Backyard Baseball 2003

Backyard Baseball 2003 last edited by SpongeBat1 on 01/19/19 01:20PM View full history. Backyard Baseball 2003 is a baseball sim, with characters that are cartoon kids, not realistic player models. While it has a set of fictional kids known to the franchise it also includes a number of real MLB players, as cartoon modeled kids. Backyard Baseball is a game where you can play with the baseball All Stars as kids with little league fields, and your own team to pick and to win games with. Story This game obviously has no story, it is a sports game, but you are trying to win the World Series and draft a champion team.

I am a big fan of the Backyard Baseball series and Backyard Baseball 2003 is one of the more fun entries in the series. Many people do not realize just what a big deal this series was. It lasted for around a decade and showed up on a ton of different systems over the years.

Batter Up!

The point of Backyard Baseball 2003 is to give players the chance to play baseball like they did when they were kids. It is such a clever idea as when it comes to kid sports there is just something so very wholesome, fun and adorable about baseball. While the game is all about kids, it features kid versions of some of the players of the day and that is pretty awesome if you ask me.

Like A Cartoon

One of my favorite aspects of the series is the presentation. I know that you could easily make the argument that Backyard Baseball 2003 does not look a whole lot different from the previous game and that is fair. However, there is so much charm here and I do think that things look that little bit sharper and the kids look awesome and just like the kids you would play with at recess when you were at school.

Speaking of recess that is what the graphics actually remind me of, Recess the TV show. That along with other late 90s early 00s kids shows like All Grown Up.

Step Up To The Mound

While it has a cutesy kind of art style and a look like it is a game for kids. Backyard Baseball 2003 actually plays a really great game of baseball. This is the perfect blend of realistic baseball action and arcade fun and as a result, it is very addictive. No matter if you are pitching or batting, the gameplay is nice and tight and you have plenty of different moves that you can do so you can play the game just the way you want.

Plenty To Do

The main game mode is your season. Here you make up your team and then try to take them to backyard baseball glory. It is awesome how they managed to use actual teams in the game and it does make it that little bit more fun if you ask me. The season is very addictive, but if you want to just jump in and have a quick game you can do that. What is neat about that is you can pick all kinds of options ranging from the park you play in, the difficulty, how long the game lasts and so on.Backyard Baseball 2003 also puts a lot of effort into the actual players. You can customize them if you want and that is cool, but what I really like is the way the game will track stats and it even has a hall of fame which for a stats nerd like me was a lot of fun.

In all, I feel that Backyard Baseball 2003 is another solid entry into the series. It is a fun baseball game and the kid style it has really does have a lot of charm. This is a game that can be found on many old game sites, but even tracking down a physical copy is easy and cheap to do. If you like older baseball games, you know before they got all serious. Backyard Baseball 2003 is one that you will have a lot of fun with.

8/10

Pros:

  • I really do love the presentation
  • Kid versions of the pros are adorable
  • The season mode is very addictive
  • The actual baseball is a lot of fun
  • Getting players into the hall of fame

Cons:

  • Not a whole lot different to the last game
  • Despite the kiddie look, it can be tough
Overall rating: 8
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  1. Backyard Baseball
4.19 / 5 - 348 votes

Description of Backyard Baseball

Read Full Review

Home Run Park

Baseball

Imagine a game where the players play for the love of the game, not the money. A game where multi-million dollar contracts are unknown. A game where everyone gets to play. Imagine a game just like it was with the youthful innocence of a child. This, my friends, is Backyard Baseball. Backyard Baseballtakes you back to when you were a kid, when baseball was a game, and the team was hastily put together among the kids in the neighborhood.

Playing for Real

Humongous Entertainment reached back into the past and captured all those childhood memories of baseball and digitally assembled them into this game. All the details that make the memories real are here - from the kids taunting the pitcher to the child with the asthma inhaler. Do you remember picking teams, taking turns picking from the best players until only the bad players were left? Do you remember picking someone's little brother because his big brother was a good player? It's all here. Nothing was left out.

Players choose from fields such as the sandlot, the urban parking lot, and the rich kid's backyard. Pitchers throw crazy pitches such as the 'Elevator' and the 'Crazy Ball.' Background ambient noises and the taunting by the opposing team add to the rich atmosphere that you can almost smell.

Everything about this game is charming and cute.

Swing and Miss

Gameplay includes all the necessary elements. Pitchers choose the pitch as well as the placement. Hitters swing at the ball and can even see the strike zone. Fielding is accomplished by clicking where you want the ball thrown, and running is as simple as clicking in the direction you want the runner to advance. Everything is here, and everything is easy enough for kids. The pace is a little slow, but not too fast for children. Each batter has a distinct personality - from the boy who hops to the plate to the girl who says 'my game is really tennis, anyway' when she strikes out. I was extremely impressed with all the details of each character.

