''Backyard Soccer'', known in Europe as ''Backyard Football'' (PC) or ''Junior Sports Football'' (PlayStation) and in Australia as ''Junior Sports Soccer'', is an association football video game in the ''

Backyard Sports series ''Backyard Sports'' (originally branded as ''Junior Sports'') is a video game series released for consoles, computers and mobile devices. The series is best known for starring kid-sized versions of popular professional sports stars, such as Albe ...

'', developed 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 published by Infogrames. It was first released in September 1998 for Macintosh and

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 ...

, in 2001 for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

, and in 2008 for iOS. The PC and PlayStation versions of the game, alongside the PlayStation 2 version of ''

Backyard Basketball ''Backyard Basketball'' is a series of entries into the ''Backyard Sports'' franchise of video games. The first game was developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Infogrames for Microsoft Windows and Mac platforms in 2001. Additional ...

'', were the only ''Backyard Sports'' titles released in Europe.

Gameplay

The player selects a team, 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. 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: * 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 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 was critical to the controls for PC version.

References

External links

* {{Humongous 1998 video games Humongous Entertainment games Infogrames games Association football video games IOS games Classic Mac OS games Windows games PlayStation (console) games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States