Last week I met with Atari and one of the developers of the new Backyard Sports game, Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers. Parents, you might recognize the Backyard Sports name because they are one of the most successful kids’ sports game series and have been churning out games year after year. Unfortunately, the games were starting to move farther and farther away from what made the original Backyard Sports so much fun for kids. So Atari has taken a play from Hollywood’s playbook and treated the series to a reboot with the all-new, Sandlot Sluggers.
Sandlot Sluggers takes the game back to basics with kids playing baseball in their backyards. The game’s creators have also added in some over-the-top power-ups and highly intuitive game controls that make this a fresh and exciting game that players of varying skills can enjoy together. Speaking of power-ups, Atari knows what kids want and gross-out humor is at the top of the list so one power-up is Booger Pitch, which when used, will coat your TV screen with slime making it hard for the batter to see and hit the ball.
Sandlot Sluggers is filled with funny moments that even adults will crack up when seeing. It also packs in some pretty advanced technology to create a highly visual game loaded with details, imaginative settings and plenty of customization options.
Look for Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers in stores on May 25. The game will be rated Everyone and available on DS, Wii and Xbox360.