Backyard Baseball 2001"Interact With Favorite Baseball Heroes" |
||
Click on a thumbnail to enlarge it. Use your browser's "BACK" button to return to this review when done. |
||
Backyard Baseball 2001 is the newest addition to the Junior Sports series developed by Humongous Entertainment. With Backyard Baseball 2001, young coaches between the ages of 5 and 12 will be able to join junior versions of Major League Baseball (MLB) superstars, such as Cal Ripken, Jr., Ivan Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson and Juan Gonzales, as they hit, catch and throw with the Backyard Bunch. Rain or shine, children can play baseball; pick their own team from the Backyard Kids and Major League Baseball players; choose from 30 Major League baseball uniforms and logos; and play a single game, an entire season or online. Humongous Entertainment offers a secure proprietary online gaming network that gives Windows users only the ability to play one-on-one, real-time Backyard Baseball 2001 games against fans across the country. Kids can get the latest Humongous Sports game information, play fun online games and post messages to each other on a safe and secure sports bulletin board at the Humongous Web site which is a great place for both parents and kids to visit http://www.humongous.com. Every day there are new messages, updated coach rankings, games, voting polls, and exciting contests. Kids can check out their favorite pro-sport team's scores, stats, rankings, and current headlines. Price of Backyard Baseball 2001: $19.99; available for PC and Macintosh. Other Junior Sports software includes: Backyard Football and Backyard Soccer. |
||
Backyard Baseball 2001 is part of the Junior Sports series designed for 5 to 12 year-old boys and girls. The series provides all the action and excitement of adult sports games, while easy-to-use controls allow even the littlest athletes to compete in the best of the Backyard Leagues. I have found that most of the software from Humongous is usually appropriate for a wider age range than specified. They are intuitive enough for younger children, with some help from older siblings or parents, and exciting enough for some older children. |
||
|
||
Installation: After clicking Play, a few support files will be installed on your hard drive. The on-screen installation window will direct you through a brief installation process. There are three install options: (1) Minimum--about 6 MB; (2) Maximum--full game installation requiring about 353 MB; (3) Custom--you choose what you want to install. Manual and Help: There is a CD cover/guide that provides some basic information and there is also more detailed technical and game play instructions available as you play. Clubhouse: In the Backyard Baseball Clubhouse, players can choose to play a Single Game, Season Play, Online Play, Cards or visit the Hall of Fame. They can also determine the level of difficulty (easy, medium and hard), the amount of innings, whether to play with errors, choose which field to play on or use the swing spot indicator and pitch locator to make hitting and pitching easier. They then pick the team name, colors and set the roster and positions where each player will be positioned. After scouting their own team and the opponents statistics, they play ball!
Power Ups: This is a fun-filled feature for players at bat. If a batter hits a special pitch, he or she is rewarded with a batting power-up. Batting power-ups improve the batter's statistics for distance, accuracy and ability to hit. There is a maximum of six swings for each power-up. Power Ups include:
Special Pitches: There is something special for pitchers also. The only way to get special pitches is by striking out batters. With every strikeout, kids get a new special pitch or more uses of an existing one. They include:
|
||
Backyard Baseball 20001 is a great way to introduce kids to baseball. This is not a program that kids will use once or twice and then grow tired of. It is a fun game that can be played over and over again. |
||
Windows: Pentium 90, Windows 98/95
with 16MB RAM and 4X CD-ROM. |
||
Scanner:
Hewlett Packard ScanJet 6250C Professional Series
Web Page Editor: Macromedia Dreamweaver 3.0 Graphics: Adobe Photoshop 5.5; Alien Skin Xenofex |
||