After more than two decades, Playground Productions and Mega Cat Studios announced Humongous Entertainment’sBackyard Baseball 2001is making a comeback on modern platforms asBackyard Baseball ‘01.Backyard Baseball ‘01is an enhanced remaster forPCand mobile with the same content and officially licensed MLB athletes that players enjoyed in the original sequel toBackyard Baseball ‘97andBackyard Baseball ‘98.
AlthoughMLB The Showis the main officially licensed gaming series for MLB,Backyard Baseballcaptured the hearts of many young PC gamers well before the firstMLB The Showgame was released in 2006.Backyard Baseballlets players build a dream team of MLB athletes for a game or an entire season. Several MLB legends are “Backyardified” as young kids wanting to make a name for themselves, and it’s up to players to guide them with strategies to win the championship. To celebrate the game’s 25th anniversary,Backyard Baseball ‘01is making a comeback on PC and mobile devices.
Playground Productions will releaseBackyard Baseball ‘01on July 8 as a remaster of the 2000 PC baseball game, noting that it’s been “enhanced” to run on PC and mobile. TheclassicBackyard Baseballgamewill feature 30 Backyard kids, 28 legendary MLB players, MLB Team Marks, bloopers, eight classic ballparks, nine pitching power-ups and four batting power-ups, and commentary from Sunny Day and Vinnie. Players can also choose a batter and face Mr. Clanky to get batting practice, allowing them to improve their skills before attempting to tackle a full season.
Backyard Baseball ‘01is Coming to PC and Mobile on July 8
Returning MLB players and legendsforBackyard Baseball ‘01include Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Cal Ripken Jr., Sammy Sosa, Mike Piazza, Randy Johnson, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Bagwell, Jason Giambi, Chipper Jones, Jeromy Burnitz, Mark McGwire, Shawn Green, Vladimir Guerrero, Kenny Lofton, Jason Kendall, Barry Larkin, Marty Cordova, Mo Vaughn, Raul Mondesi, Curt Schilling, Alex Gonzalez, Juan Gonzalez, Larry Walker, Carlos Beltran, Tony Gwynn, Ivan Rodriguez, and Jose Canseco. These players are playable in a variety of modes, including Single Game, Random Pick-up, and Season. Seasons play out over 14 games in single-player, and the best two teams will advance to the BBL playoffs in a best of three series. Players who keep winning can compete in the Super Entire Nation Tournament and Ultra Grand Championship of the Universe Series.
According to Playground Productions, many fans have asked for accessible and legal methods for playing the originalBackyardgames. However, there were some limitations to consider, since the developers didn’t have access to the original source code. As a result,Backyard Baseball ‘01is not playable on modern macOS platforms, as the operating system can’t execute the game’s binaries. However, the PC version runs well on Windows and supports Steam achievements. Bonus features were also teased, but details on these features were not revealed yet. Fortunately, the possibility of console releases still remains, as previously shown withthe release ofBackyard Baseball ‘97on Switch and PS5.
