BECAUSE IT'S A "BACKYARD" GAME MAN!
The "Backyard" series were pretty much the must-have games for kids back in my day...you know like ten years ago or whatever. There was one for every major sport: football, baseball, basketball, hockey. There may have been others but I never heard of them. I played Backyard Soccer and Backyard Hockey the most.
I believe Hockey was the latest installment to the franchise. Pretty much every game has the same mechanics and way of playing, but this one was kind of interesting in that there was far more freedom in how you controlled the game rather than just relying on the A.I. to do a lot of the things for you.
Unlike Backyard Soccer, though, there isn't a mode where you can make up your own team. Of course you can still pick your own players (Pablo Sanchez for the win, by the way), but you have to pick from one of the professional NHL teams. But just like the other Backyard games, there are pro players in kid form that you can choose from, such as the great Wayne Gretzky and Jarome Iginla. There's no limit to how many pros you can take but this is where the game gets interesting.
Each player has a certain amount of skill points for a skill. For example, Marty Brodeur is maxed out in goalie skills but has lesser in shooting and skating. Thus, you can't really overload your team with a certain skill unless you want no defense or offense. It's all about balance. And if you want balance, you need one player to rule them all...
PABLO SANCHEZ
Another cool part of creating your team is the create-a-character option. You can make their name, their handedness, and even pick from a pre-determined set of nicknames. The whole point of this mode is to make a certain character a certain way. You're given a certain amount of skill-points for the character, so you have to spend them wisely. Spending too much on shooting and skating will take away from your player's defending abilities. Of course, that's where the whole thing of balancing the team comes into play. Having a good amount of shooters is good to have a good amount of defenders.
The game works around this by playing to it's name, "hockey." In hockey there are different line shifts that go in to help their team in a certain situation. The game has four line shifts, "Offense 1," "Offense 2," "Defense 1," "Defense 2." Thus you can carry about that as you will. Helps to have strategy when going into a game.
The game play is, like I said, allowing of freedom. There are four players on the ice per team, a goalie and three skaters. There are two buttons that need to be used--the shooting and passing button. And yes, there is a huge difference. When shooting you can hold down the button on the mouse to add some power to the shot, and you can't do that while passing. Both allow you to aim, though. And the game has a glitch where if you're at a close angle to the goal and take a powerful shot, the puck goes in. Best believe I used that to my advantage almost all the time.
Sadly, though, the A.I. isn't the smartest sometimes. Often when a shot is taken, the goalie (for no reason), will move over to the side and allow the puck to go into the net. It's very frustrating. When it happens for you, it's great. When it's against you, it's stupid. I don't get it.
Also if you love checking out stats during the season, don't worry--the game has leaderboards and stats for almost everything. It helps when evaluating what you're game plan going into the next game is going to be, especially if one of the opposing players is high up on the list.
But at it's core Backyard Hockey isn't too much different from the other "Backyard" games, which is to say that it is a fantastic sports game. It's silly, with all the power-ups, it's creative, but overall it's something where you'll have tons of fun playing nonstop. If you still have a copy, this is my way of saying you should be still playing it. If you find a copy for like two bucks, pick it up because you'll have tons of fun with it.
Heck, I still do!
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