History Videogame / BackyardSports

* OneSteveLimit: Happens in the original ''Baseball'' and ''Soccer''. Averted in the later games, due to the pros -- I.e. Lisa Leslie and Crocket in ''Basketball''.

* OldSaveBonus: Having a ''Basketball'' [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] save file unlocks Barry Dejay in ''Baseball'' [=PS2=].

''Backyard Sports'', formerly called ''Junior Sports'', is a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sports]] video game series originally made by Creator/HumongousEntertainment, which was later bought by Creator/{{Atari}}. It is currently owned by [=Day6=] Sports Group, who has since rebooted it as a MobilePhoneGame series, which is far from the series' original computer game roots. It is the only game series that had licensing from all the major professional sports leagues in North America: UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball, UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer, the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague, the UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation, and the UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague.

* {{Feelies}}: Earlier installments came with promotional cards of the Backyard kids and pros. The ones that came with ''Baseball'' were an ObviousBeta, however, as some kids' clothes are differently colored, and their pitching and fielding stats are inaccurate and labeled as "Throwing" and "Catching".

[[caption-width-right:350:[[AirGuitar Just for the]] RuleOfFun.]]

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: 13 characters.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HelloInsertNameHere

* MakeMeWannaShout: The Screaming Line Drive in ''Baseball''.

-->--'''Sunny Day'''

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When creating teams in Versus mode, picking one of the Webber twins or the Khan brothers will result in the computer selecting the other on the very next turn. Every time. In Baseball, the AI is also capable of having created kids who have almost all stats maxed out, which is impossible to do without the cheat character Lemon Boy. The AI is also has access to pitches not available to the player, such as sliders and sinkers.
** Oddly enough, it gets inverted if you choose either Sally or Ronny: the computer will chose the other one, despite Ronny actually having decreased stats if you pair him with his sister.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When creating teams in Versus mode, picking one of the Webber twins or the Khan brothers will result in the computer selecting the other on the very next turn. Every time. In Baseball, the AI is also capable of having created kids who have almost all stats maxed out, which is impossible to do without the cheat character Lemon Boy. The AI is also has access to pitches not available to the player, such as sliders, cutters and even sinkers.

* TropeCoTropeOfTheWeek: The fictional brand 110% Juice sponsors the Player of the Game segment.

* ClockTower: There is one in the neighborhood in ''Backyard Skateboarding''.

** In ''Hockey 2005'', one can find [[VideoGame/FreddiFish Freddi Fish and Luther]] frozen under the ice in Mammoth Cave.

* WolverinePublicity: The pros. This was actually a bit gradual though; in the original ''Football'', Steve Young is on the cover, but Jocinda and Amir are front and center while Steve hangs in the background. Then on ''Baseball 2001'', Cal Ripken is the most predominant character on the cover, but Stephanie still stands out quite a bit, so it's about half-and-half. ''Soccer MLS Edition'' is where this starts to kick in though -- Brandi Chastain and Cobi Jones now are front and center on the cover while Reese sort of floats in the background. Then comes ''Basketball'' where a single pro takes up more than half the boxart complete with his real-life portrait next to him, while some random Backyard Kid floats off in the background. And finally with ''Basketball 2004'', there aren't ''any'' Backyard Kids at all on the cover...then it somehow manages to escalate even more with ''Skateboarding GOTY'' where Andy [=MacDonald=] is the ''only kid present across the entire box.'' Yes, that includes the back of it too! Either way, the pros gradually took up more and more of the advertising until one has to wonder if the marketing team even remembered the Backyard Kids were in the game too, even though they always represent half (or more) of the cast.

* GenderEqualEnsemble: The Backyard Kids consist of fifteen boys and fifteen girls.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When creating teams in Versus mode, picking one of the Webber twins or the Khan brothers will result in the computer selecting the other on the very next turn. Every time. In Baseball, the AI is also capable of having created kids who have almost all stats maxed out, which is impossible to do without the cheat character Lemon Boy.

* AscendedExtra: In ''Baseball'', Vinny the Gooch mentions a former Rockets player named Joey [=MacAdoo=]. Nine years later, Joey is one of the new Backyard Kids.

* CommutingOnABus: Amir, Gretchen, and Stephanie in ''Backyard Baseball 2007''.

* FiveTokenBand: The series featured 30 characters and lot of them were ethnic, so most of the time you could make your team like this trope. These included nine blacks (Keisha, Jocinda, Dante, Stephanie, the Dobbs, Mikey, Ricky, and Ernie), three Hispanics (Maria, Jorge, and Pablo), three Asians (Luanne and the Kawaguchis), two Arabs (the Khans), and thirteen whites (Annie, Billy Jean, the Webbers, the Delvecchios, Lisa, Dmitri, Gretchen, Kimmy, Pete, Reese, and Marky).

* GeographicFlexibility: The Neighborhood changes in every game.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Every playable character has one.
** When the games went 3D, each character got a ''new'' leitmotif... except Pablo.

* RecycledSoundtrack

* SpotlightStealingSquad: The pros, again.
** As of ''Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers'', they were gone until the handheld games in 2015.

* WolverinePublicity: Oooooh boy, the pros. This was actually a bit gradual though; in the original ''Football'', Steve Young is on the cover, but Jocinda and Amir are front and center while Steve hangs in the background. Then on ''Baseball 2001'', Cal Ripken is the most predominant character on the cover, but Stephanie still stands out quite a bit, so it's about half-and-half. ''Soccer MLS Edition'' is where this starts to kick in though -- Brandi Chastain and Cobi Jones now are front and center on the cover while Reese sort of floats in the background. Then comes ''Basketball'' where a single pro takes up more than half the boxart complete with his real-life portrait next to him, while some random Backyard Kid floats off in the background. And finally with ''Basketball 2004'', there aren't ''any'' Backyard Kids at all on the cover...then it somehow manages to escalate even more with ''Skateboarding GOTY'' where Andy [=MacDonald=] is the ''only kid present across the entire box.'' Yes, that includes the back of it too! Either way, the pros gradually took up more and more of the advertising until one has to wonder if the marketing team even remembered the Backyard Kids were in the game too, even though they always represent half (or more) of the cast.

In April 2016, Cross Creek Pictures and Crystal City Entertainment [[http://deadline.com/2016/03/backyard-sports-movie-video-game-cross-creek-pictures-crystal-city-entertainment-1201728717/ acquired the film rights to the series]], though nothing ever came of it.

* GenreBusting: The series in its early days runs on the SCUMM[[note]]Script Creation Utility for ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion''[[/note]] engine, mostly used for Creator/LucasArts adventure games and the other Creator/HumongousEntertainment series. While the point-and-click aspect remains, mainly for menu selection and player drafting, seeing an adventure game engine run a sports game seems ''bizarre.''

In April 2016, Cross Creek Pictures and Crystal City Entertainment [[http://deadline.com/2016/03/backyard-sports-movie-video-game-cross-creek-pictures-crystal-city-entertainment-1201728717/ acquired the film rights to the series]].