb. Balls used in five-pin bowlin ...

knocking over any opposing players. * Tracer - the ball is controlled using the cursor and the players click where they want the ball to go.

Reception

''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 RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

'' was critical to the controls for the PC version. ''PSX Nation'' gave the game a score of 49 out of 100.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Humongous, state=collapsed 1998 video games Association football video games Backyard Sports Classic Mac OS games Humongous Entertainment games Infogrames games IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation (console) games Runecraft (company) games SCUMM games Video games developed in the United States Video games with commentaries Windows games