''Backyard Soccer MLS Edition'' is a children's

soccer 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 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' ...

and released on October 3, 2000, 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

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 ...

as part of the '' Backyard Sports'' series. It is the second game in the ''

Backyard Soccer ''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 video game developed and published by Humongous Ente ...

'' subseries and the fifth ''Backyard Sports'' title overall. Unlike the first ''Backyard Soccer'', this game features

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 ...

(MLS) teams and players, as well as three women from the

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is governed by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central Ameri ...

that won the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted as well as ...

, making this the first time that female professional athletes were represented in the ''Backyard Sports'' series.

Brandi Chastain Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 ...

and

Cobi Jones Cobi N'Gai Jones (born June 16, 1970) is an American former professional soccer player and commentator. He is an analyst for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. He has also been seen on Time Warner Cable SportsNet, Fox Sports, BeIN Sports, the Pac-12 ...

both appear on the game's cover, redrawn as children. A planned release for the

Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...

was cancelled. In 2003, a third ''Backyard Soccer'' title called ''Backyard Soccer 2004'' was released.

Gameplay

The gameplay of ''Backyard Soccer MLS Edition'' is mostly the same as the original ''

'' game, with a few additional features. The biggest addition is the inclusion of 12

players as children, which represent each of the 12 MLS teams, along with three USWNT players. Another new feature is a two-player mode on a single computer which allows players to control their respective teams with either the computer mouse, keyboard, or gamepads.

Development

At the 1999 E3 event,

announced license deals with several professional sports leagues, including

. The following year, ''Backyard Soccer MLS Edition'' was formally announced with the reveal that it would be the first game to include female professional sports players as playable characters. To promote the game, Humongous Entertainment organized a

sweepstakes In the United States, a sweepstake is a type of contest where a prize or prizes may be awarded to a winner or winners. Sweepstakes began as a form of lottery that were tied to products sold. In response, the FCC and FTC refined U.S. broadcast ...

with the top prize being a trip to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and a meeting with

Los Angeles Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

player

Reception

''The Dallas Daily News'' noted that the game only offered three female soccer stars to play as, but they appreciated the game's

replay value Replay value (or, colloquially, replayability) is the potential of a video game or other media products for continued play value after its first completion. Factors that can influence perceived replay value include the game's extra characters, se ...

. ''GameZone'' gave the game an overall score of 8 out of 10, praising its graphics, audio, and overall concept.

References

External links

*
Archived review from GamersPulse.com
{{Humongous 2000 video games Association football video games Backyard Sports Classic Mac OS games Humongous Entertainment games Infogrames games Major League Soccer Multiplayer and single-player video games SCUMM games Video games developed in the United States Video game sequels Video games with commentaries Windows games