Backyard Football (1999 video game)

Backyard Football

Cover art
Developer(s) Humongous
Publisher(s) GT Interactive
Series Backyard Football
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Macintosh
Release date(s) 1999
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single-player
Multiplayer
Distribution CD-ROM

Backyard Football is a football video game released by Humongous Entertainment in 1999. The game was the third Backyard game released by Humongous Entertainment, preceded by Backyard Soccer and Backyard Baseball. It is the first of all of the Backyard Sports series to consist of the Backyard kids and professional players as kids.

Gameplay

There are three types of gameplay available in Backyard football. The first one is a single game. At the single game screen the player can select the field on which he wishes to play, the weather (between sunny, where the players are able to run very quickly; rainy, in which the players are slowed somewhat and the ball is difficult to throw; and snowy, where players are slowed considerably), and the level of difficulty (between easy, medium, and hard), among various other minor settings. They then pick their team name, which can be any of the then-31 NFL teams and ten backyard teams. When the team is chosen, a player would take turns choosing players with the CPU. There are a total of seven players on a team, two of which will be on the bench while five get to see action. The statistics of a player in single game mode have no effect on a player's statistics in season play.

The second type of gameplay is season mode. The player selects their coach name, settings, and team before the season and drafts all seven of their players before the CPU picks any for the rest of the computer controlled teams in the league. The coach guides their team through a 14 game season, at the end of which if they are to win their division or be picked as the wild card, the team will compete in the playoffs. Eight teams, four from each conference, compete in three rounds of games to determine the winner of the "Super Colossal Cereal Bowl" (which is a spoof of the Super Bowl in the NFL).

The third type of gameplay is online play. Backyard Football is the only game along with Backyard Baseball 2001 that offers online play with players across the globe. Online play is hosted through the Junior Sports Network, online play that is only available for Windows users, since the network system does not support Macintosh. Since www.jrsn.com has been discontinued, no new coach names may be registered to play online. While doing online play, the player may make contact with another coach online. They may then chat with each other with only pre-written dialogue, since the network is not being monitored to make sure no innapropriate language is used. Like Backyard Baseball 2001, there are three modes of difficulty: Easy, Medium, and Hard. The harder the difficulty, it becomes less likely that the players out on the field are going to make magnificent plays to "bail the coach out".

Stats

The stats of a player are divided into five categories, each category offering a skill rating of 1 to 4, showing the player's skill at a certain category.

Throwing: Shows the ability of the player to throw the ball over a distance and how accurate the pass is likely to be.

Catching: Shows the player's catching skills. A player with high catching skills is good at catching passes and is also less likely to fumble when running with the ball.

Running: Shows the speed of the player. In general, players with higher speed ratings will be faster, but a player with a rating of three might be as fast as a player with a rating of four, showing that all players with the same listed speed will not run at the same speed.

Blocking: Shows the player's ability to block an opposing player, or how strong the player is at knocking down another blocker. A player with higher blocking skills is more likely to consistently tackle opponents while in pursuit and will also have a greater chance of forcing a fumble when tackling a player, or sacking the quarterback if the player in question is a lineman. Additionally, a higher blocking rating allows players to run straight through defenders at times.

Kicking: Shows either the player's power when delivering a kick, or accuracy when attempting a field goal or PAT (point after Touchdown.)

Cheats

There are three known cheats for Backyard Football.

The first one is to hear Pablo Sanchez (a Spanish-speaking player) speak in English. Like in Backyard Baseball, Backyard Soccer and Backyard Baseball 2001, a player must hold shift and enter and click on Pablo's portrait to hear him talk in English.

The second one is to have the player's team be the Tackling Dummies. The Tackling Dummies are a team of Mr. Clanky and his practice bots used by a player when they perform a practice mode. When entering a coach name, the player must enter the name in as "Mr. Clanky". After this, all of the league setup options and the team pickings are skipped, and the Tackling Dummies are the player's team.

The third, which could be considered more of a glitch in the game's programming than a cheat, is the ability to move around with the arrow keys at times when it would not normally be allowed according to the game's rules.

Pro Kids

There are eight professional football players portrayed as kids in Backyard Football, whose names, teams, and positions are listed below:

References