Season mode has also done away with the standard create-a-team aspect that used to be a staple of the series. Pick-up is essentially the exhibition game mode, but it is confusingly missing a true "pick-up" feature - the teams are premade, with each featuring one of the Backyard characters. The game features four main modes: Pick-up, Season, Story and Multiplayer. So, it seems like the developers of the game have acknowledged this by taking a much different direction.
The original charm of this series has been rapidly declining over the past few years. I am guessing that this was a marketing-driven decision, but it is one with little consequence. Instead, they look like tweens who have been freshly plucked from the Disney channel. For example, the original characters no longer look like cute elementary kids. In fact, the whole game features a design that is less cartoon-like than in past editions. Speaking of these personalities (like Pablo Sanchez), they are back, but they have kind of grown up. Beyond the typical Backyard personalities, you will now get random and generic kids. This is not detrimental to the gameplay, but it certainly does eliminate a good deal of fun and character from the experience. In all, not much fun.įirst things first, the young MLB stars have been removed from the game - this was probably my favorite part about previous games in the series. Nevertheless, it fits right in with the more recent versions of the Backyard sports games and Wii baseball titles: plenty of potential, lackluster graphics and terrible controls.
This year's version, Backyard Sports Sandlot Sluggers, takes a different approach. However, this game did not transition well to the current generation of consoles because clunky gameplay and basic 3-D graphics stripped the series of its charm and luster. This concept, along with a diverse group of original kid "characters," made Backyard Baseball incredibly appealing for adults and children alike. There was a time when the Backyard Baseball games, mostly on the PC/Mac, were charming and stylistic, capturing baseball at a basic level while incorporating real-life pros as kids. The Backyard Baseball series is just one of many that has failed to impress on the Wii.
All of the other Wii baseball games, even those in the "sim" category, have ranged from disappointing to nearly unplayable. There are plenty of baseball games on the Wii, but the console has really only produced two quality titles: Wii Sports Baseball and MLB Power Pros.