Backyard Baseball '10

Backyard Baseball '10 brings the Backyard Sports approach to PlayStation 2 with a licensed Major League Baseball setting and an arcade-minded take on the sport. Released in North America on April 28, 2009, this PS2 edition was developed by FarSight Studios and published by Atari. It presents baseball through the series' familiar child-scale world, where recognizable pro players appear as kids alongside the fictional Backyard cast.

The game includes all 30 MLB teams and 11 Backyard teams. Its updated group of Major League players includes cover athlete David Ortiz, letting players put the child versions of pros from across the league on the same field as Backyard regulars. Custom player and team options add another way to shape a lineup before taking the field.

Baseball games are played across 12 fields, with batting, pitching, and fielding at the center of the action. The PS2 release also uses a pitching-camera perspective that moves behind the batter while hitting and behind the pitcher while pitching. One or two players can take part locally, making its pick-up-game format suitable for solo play or head-to-head sessions.

Tournament, All-Star Game, and Season modes provide different ways to play through the game's baseball schedule, while new fields, environments, unlockables, and personalized announcing expand the presentation. Players can hear a customized name announced in the game, a feature that ties the created-player option into the on-field experience.

Alongside ordinary pitches and hits, Backyard Baseball '10 uses cartoon power-ups to disrupt a play. A Screaming Liner sends a hard-hit ball off with a yell, while effects such as the Orbiter, Popcorn Bunt, Slime Ball, Free Radical, Teleporter, Static Zing, and Meteor Ball alter how the ball travels or how fielders deal with it. These exaggerated plays are part of the game's arcade character rather than a simulation of professional baseball.

On PlayStation 2, the game uses standard button controls for batting and pitching. That is distinct from the Wii edition, which supports swinging the Wii Remote to bat and pitch, and from the Nintendo DS version, which offers either control-pad-and-button input or touchscreen stylus actions. The platform differences preserve the same baseball theme while giving each console its own way to handle the action.