''Backyard Hockey ''is an ice hockey video games series created by

Humongous Entertainment Humongous Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company is best known for developing multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt'', ''Fred ...

and Mistic Software that was published by

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

and Infogrames. It was first released in October 2002 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. Additional titles were released for the Game Boy Advance and

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

. A total of four ''Backyard Hockey'' games have been released, and these include the original ''Backyard Hockey'', ''Backyard Hockey 2005'', ''Backyard Hockey'' for Game Boy Advance, and ''Backyard Hockey'' for Nintendo DS. The original and updated computer releases of ''Backyard Hockey'' were developed solely by Humongous Entertainment, but the two ''Hockey'' games for

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

handhelds were co-developed with Mistic Software. The fourth and final installment on Nintendo DS is regarded to be the first hockey video game released in North America for such platform. In a similar fashion to other titles in the ''Backyard Sports'' series, players create their own teams choosing from more than 30 "neighborhood kids" who each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Players may also choose from several National Hockey League hockey players as children, some of these players are

Steve Yzerman Stephen Gregory Yzerman (; born May 9, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player currently serving as executive vice president and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, with whom he spent all 22 seasons of his NHL playing c ...

, Mike Modano, Joe Sakic, Jaromír Jágr,

Jarome Iginla Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla (; born July 1, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger. He played over 1500 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Br ...

Martin Brodeur Martin Pierre Brodeur (; born May 6, 1972) is a Canadian-American former professional ice hockey goaltender and current team executive. He played 22 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), 21 of them for the New Jersey Devils, with whom ...

, and

Curtis Joseph Curtis Shayne Joseph (né Munro; born April 29, 1967) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former professional player. Nicknamed "Cujo", Joseph was immediately recognizable on the ice for his masks featuring a snarling dog, drawing inspiration fro ...

. In the game players control their character in a game of ice hockey. At random times during a game, power ups appear at center ice. Power ups provide help to the team that secures them such as causing all the players on the opposing team to fall over, or super speed. Unique from most ice hockey games,

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

is not allowed in ''Backyard Hockey'' and very few

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

are called.

Installments

References

Humongous Entertainment games Atari games Game Boy Advance-only games Game Boy Advance games Infogrames games Ice hockey video games Video games developed in Canada Video games developed in the United States Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 2002 Windows games Windows-only games {{Sports-videogame-stub