The Backyard series of breaks from its usual offering of child-friendly traditional sports games to deliver this "extreme sports" title for younger players. In Backyard Skateboarding, players can skateboard as one of ten "Backyard Kids" characters, or create a custom skater from scratch. There are three main modes of play, "Play Now," "Free Skate," and "Tour Mode," and a number of two-player mini-games are included as well. As in other "Backyard" releases, the game features a "kid version" of a famous athlete of the sport -- in this case, professional skateboarder Andy MacDonald.