Finally, the remaining Backyard Sports games released. Basketball '01 and Hockey '02 were surprisingly released for free. Looks like the bundle of all 6 games is $36. Not bad at all!
Showed these to my daughter and she's surprisingly having a good amount of fun. Learning how to use a mouse can be challenging though lol but she still asks to play them again. Hockey '02 was always my favorite! I wish they brought the games up to modern resolutions and aspect ratios, but apparently the source code was lost for them, so this was the best they could do. Still having a lot of fun playing them again!
The new developers said that a brand new title will be released in 2026 and apparently, they have ambitions for a full fledged animated series down the road! I can see it happening though. Keeping the same characters in each game, alongside the real pro athletes, really gave the franchise a unique identity. Anyone who's played the games knows who Pablo Sanchez, Keisha Phillips, Kenny Kawaguchi, and Dmitri Petrovich are. Such a awesome and diverse cast of characters would make for a great animated show!
You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind
