It’s been over a decade since the last Backyard Baseball game was released — and we’re still waiting. However, the wait to play a Backyard Baseball game on modern PCs ended in October 2024. Playground Productions re-released Backyard Baseball ’97, available on Steam. And, let’s just say this re-release brings back all the feels. Here’s our review of Backyard Baseball ’97 (2024).

Back to the Old Days

Right off the bat — yes, the pun is intended — this is not a new game. Rather, it’s simply a re-release of Backyard Baseball ’97, the first game in the iconic series. The title was initially developed by Humongous Entertainment, owned by Infogrames/Atari. This version was re-mastered by Mega Cat Studios, developer of WrestleQuest and Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit.

This is the game where it all started for iconic characters like Pete Wheeler, Kiesha Phillips, and of course, Pablo Sanchez, among others. All the crazy, glitchy kids are in this game. However, this initial installment in 1997 didn’t have any MLB team names or logos, nor players. That’s true in this game.

Backyard Baseball ’97 has several game modes, including batting practice, single-player quick games, and season mode. In season mode, players pick a team and complete a season schedule to advance to the playoffs and hopefully, win the championship.

There are also Achievements to unlock, which include trick shots like hitting a home run in the dumpset in Cement Gardens and a shot in the Steele Stadium pool, and winning it all in the BBL.

Additionally, Backyard Baseball ’97 offers players the chance to make things more (or less) challenging. There are three difficulties: Easy, Medium, and Hard. There’s also an option to add or take away assists. Backyard Baseball ’97 includes regular and tee-ball mode, as well as the ability to keep or take away the “Sweet Spot” indicator, which tips off where the ball will end up.

There’s no online play, something that’s virtually impossible thanks to hardware limitations — which I’ll get to in a minute — but there’s still more than enough to occupy those hardcore fans of the franchise. Or, individuals who just want to have a fun baseball game on the PC.

A Look at the Gameplay

It’s much easier nowadays to appreciate how Humongous nailed Backyard Baseball ’97’s gameplay.

First of all, gameplay works the way it should. Getting out in front on baseball will take them to the pull side, and the opposite applies to balls hit late. There’s also a benefit to change the eye angle on opposing hitters, and mixing speeds. Everything in terms of baseball logic applies to Backyard Baseball ’97, impressive for an arcade game.

That doesn’t mean everything is realistic. Pitching includes those iconic, oddball pitches like spitballs and ‘Elevator’ balls. Strikeouts can unlock these boosts.

Batters, when things are going well offensively, will also gain lightning-fast boosts to aid on offense. It’s all part of the Backyard Baseball experience.

There’s also a ratings system that heavily affects how players perform. And yes, Pablo Sanchez takes the cake among them all.

Yes, fielding can be somewhat of a pain. To catch fly balls, one must click on the black circle indicator of where it will land as soon as possible, to cover ground. Throwing to first, second, or third requires hovering the mouse to the base and click, as opposed to a simple button input on the keyboard.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve played so much MLB The Show over the years that I found it annoying to handle at first. But, it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to get the hang of fielding and baserunning, the latter of which works just like throwing on defense.

New Way to Play, Same Game

For those who played old-school PC games — and I’m talking late-1990s and early-2000s — there’s still a lot of code that will harken back to the old days. There’s an option to save team information and images via PDF, replacing the old method to print out that stuff. And visually, nothing’s been changed.

There’s also that classic box prompt whenever changing systems settings and exiting out of the game.

This shouldn’t come to a shock for at least anyone who paid attention to the game’s development. Playground Productions and Mega Cat Studios stated before the game’s release that the development team doesn’t have access to the source code. Meaning, little to the core of the game can be changed.

That doesn’t mean this game can’t operate with the help of modern devices. It can, and one of the benefits to that is virtually anyone with a computer released over the last decade can run it. Backyard Baseball ’97’s minimum hardware requirements include Windows 10 OS and a AMD Radeon HD 5670 1GB DDR3 Sapphire graphics card. The Radeon HD 5670 was released in 2010.

Backyard Baseball ’97 also offers support for gaming controllers. The Steam listing states that “partial controller support” is active for this game. And based off my testing, there’s really nothing that Xbox controllers can’t handle with this title. A simple tap of A will yield a swing, while the Menu button takes the place of the Escape button on the keyboard.

Additionally, Mega Cat also ensured the game was verified on Steam Deck, offering fans the chance to run it on the go. It doesn’t run on macOS, as it can’t access the game’s binaries. But, the fact Backyard Baseball ’97 is accessible on modern devices with ease is impressive on its own.

Rating

When initially starting my Backyard Baseball ’97 review, I believed this would be both an easy and difficult game to grade.

Aside from minor glitches — I found fielding can be goofy on the AI side — from the original version, the gameplay is unchanged. Which, isn’t a bad thing. Backyard Baseball ’97 had a great mix of fun gameplay that replicated a realistic baseball game, with all of that arcade jazz.

As long as the game felt like it did almost 30 years ago, it would be easy to give it a high score on that part.

The hard part, in my opinion going in, was testing to see how well it would work with modern devices and modern hardware. Needless to say, I found it worked amazingly well.

It’s great to be able to re-experience Backyard Baseball again. And, it appears to be just the start for Playground Productions. Several other Backyard Sports games, including Backyard Baseball ’01, can be wish-listed on Steam.

Rating: 9.5/10

Be sure to check out more of our gaming coverage on New Baseball Media, including our review of Super Mega Baseball 4.