Backyard Baseball '01 Review

By Zack

I'm a big fan of sports, so I was really interested to try out this game to see how it turns the real-life sport into a cartoony setting. I really like the art style and I'm glad to say that, for the most part, the rest of the game holds up.

August 20, 2025

Backyard Baseball '01

Windows/Mac, 2001 ~$70 sealed ~$25 used

PRESENTATION

CONTROLS

FUN FACTOR

CONTENT

The cartoon style gives the game a really fun feel and the exaggerated designs of the characters makes it easy to tell them apart. The camera angles for batting and pitching are great, but the top-down perspective for fielding is a little disorienting and took a while to get used to. Unfortunately, there is no music during play and the fanfare music, despite fitting in with the cartoony aesthetic, is so annoying that it is a negative. The characters also talk constantly, making it very hard to focus.

9

The controls feel very natural once you get used to them and do a good job of emulating baseball. Unfortunately, it does take a little while to get good at the controls so it can be frustrating at first. This was probably the most important thing the game needed to get right, and it did a great job. It feels really satisfying to bat and going through the menus is very simple. It's best to play on a keyboard, but other platforms work just fine.

6

There are multiple difficultly modes, allowing you to work your way up as you improve your skills with the controls. The large roster of characters with their different skills and interactions with other characters allow you to experiment and play over and over with different team combinations. There are also achievements that incentivize you to try out all of the different players. You can choose the amount of innings to suit time constraints and there is also a batting practice mode. There is a great regular season/playoffs mode, but there's no career mode.

9

Although the game can be annoying, I have to admit that the atmosphere the game creates is amazing. You really feel like you're playing baseball outside with friends. Creating your own team, each with their own personalities, keeps the game fresh as you go through the different difficulty modes. I also really like how lots of characters are carried over from other Backyard Sports games. For MLB fans, you also have the choice to play as star players from 2001 as kids. Sports games can get boring very fast, but this game makes it easy to stay interested.

WORTH THE TIME?

WORTH THE MONEY?

The game is very cheap on all platforms, especially on the App Store. I think everyone should try this game out since it's a much cheaper alternative to games like MLB The Show.

/40

32

App Store , 2025 $1

Google Play, 2025 $7

Steam, 2025 $13

8

Baseball fans are going to get a lot out of everything the game has to offer, but if you only want to try one or two seasons as a casual fan, you're not missing too much.