backyard baseball 2007
After making several appearances on various gaming systems last year, Backyard Sports Baseball 2007 has finally been released for the GameCube. This GameCube 2007 version is identical to these previous releases.
Backyard Sports is a line of sport simulation games designed for children. Originally designed by Humongous, this series was then owned by Infogrames, finally going under the Atari banner when Infogrames bought up Atari. Despite these many changes in ownership, the series’ vision hasn’t changed: to provide an enjoyable and playable electronic sports game for kids.
This edition of Backyard Sports Baseball is essentially the same as previous editions, with minor changes in the graphics. It’s been a few years since I reviewed the previous 2004 version, so I can’t remember if the control options have changed. I can say, however, that the control response seems to have changed, and not for the better. More on that later.
Backyard Sport Baseball 2007 Gamecube Importazione Usa Eur 58,04
The beginning setup of the game is the same, with various modes available for single pickup games for one or two players, a season mode for one player, and a couple of mini-games. Players can choose their own players for their teams, either with pre-designed characters or player-designed characters. As always, there are a few MLB stars included; this time around they include Albert Pujols, Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Jeter and others. The pre-designed characters each have distinctive traits and talents, which are also affected by their teammates, depending on if these teammates’ traits are compatible or not. If players don’t want to choose each team member, they can opt for the automated roster lineup.
There are three difficulty levels, but even the easiest level doesn’t help the younger players that much. For reasons due mostly to badly designed controls, it’s hard playing this game, harder than in the previous edition. Specifically, the outfielders are amazingly slow when running to catch a ball, the batting is tough on all levels, and too often the computer doesn’t register events like catching a ball in the air.
I know this game is hard, because I tested it on my husband (sport sim expert and all-sports real-life jock) before I played, for comparison purposes against my own play. Well, let’s suffice to say he had some interesting comments. He began play in the outfield, and was not happy with his fielders, who all ran like snails. He became really unhappy when the centerfielder clearly caught a ball, but the computer didn’t realize it and the runner made it to first. Then, it was his time to bat. Well, that wasn’t much better. He didn’t like the shadow image of the bat that showed where to hit the ball, because he couldn’t see the ball coming in very well. He tried to change the setting, only to discover that the control options weren’t accessible from the Pause Menu, contrary to what the manual stated. In reality, you can only set the control settings before the game. He restarted the game, changed the options and discovered that he had been playing the hardest difficulty level, so he tried the easiest level next.
Backyard Sports Baseball 2007 (backyard Baseball 2007)
This didn’t change things much. It made the batting a little easier, but he still often missed the ball. The fielding was still very slow and the computer still made mistakes. And, to top it off, the computer players were always much better at batting and fielding. Their fielders ran faster, and always knew where the ball was.
These sluggish and buggy controls are a shame, because the game itself has a lot of charm, is cute to look at, and the characters are more interesting, as they’ve been drawn to appear older and leaner. There are a ton of options in the controls such as autofielding, onscreen control displays, chatter, and many others. There are lots of different options for single and multi-player modes, and extras like game stats and even Power-ups. These power-ups are fun, but don’t really help the gameplay as such, because of the difficulty in controls overall.
The bottom line with this edition of Backyard Sports Baseball is that it has become a little harder for the younger players because of the twitchy controls, and the fact that there isn’t a tutorial in the beginning to learn all the controls. Mario Superstar Baseball was easier to pick up and play for all ages, which shouldn’t be, as this is a kid’s game designed especially for kids. And, the mistakes in the outfield are frustrating and happen much too often.
Backyard Baseball 07
Gameplay:6.5 The gameplay has the same design as all the Backyard games and should be fun, but the control system makes everything too frustrating, and the computer team will win most of the time, even on the easiest level. Kids don’t like to lose, and I don’t, either.
Overall:6.8 A good series that has better editions than this one. At first glance, this edition looks good because of new MLB characters, and older looking kids. However, the controls and the unfair edge that the computer has makes for some frustrating play, especially for young players.
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