VIDEO GAMES 'Backyard Baseball' provides humor and fun for children

By MIKE ANTONUCCI
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
It never makes much sense to include "Backyard Baseball" in the reviews of other baseball video games. It's also not going to make many Top 10 lists.
But it deserves a moment in the spotlight.
Atari's new edition of "Backyard Baseball," in stores now for PlayStation2 and available for PCs in June, is cartoonish sandlot fantasy aimed at children 7 to 10. I've stressed before that all the "Backyard Sports" games -- football, basketball, hockey and soccer, plus skateboarding to come -- strike me as being better suited for kids 5 to 8. And that's a good thing.
Much-needed treasure
In a video-game world that has an avalanche of products for adolescents and adults, fun games that skew as young as preschoolers are treasures. In "Backyard Baseball," which mixes a multicultural cast of fictional boys and girls with child versions of major league stars, there's a wonderfully humorous ambiance as well as basic baseball.
The simulation baseball games for older audiences stress big-league realism. Part of the "Backyard" charm is the 49 mph curve ball and 63 mph fastball. There are imaginative fields to play on -- including a junkyard setting and an "Aquadome" I haven't gotten to yet -- and the child-style stars include Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Albert Pujols and Dontrelle Willis.
"Backyard Baseball" isn't the most polished game it could be, but it serves children nicely. That's a big-league accomplishment.
X"Backyard Baseball" is rated E for everyone.