Format: Advance
Genre: Sports
Developer: GameBrains
Publisher: Atari

Y'ER OUTTA HERE! Game has been completed! For those that read my previous review on 'Backyard Sports: Baseball 2007' you won't be all that surprised by the scoring of the 2006 version. This is almost 1:1 the same game with some small differences in fields and characters. Although personally I think I favored the 2007 version, This game isn't something to scoff at. Major characters like 'David Ortiz' and 'Joey Macadoo' aren't in this game, but others are like 'Sammy Sosa' and 'Mike Piazza'. Some good classics like the Delvecchio siblings and Vicki Kawaguchi remain in this game. It's a classical baseball game where the players are big-headed kids. The controls feel very good, and overall the game is very tight. The powerups are still around in this earlier game, which is great, but it seems like the batting powerups were not given out as freely as they were in the 2007 version. Some of the powerups had much different names, like 'Spring Bat' was now 'Rubber Bat' and 'Zigzag' is now 'Crazy Ball'. The biggest difference between this and the 2007 incarnation is the power. In the 2007 version a lot more of your players have more 'power' stat, but the max power you can get in this game is often 8/10. This lead me to be more conservative with my strategies and more liberal when trying to get homeruns. Line-drive Tony still brought it, and speedmax Kawaguchi is still one of the best easy base grounders in this game. Some other differences between this and the 2007 version are the small pieces of "game fat" that were removed from the 2007 version. This game had some voice models that the 2007 version didn't have and a pre-post-game commentary as well. Nothing too spectacular but enough to see it as a different experience. Season mode was exactly the same, and I was smart enough this time to turn it down to 3-inning games. Weirdly enough, this game hates the left field. Very fun game though, play it if you want or just play the 2007 version. This one felt more technical than the 2007 version. One awesome bonus feature in this game over the 2007 version is that once you beat a season, you get rewarded with some great "winner" music on your season play screen.

Hot Tips: Complete the fielders challenge minigame to get 'Barry Dejay', he and 'Abner Dubbleplay' are really good.

All in All, A proper high score is pretty rewarding for this game as it's more or less the same as the 2007 version, which is also excellent. The same issues that held back 2007 are prevalent in this. Character Creation is a joke, still can't see player milestones??, and all that jazz.