It was bound to happen sooner or later, wasn’t it? Backyard Baseball, the OG kingpin of the Backyard Sports empire, is officially stepping up to the plate on Steam.
The re-release, dubbed Backyard Baseball ’97, is set to bat its way into your digital library on the 10th of October.
Now, if none of the things I just mentioned sound familiar to you, don’t worry. Backyard Sports never really reached the stratosphere of Pokémon or SpongeBob. Still, somehow, it’s a series that managed to age like a fine wine.
To catch you up, though, Backyard Sports was many 90s kids’ introduction to arcadey sports bliss. Think of Backyard Baseball as the MLB version of Mario Kart.
The game was a PC gaming phenomenon in its time, and it remained a fan favourite until the dreaded Xbox 360 release that was best left in the past.
But now, with Backyard Baseball ’97, players can return to when the series was in its prime – however, there is a catch.
The team at Mega Cat Studios, which is responsible for bringing this re-release to life, didn’t have access to the original source code.
So what that means is that while this port will bring nostalgia in buckets, it will be as barebones as your inventory after losing all your loot to a surprise boss fight: no gamepad, Steam Deck support, and macOS love.
However, even without all the add-ons we’ve come to expect, it will still be a better experience than trying to dig out your old disc, buy a disc drive, and then pray your modern PC doesn’t just laugh in your face.
So, if you’re ready to relive those backyard glory days, you can wishlist Backyard Baseball ’97 on Steam right now.