I have a few complaints about the game. This game doesn't install any files to the hard disk - everything is run from the CD. For some reason, each swing of the bat causes the CD to be read. This makes the animation choppy and the mouse click to hit feels sluggish and unresponsive. While the game is playable with this problem, it makes hitting the ball a little difficult. Instead of getting better the more balls I hit, I never really improved. I think this is because I never was able to time when I hit the mouse button and the player started their swing. That little delay when it read from the CD just ruins the hand/eye coordination.

I tried copying the entire 270MB of CD data to the hard disk to see if that improved performance (note: this is not an option in the install menu, I just copied it by dragging the contents of the CD into a new folder on my hard disk.) It did speed up the game somewhat, but the batting problem didn't improve significantly.

I also encountered one bug: I hit a ball that bounced infield, then over the fence for what should have been a double. The announcer even stated this was a double, but the runner advanced only to first.

Worthy of Praise

This game is terrific and has all the elements of a Gold Medal winner. But I can't do it. The delay in clicking the mouse and the batter swinging the ball just ruins it for me. I still like the game a lot and highly recommend it, but a Gold Medal is for games without such evident flaws. I guess I'm mad because this should have been corrected. Even a little play testing would have shown that this was a problem. Instead, we are left with what could have been a 'Game of the Year,' but instead fails to deliver on one very important game element.

This is still an outstanding game and I recommend it strongly.

Review By GamesDomain

External links

Captures and Snapshots

    Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Comments and reviews

Gus2021-08-090 point

This shit is confusing to do. I wish you could just download the game and run it. No, there's a lot of other things you have to do and nobody has time for that.

Joshua Charles Eckert2021-07-251 point

I’m listening to the meeting hearing for comment.

god2021-05-24-2 points

i love this game

jumbo2021-05-05-8 points

is this legit ??? can i really download it

goat2020-09-301 point

a great GAME!!!!!!

im jeff hello2020-09-11-3 points

I cant get it but i have it on my grandpa's computer.

crawdaddy2020-06-30-1 point

still works.thanks

dilldawg99th2020-06-211 point

how do I play I see no button?

Huddy2020-06-17-2 points

ScummVM doesn't allow the files. Looks like we missed out boys...

Noah_BK2020-05-232 points

Thank you so much for keeping this master piece alive on the internet. I used to play the hell out of this when I was younger. Feels good to relive the nostalgia again.

Dwayne 'the cock' Johnson2020-05-201 point

Wow! What an amazing game!

Bryce2020-05-010 point

I wasn't alive. I'm bored

Jsjdje2020-04-250 point

I love this game

NoodlesLongacre2020-04-201 point

ScummVM isn't seeing the files, and I can't run the ISO version on a 64-bit OS apparently. Can anyone help?

Connor Magline2020-04-15-1 point

This is cool

Daniel2020-04-141 point

Can you play it on your macbook pro?

Backyard Baseball 2003 Lemon Boy

TDAcroaky2020-04-092 points

good game

Doc K2020-04-03-1 point

Love this game as a big kid!

Backyard Baseball 2003 Emulator

Ulane2020-03-29-7 points

What do with ISO now?

jjawwechampein2019-10-244 points

Backyard Baseball 2003 Iso

i like this game because it has cominsens

faggy fag fag2019-09-241 point

i acually really enjoybthis game

curry2019-07-221 point

I like it

bigrickjohson.1.2019-04-29-3 points

i like pickles

im dum2019-04-27-9 points

how do u download again xD

Cascadianranger2019-02-2424 points

For those wondering what to do after downloading, extract the files anyhwere into your C drive (even their own folder) and then add the files through ScummVM and use that to play

derp2018-12-220 point

does this require a cd?

Catbug2018-12-121 point

I agree with wonderwoman, I downloaded it but its just a zip file with a bunch of other files. What do I do now?

The Unknown2018-05-03-5 points

Read the FAQ dude. BTW I found Backyard Baseball 2003 4free on www.pcgamefreetop.net

M2018-04-27-2 points

how do i open these files?

Baseball

nice gamer2018-04-080 point

hello guys but this game is so amazing and addictive game hehehe

WonderMan2018-04-078 points

I downloaded the files but now what?

yeet2018-04-051 point

hello this game is so lit i love it its so cool of fun for a family

barter2018-02-23-2 points

this game is awesome

T.J.2017-10-063 points

I love this game!

tall tyler storm2017-07-117 points

best baseball video game

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