Backyard Soccer MLS Edition
Original cover art featuring kid versions of Brandi Chastain and Cobi Jones (both foreground), and Backyard Sports character Reese Worthington (background)
Developer(s)Humongous Entertainment
Publisher(s)Infogrames
SeriesBackyard Sports
EngineSCUMM
Platform(s)Macintosh, Windows
ReleaseOctober 3, 2000[1]
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single-player

Backyard Soccer MLS Edition is a children's soccer video game developed by Humongous Entertainment and released in 2000 as part of the Backyard Sports series.[2] It is the second game in the Backyard Soccer subseries and the fifth Backyard Sports title overall. Unlike the first Backyard Soccer, this game features Major League Soccer (MLS) teams and players,[3] as well as three women from the United States women's national soccer team that won the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup,[2] the first time that female professional athletes were represented in the Backyard Sports series. Aimed at children ages 5 to 10,[2] the game includes international soccer players such as the Dallas Burn's Jason Kreis and female player Brandi Chastain, but with the added twist that all the MLS and USWNT players are drawn as child caricatures in the game.[2][3][4] The game was released for the Macintosh and Windows platforms.[3] A planned release for the Game Boy Color was cancelled.[5]

Gameplay

In the game, players manage a soccer team through a season and participate in matches played against the computer.[3] As the team coach, users also must deal with the rise and fall of individual team member's skills during the season.[3] Players can play with actual teams from the MLS or customize their own team from a pool of twelve MLS and three USWNT players as well as among the thirty "Backyard Kids", the series' own original characters. The game allows users to disable select rules such as offside.[3] The game also offers a two-player mode on a single computer where one player uses the mouse to control their team and the other uses the keyboard.[3]

Reception

The Dallas Daily News noted that the game only offered three female soccer stars to play as, but they appreciated the game's replay value.[3]

References

  1. ↑ . 2000-08-15 https://web.archive.org/web/20000815052909/http://www.humongous.com:80/. Archived from the original on 2000-08-15. Retrieved 2023-06-19. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Female Athletes in New "Backyard" Sports CD-ROM". The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. October 17, 2000. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved Nov 30, 2012. (subscription required)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Johnson, Linda Stallard; Johnson, Rebecca (November 21, 2000). "Electronic adventures: video and computer game reviews". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved Nov 30, 2012. (subscription required)
  4. ↑ "Cool Stuff: Video Game That's Just for Kicks". Los Angeles Daily News. November 7, 2000. Retrieved Nov 30, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Backyard Soccer 2001". IGN. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
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