Backyard Basketball
| Backyard Basketball | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Humongous Entertainment (PC, Mac) |
| Publisher(s) |
Infogrames Entertainment SA Atari (PS2, GBA) |
| Series | Backyard Sports |
| Engine | ScummVM |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance |
| Release date(s) | 2001 (PC, Mac) 2003 (PS2) 2004 (GBA) |
| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Backyard Basketball 2007 | |
|---|---|
Windows Cover art
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| Developer(s) | Mistic Software Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Atari |
| Series | Backyard Sports |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube (Cancelled) Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Sports game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Backyard Basketball is an entry into the Backyard Sports franchise of video games. Originally developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Infogrames Entertainment SA, the game was released for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh platforms in 2001. Since its original release, the game has been ported to a variety of consoles, each sporting different characters and slightly altered gameplay mechanics. As with the other entries into the Backyard Sports franchise, Backyard Basketball has received notoriety for its inclusion of pro basketball players as playable characters. The first incarnation of the game included Kevin Garnett and Lisa Leslie. The most recent release includes Stephen Curry as its mascot.
Backyard Basketball offers two primary modes of gameplay: Single Game, which allows the player to select a team to compete against a computer-controlled team, and Season Play, which allows the player to select a team to compete against a series of computer-controlled teams over an 18-game season, including two best-of-three playoff series and a best-of-five championship series should the player achieve a large number of victories. The Single Game mode also allows the player to compete against a second player or to practice using a single character.
Before games can occur, the player has the option to modify a variety of settings. These include court selection, A.I. difficulty (easy, medium, or hard), the presence of certain rules (fouls, fatigue, violations, shot control, and power-ups), sound options (game music, background sounds, and in-game dialogue), controls, and team names. Team modification also involves the customization of jerseys.
The game’s controls are set to mouse usage by default, capitalizing on a point & click style of gameplay to move characters around. The game is also compatible with keyboards and game pads.
The selection of team members follows one of two settings: First Five Picks, which allows each player to select their team members freely, or Full Draft, which forces each player to select their team members one at a time in an alternating fashion. Each potential team member, including younger versions of Kevin Garnett and Lisa Leslie, is ranked according to five statistics operating on a 1 to 10 scale. These include Inside Shooting (the relative accuracy of the character’s shot from inside the three-point line), Outside Shooting (the relative accuracy of the character’s shot from beyond the three-point line), Ballhandling (the relative likelihood that the character will not have the ball stolen or blocked on offense), Defense (the relative likelihood that the character will be able to steal or block the ball on defense), and Quickness (the relative speed at which the character moves along the court). Players also have the option to customize rookie characters with either manually chosen or randomly allocated statistics, as well as heights, skin tones, shooting hands, birthdays, and names. Although rookie characters generally have lower overall statistics compared to pre-rendered players, they have the additional ability to increase all of their statistics by three levels should the player’s team make the playoffs in Season Play.
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Wikipedia