Backyard Baseball 2005

About Backyard Baseball 2005

Backyard Baseball 2005 is an arcade baseball game featuring a group of 30 children players known as the "Backyard Kids" and 16 real-life Major League Baseball players (ten in the original GameCube release) as kids. As with past Backyard Baseball games, players can play a single game or a season mode, the latter which sees players guides a team though a "Backyard Baseball League" season in hopes of winning enough games to reach the playoffs and ultimately win the "Backyard World Series" like with past MLB-licensed games in the series. A spectator mode is also available like with past games. Additionally, the batting practice mode of previous games is replaced with a Home Run Derby mode, in which up to eight kids compete in hitting home runs from robot pitcher Mr. Clanky. In the PS2 and Windows versions, a fielding tutorial called "Clanky's Coaching Box" and two new minigames, Fielder's Challenge and Baseball Darts, are also added. Furthermore, the non-GameCube versions give players the option to play at night on most fields for the first time.

Due to the switch to 3D, runners are now able to lead off their base and pitchers are able to pickoff runners. (In the previous SCUMM games, base stealing was simply a toggle command that only occurred after a ball or a non-fouled strike was pitched, with only the catcher attempting to pickoff runners.) Along with getting strikeouts, double plays, triple plays, or hits on power-up pitches as with previous games, players can also earn power-ups for pitching a hitless inning or making a diving catch.

Custom players, which were introduced to Backyard Sports in Backyard Football (1999) and to the Backyard Baseball series in Backyard Baseball 2001 (2000), can also earn additional skill points if they accomplish specific achievements in a game (a feature first introduced in Backyard Football 2002 ), and teams can have multiple custom players (a feature first introduced in Backyard Basketball ).