Backyard Baseball ’97 Review

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Fast Facts

Returning to Home Base

Backyard Baseball ‘97 is a modern rerelease of a classic baseball game. It features fan-favourite characters, an extensive single-player campaign and an immense amount of baseball. Does the game stand out in the modern market? Find out in this Rapid Review. 

To begin my adventure into Backyard Baseball ‘97, I chose a team. There is a wide roster of characters, which is great. Each of the characters not only has varied abilities, but they look visually distinct from one another as well. Having such a unique and diverse lineup is a great part of Backyard Baseball ‘97. This is also seen in the story. While very little story content is available, each character has unique quirks which add to their backstory. A pair of brothers like to play on the same team and one character strongly prefers a specific team colour. This content is simple, but it makes the players feel real.

This depth of content continues into the gameplay. For starters, both on offence and defence, I could control various aspects of my team. On offence, I could control whether I stole bases as well as the direction and type of swing I chose. As for defence, I could choose where to position my fielders as well as select between unique pitches. The core gameplay loop is a lot of fun. I will say, however, that I did not find clear ways to improve my gameplay much. Apart from accurately timing swings, and selecting depth that is appropriate to my chosen batter, Backyard Baseball ‘97 does not feature extensive decision-making. I did not mind this, as the game never claimed to be overly mechanically deep, but it did stand out. 

A Journey Through Time

In fact, a lot of things stood out throughout my journey. As I progressed through the single-player campaign, I played as the same team against a variety of different characters. Now, unlike my team, the opponents I faced in this league were not charming or stylized. They often were randomly named characters with little background. This was not an immense issue, but it did make it significantly less satisfying to face off against these players. Moreover, since I used the same team throughout the campaign, I was unable to enjoy learning and leveraging all the varied characters, and I could not adjust my strategy for certain teams. Due to these things, after a while, the journey began to stagnate. 

Another component of this came from the pacing. It seemed like almost every action took longer than it needed to. When pitching, I had to wait for the commentators to finish speaking, watch the catcher slowly throw the ball back to me, and then begin my next pitch. After a ball was hit, I had to manually throw the ball back to the pitcher and then wait a little bit longer before I was able to pitch again. Even before each at-bat, characters had animations before getting ready to swing. Many of these items are charming by themselves, and when playing one or two games, these slowdowns are insignificant. However, throughout the campaign, they frustrated me a lot. Sure, Backyard Baseball ‘97 has ways to skip the introduction and the commentary, but that is not perfect either. I wanted to enjoy these components, yet they just made the game sluggish.

Value for Money

I will say, however, that Backyard Baseball ‘97 provides a lot of value for the price. It has a lengthy single-player mode, character charm, and a wide selection of characters. There is a large variety of different arenas to play on too, which makes Backyard Baseball ‘97 just that much more exciting. There are some great quality-of-life features too. I could easily toggle between options, even in the middle of the game. The animation skip button came in handy and the save feature was excellent. It is even possible to save in the middle of a baseball game, which is a great feature, especially considering the slow pacing of the game. As a whole Backyard Baseball ‘97 comes with a lot of great features. 

I will say though, that the sound design is severely lacking. The at-bat and homerun animations feature a jingle, but apart from that, there is no music. Instead, a handful of voice lines repeat from commentators, teammates, and rivals. Not only were there not enough, as they repeated very often, but they did not replace the music. If nothing revolutionary was happening, the game was silent, which was further disappointing. It was not like the game was truly silent. There is sound throughout a lot of the game, but it was not overly memorable. It largely just felt like noise.

Yet, I would say the exact opposite thing about the visual design. The characters are visually memorable, the stages are nice, it is easy to see the ball, and the art style is consistent over such a wide range of players. Sure, some of the animations take time but they are charming and fun. Backyard Baseball ‘97 is a treat for the eyes, even in the modern era.

Throwing the Third Strike

Overall, I think Backyard Baseball ‘97 is a very fun game. The core gameplay loop is fun. It features a unique roster and a lot of content. Even with all this content, it maintains a low price point. Sure, the game is slow, and it lacks key sound design decisions, but if you can overlook that, there is a ton of charm and style just waiting to be enjoyed. 

4 out of 5

4

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